Le Prénom - 2012

Or “what’s in a name?” in English; It was a nice movie, it started very lightly, then it progressed into the various characters revealing secrets that threaten the family peace in an escalation of drama, and then at the very end, it all comes light again.  
I usually like this kind of movie, all set in one place, all based on the dialogue and just a few characters, and I did like this movie, but also feel that there was something wrong, something unfinished, like they spent so many words on some things in the first part of the movie that they don’t have enough for the second part.. but I can’t really make myself clear here. 
I’ll try to explain in detail. 
There are only a few characters in this movie: 
Élisabeth ( Valérie Benguigui) and her husband Pierre (Charles Berling), with their friend Claude (Guillaume de Tonquédec), Élisabeth’s brother Vincent (Patrick Bruel) and his wife Anna (Judith El Zein). A little description: Élisabeth (called Babou) teaches children at a local school, takes care of their daughter and son and takes care of the house; Pierre teaches at the university La Sorbonne and puts a great importance on words; Claude is a musician, plays the trombone with an orchestra and has always been Babou’s best friend. Vincent is the funny guy, the successful real estate agent who thinks he’s so funny and so irresistible, and his wife Anna who is now five months pregnant.
The plot: Babou invited Claude, Vincent and Anna over for dinner. Anna is late, as it often happens, because she had an important business meeting. She just discovered that she’s going to have a baby boy, so while they wait for her they start talking about the name they have chosen for him. Truth is, they chose the name Henri like his father, but Vincent knows that they’ll think it an ordinary, boring name, so he chooses to have a bit of fun and declares that the baby will be called Adolphe. They are all shocked, and point out how similar it sounds to Adolf, Hitler’s name, and Pierre launches in a long speech trying to make him understand how stupid it would be such a thing. This goes on for a while, Pierre won’t let it go, Vincent won’t change his mind, in fact he says that if he changes it he’ll call him Adolf! Even Babou thinks it a bad idea, when she’s informed, since as always they keep on talking while she’s in the kitchen attending to the dinner. Claude understands the joke when he notices that Vincent had just looked at the novel called Adolphe among Pierre’s books, but says nothing. Finally Anna arrives, but the joke has not been cleared, so Pierre attacks her too about how stupid and inconsiderate such a choice is; Anna doesn’t know that he’s talking about Adolphe, she thinks he’s criticizing their choice of the name Henri, so she gets angry at his tone (and rightly so, I’ll add) and tells him that she won’t take any lecture on names from someone who called his children Apollin and Myrtille! Again, very rightly so, but now finally Vincent understands that things have gone too far, and explains to everyone that it was only a joke... but the words are out already, and Pierre never let’s anything go. From now on , they keep asking, answering and generally telling each other unpleasant things, Pierre more than anyone else, if we want to be honest; it comes out that Pierre thinks Vincent an egocentric, selfish narcissistic man; Vincent says that Pierre cares too much about what people think of him, that he’s a snob who gave his children absurd names just to be noticed, and that he’s a tightwad. They said that Babou put on a lot of weight when she was pregnant, and never regained her 
figure. Since Claude never takes a side, they attack him too revealing that Vincent used to call him “la prune”, ‘the plum’ because they all thought he was homosexual. He doesn’t understand at first but when they explain he gets angry that they talked that way behind his back because he’s not. He’s actually in a relationship with a woman, has been for some time, but never told them because the woman is Françoise, Babou and Vincent’s mother, 26 years older than him. They are all surprised that Anna knew and didn’t say anything, but Vincent is out of his mind, and when Claude tries to explain he pushes him down; Claude falls breaking the small table and possibly breaking his nose (that is not clear, but his face is all bloody). Babou is more angry because he never told her, and she thought they were best friends telling each other everything - which is not entirely true because she knew about Vincent’s nickname for Claude but never told him. Pierre is upset that she even told Claude about his sexual problems.
Anna is very upset at Vincent’s behaviour, and demands that he apologizes to Claude. At the end, Babou starts screaming asking who’s ever to apologize to her! She takes it all out, that Pierre is probably ashamed of her because she doesn’t have an important degree like he has, that she sacrificed her career for him, that he wanted children but never does anything for them or with them, that she has to do everything, for the children and in the house - literally everything, I noticed this before, she has a job too but at home he never does a single thing. She gets up and goes to the children when they call, she answers the door every time, she cleans and cooks, she waits on him at dinner and he never even pretends to want to help her; since she complains that they always talk when she’s not present, Pierre even complains that she should stay with them, as if the dinner could serve itself. 
Babou also complains that Vincent was always their parents’ favourite because he was the funny one, that he never had to do anything at home because they would have her do it. 
Anna takes Claude home, Babou goes to bed, and Pierre tells Vincent that he can sleep on the couch, revealing that he has done so himself many times, and that therefore his marriage is not the perfect one they all thought it was. 
The movie doesn’t stop here, though, only the dinner. They are a family after all, so they show us that when Vincent and Anna’s baby is born, and turns out to be a girl, the whole family joins them at the hospital: Babou with Pierre and Françoise with Claude, and the baby will be called Françoise. 
ITA cena tra amici

Law & Order: Criminal Intent season 10

I’m so glad that they made a new season bringing back Goren, it was hands down the best part of this show, and in this last season we see his sessions with Dr Gyson, and they are the best part of it. D’Onofrio is impressive, and they give a better ending to this beloved character. We saw him leave because not wanted, and it wasn’t an ideal ending, but here we see him working on his issues, finding some peace, some long-missed family moments, and this way it’s better. He will leave eventually, we know that from the series SVU, but what we see here lets us imagine it’ll be in a better, nicer peace of mind.  
1-Rispetto
Goren and Eames!
Sarah is murdered. She pretended to be a college student, but got her money as an escort. Fashion designer Nyle Brite (Jay Mohr) is the first suspect. She had come to his party as a call girl, real name Chloe, and he freaked out when he saw her because she actually was his daughter; he had told nobody about her. When he’s found dead too, they find out that the famous fashion designer didn’t draw his models, everybody covered for him. Teddy Scola was tired of being in the shadows, and Goren pretends to be part of Armani staff to meet him and confront him, and arrest him. He had killed Sarah too, because she didn’t want to blackmail her father.
2-The consoler
Goren and Eames.
I like Eames’ long hair.
Goren has to take a psych evaluation to keep working, and he thinks it’s a waste of time but it’s not negotiable. The captain tells Goren that “it isn’t working” so he starts his sessions with Dr Paula Gyson (Julia Ormond). He starts with the ‘two doors riddle’, and then tells her that she doesn’t have to empathize with him. She calls him “challenging” and he says she thinks he’s crazy. She says “I think you are a person who is aware that the world is a dangerous place. You found a way of surviving but your way can make other people feel uncomfortable” and “it’s part of your skills set, being able to read people quickly”. Goren:”it’s my job” - “sure, it has protected you but it’s also taken its toll on those around you and on yourself. You are exceptional at analyzing others. Exceptional. So what is it that you think will happen if you start looking at yourself?” here ends the first part of their sessions. 
Theresa Esperna is killed. Theresa helped people get compensation for abuses by members of the church. Theresa’s friend has a cat called Pywacket and Goren (like me) knows the name “that’s from a Jimmy Stewart film. Kim Novak’s best friend” :-D
A monsignor blackmailed Theresa into having sex with him. He only admits to having sex with consentient women sometimes. The man Theresa liked was abused in high school by a priest, his coach. He only ever told her, and then he killed her to make it go away. 
(what did Goren do when they went to question that girl practicing tennis? Pretend to play with another player and annoying her before turning back to his work? :-p )
3-Boots on the ground
Goren was stationed in Korea back in the 90s. Goren is back to Dr Paula.
He compares himself to an old car that if it gets ‘polished’ too much stops working. She points out that cars don’t feel, they’re just meant to work. He starts talking about his mom and remembers talking about that with Nicole and feels like he betrayed his family to get a confession. “you did what you had to do. You always have”  and “I don’t think you betrayed your mother, but what have you done for her son?” and I wonder, is Bobbi thinking of himself or of Frankie now? She means him of course, but does he too?
Dead guy Ian Masefield worked for Ascalon Security, cyber warfare division. His real name was Matt Clark and he also worked for Sun Tech Industries, direct competitor of Ascalon in cyber security. He was a mole in Ascalon, that’s why he changed his name. They question Matt’s friend Rebecca - who has the same kanji tattoo - and she covers a paper and Goren keeps turning it and looking at it :p Rebecca and Matt wanted to destroy these security companies. The head of Sun Tech is Naomi Halloran (Jeri Ryan). Naomi’s husband was killed in Afghanistan, and Ascalon ran security there. Terence, head of Ascalon, told Naomi that Matt was sleeping with Rebecca but he wasn’t. Naomi called off the security guards assigned to him and he got killed. Terence sent Rebecca to kill him. Terence told Rebecca that her 12-year-old cousin had died, and she killed Matt to protect the rest of her family. A lot of arrests in this episode: Terence for having a 12-year-old girl and Matt killed, Rebecca who actually killed him, Naomi for conspiring to murder Matt, and Matt’s mom for trying to kill Terence with a bomb, sure that he had killed her son. 
4-The last street in Manhattan
David, a company CEO, is shot to death. They question his partner, his ex-girlfriend (loved it when Goren sat on the director’s chair all smug :-p) , his last date. David’s real girlfriend was a teacher (Goren high-fived a kid while walking :-p). Vanessa works at the same school Eames attended “smaller than I remember”. Vanessa’s dad owns a bar, quotes Scott Fitsgerald, of course Goren gets it and he says “I knew I liked you” and Goren smiles :-)
Eames tells Goren of where Danny dumped her , remembering her years in that neighbourhood, and he says “not for being ordinary!” and she explains “for kissing Nick Pharrell” - “oooh lucky Nicky” :-p they’re lovely together :-p
They go together at Johnny Eames’ house, Alex’s dad. They talk about Driscoll, the local boss. He seems ok, but she says he has alzheimer. 
Goren and Eames make Vanessa believe that her dad was killed by Driscoll to have her confess. Her dad had borrowed money from Driscoll and owned him a lot now. She paid him back giving him info on David’s business. She confessed to David, and David had a tough talk with Driscoll and Driscoll killed him. Only after she confesses everything and they arrest Driscoll they let her know that her dad’s alive. Goren quotes Fitsgerald again “show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy”. So sad. 
Goren talks about the case and about fathers to his doc. Not his birth-father, but the guy who took him along while he cheated on his wife and then had Bobbi lie to his mother to cover him. He taught him the important lesson that “everybody lie all the time”, and he’s always used that in all his relations, not just work. 
5-Trophy wine
Wine importer Colman is found dead in his wine cellar. Someone put viagra in his wine that mixed badly with the wine and the rest of his meds and he was also locked in the cellar. 
At a man’s house, Goren compares his foot to a 17th century armor’s foot :-p Eames smiles at Goren’s attempt at “tasting wine” :-p 
The case is about very expensive wines, counterfeited bottles, and a bad marriage. He had an apartment where he met prostitutes. Juliet slept with him while her boyfriend Shane was having a thing with the guy’s wife Avery. She liked him and confessed to protect him, but he says that Colman paid him to sleep with his wife. They never did though, and he makes a disgusted face there, saying “too old and too weird”. The jerk, the woman I saw was really beautiful!
Colman wanted to divorce her and Shane would have testified that she cheated. She had a fidelity clause, he didn’t. She murdered him for real, not for the money but because he called her a whore and treated her badly.
Goren with Dr Paula Gyson. He talks about Eames, one he trusts. “I respect her, I admire her, she puts up with my crap and as you’re learning that’s not easy” and “she’s like a sister to me” and “a man can’t have a working friendship with his partner, it has to be more than that?”. She asks him about his romantic relationships, and he sort of seems to use work as an excuse, plus his age... and says “that’s what you’re thinking!”. She asks “do you ever feel lonely?” and it’s the end of the session for us, we’ll never know if he answered or not. 
6-Cadaver
A girl wins the Langston Medical Grant, or something. Langston disappears. A medical school cadaver is found in a park, because it was scheduled to be cremated and Langston’s body was cremated instead. Maya’s mother is played by Rosalind Chao. One of the young researchers was Langston’s illegitimate son , but he didn’t kill him. 
Maya’s mother was obsessed with making her a successful doctor, and she was living her mother’s life, but she actually wanted to be a painter. Her sister escaped and works now in a bar. Maya’s mom killed Langston and Maya disposed of the body. Maya tries to confess, crying, to protect her mother, but she gives a full confession asking to let Maya go free. 
Goren to Dr Gyson. He asks to take the session outside because it’s a beautiful day :p They talk again about the “being lonely” and if he might have romantic feelings and he says “you didn’t answer my question. Is it too late?” and “we don’t have a lot of sessions left, I’m a big boy, a grown man” and “I can take it, just tell me if you think I can’t have what other people have, you know, a home a relationship” and “I look in the mirror every day and I see what you see... you know, it’s not working, this, I ask you for your professional judgement and you turn it back on me. Come on, you’re smart, you’re someone that I respect” - Doc:“and you want to know if I see you as someone capable of being in a relationship..” - Goren:”you think I’m hitting on you?” and he gets angry, yells at her that she plays empathic, listen gets her patients to trust her “and then you pull back, you toy with them”, tells her to take his badge away if she wants to but this is not helping, not working, and he walks out.
7-Icarus
Sit-com star Mark is to act in a theatre play, directed by Amanda (Cynthia Nixon), in a Broadway musical. Her full name is Amanda Rollins!
On stage something goes wrong and Mark dies. Adam (Eion Bailey) wrote the music and songs for the play. Amanda’s assistant Roger calls himself a dramaturge. Bobbi goes to a friend expert in Greek mythology “are you sure you need my help?” :-p
The producer wanted the lead actor to die (or maybe simply get badly injured) in an accident to collect insurance instead of losing money on a failing play. He used Roger. They confront them all, and the producer Evan denigrates Roger to their faces, and his, so he tells them everything. It was Evan’s idea. Evan smirks at his words saying that there’s no proof, but “Evan, I recorded our conversations! Every single one of them” with his specific instructions, “because I wanted to do a good job for you”. Goren:”show’s over”. 
Goren is back to Dr Gyson. She asks him why he came back; he wanted to apologize because he over-reacted. She won’t leave it at that. He didn’t know the rules there, he felt anger, and more anger, and underneath that fear, she says, he’s justifiably terrorized of what they might discover with these sessions, by looking into him. 
8-To the boy in the blue knit cap
Rich, twin brothers Thomas and Parker are murdered. The father says that they had an idea two years ago and then Danielle stole it and created her successful site. Parker and his father wanted to sue Danielle, Thomas didn’t. The dream-couple Danielle-PJ was just a facade. PJ had a story with Hildy, Danielle’s assistant, and Danielle had one with Thomas, her “true love”. That night Thomas and Parker had a fight and Thomas got injured but when she arrived and saw them she believed that Parker had killed him, so she killed him. 
Goren and Dr Gyson. The job is vital to him, but he thinks it’s “the only thing that defines you, you think without the puzzle you don’t matter. It’s a lie but it’s the only one you’ve chosen to believe... There’s so much more to you than that”  and Goren “are you gonna take my job away?” - “I’m gonna tell them that you are more than capable of holding down your job”, also he has anger and trust issues, so she recommends other doctors to him, but he gives her the cards back and says “same time next week?” - “..ok”. 
When he walks out, there’s Eames waiting for him outside and he calls her Alex :-) She drives him to the next case and he smiles :-)
Lovely ending.


Goren-Vincent D'Onofrio
Eames-Kathryn Erbe
Dr Gyson-Julia Ormond

Stitchers season 1

I liked the idea at the beginning, because this thing of having no sense of time at all was intriguing, but it’s not confronted very well or very often. On the contrary, it is almost never pertinent, it’s only an excuse for Kirsten’s arrogance, lack of empathy, lack of tact, lack of diplomacy... I think this series failed to describe a character so complex. They tell you that she has no sense of time and therefore no emotions and no politeness... and the whole thing is never really confronted, specially by herself, who is always arrogant, and thinks that what she thinks or wants is the only thing that matters, and never tries to act in a better way with the people around her, always expecting that the others adapt to her. 
It’s also absurd that they take in this girl and basically let her run the place, because she does and says whatever she wants and they all accept it. 
1-A stitch in time
Pasadena, CA. Kirsten has temporal-dysplasia or something. Polygraphs don’t work on her. Detective Fisher of the LAPD tells her that the man who raised her is dead. Her father left her when she was a child. They say it’s suicide, she says it’s murder. Her roommate causes her an Academic suspension. Kirsten breaks into the LAPD server but armed men stop her and she finds herself elsewhere. She has no time perception. Maggie talks to her of her project. The Stitchers program. I appreciated the Tolkien/DoctorWho references :-)
They insert a living consciousness into dead people’s memory. Martha tried before Kirsten but she “couldn’t handle it”. Kirsten tries it and she comes out “dressed like catwoman” :p 
Cameron and Kirsten find the bomb and stop it. Ed and her father created the program. 
Kirsten wanted to leave but stays to find out what happened to Ed. 
For the first time, being stitched to another person, Kirsten felt emotions and  she now has an idea what grief anger and love feel like.
2-Friends in low places
Her roommate cooks for her to apologize and Kirsten says “this is what sorry looks like?”
Kirsten wanted to stitch into Ned but Maggie stops her for another case. A girl killed with a new dangerous drug. Fisher is on the case too, but people tell him that Lisa’s body is gone (because the Stitchers have it of course). Lisa didn’t ODed, she was murdered. Kirsten wants to solve this case only to find out what happened to Ed, and then she’s done, she says. Maggie is a former CIA.
Kirsten, Cameron, Linus and Camille go to a rave party, and Camilla chooses Kirsten’s dress because she doesn’t know how to dress for a rave - there are a lot of things she doesn’t know, but in a way this one seems the weirdest because you don’t need emotions or personal experience to know that you don’t go to a rave party dressed like a librarian. 
Camille has a taser to shock the bouncer, but then they are stopped by Fisher so Kirsten tells him everything and brings him in. It also comes out that Camille was in the program already, paid to spy on Kirsten and report to Maggie, and has been for a year. Camille had Kirsten suspended because they told her to, they needed Kirsten. 
Lisa wanted to save runaway Denise, to get her back to the shelter, but Denise’s drug-dealer boyfriend killed her. 
Fisher gets them a warrant and they arrest the guy and save the girl, but when they get back Ed’s brain’s gone, she can’t stitch into him anymore. She’s angry but Maggie tells her that she’ll have every thing Ed had, and that there are monsters everywhere and they can stop them. 
At the end we see Cameron visiting Martha in a hospital, she’s in a coma.
3-Connections
Kirsten and Camille bring all Ed’s stuff home. 
A bride, Lily, was killed on her honeymoon. Martha couldn’t separate her emotions from the stitch, that’s why Cameron’s so worried about Kirsten’s connection with Scott, Lily’s husband. Kirsten and Cameron try to bait the robber wearing lots of expensive jewels. Linus and Camille hook up, so when Kirsten sends her a text “with killer, track my phone, call Fisher” of course she doesn’t see it, and the sound is off, obviously, phones always have the sound off in movies :-/ 
Eventually she sees it though. Cameron knocks the robber out with a bucket. Later Kirsten says “Is this what love is? Intense connection and then heartbreaking loss?”
Ed made Kirsten a cassette “for when I’m gone” when she was little and she threw it away then, but he kept it. Maggie has the missing part of the picture with the same message “remember”. In Ed’s part, there were him and Kirsten’s mom, in Maggie’s there was herself.
Martha wakes up.
4-I see you
Cameron goes to talk to the neighbour he thinks steals his magazines, but finds him dead. He used to live there, in that apartment, that’s why the mail gets mixed up, so maybe Cameron was the target.. Linus was hurt when Camille didn’t return his calls, but she likes being single and doesn’t want to ‘hang out’ with Linus, and yet she sounded kind of jealous when she didn’t want Linus to go over to the pretty girl who just invited ‘Robbie’ for a beer.  
Linus : “it is a good day to spy” sounding like Worf :-p They go in Cameron’s apartment to find out who his neighbour Robbie was spying on. 
Cameron shows Kirsten the recording of when Martha had the ‘accident’. 
Robbie bought a painting because a couple was fighting about money, and he sent groceries to a model who had nothing... he was being kind, and he died because he stumbled on a human trafficker. 
Kirsten sees Cameron half-naked, and he has a big vertical scar on his chest. He closes the door without explanations. In the last image, someone is spying on them...
5-Stitcher in the rye
An ex CIA man, now writing conspiracy theories in his blog, is dead. They need to find where he kept his secrets. Kirsten finds that someone leaked the stitchers algorithm to dead Justin and asks everyone proof that they didn’t do it. Camille and Linus were together and Cameron was elsewhere, so she suspect Maggie of course, and she openly asks her if she’s the leak. Finally talking instead of throwing wild accusations, Kirsten tells Cameron of a tattoo she saw. It was Martha, who woke up and checked herself out a week ago. Kirsten receives coded messages on her phone. Martha tells her that she’s in danger and can’t trust anyone, and that stitchers are evil, and admits that she leaked the algorithm and shot Maggie in the arm; then she answers a call and then she walks out with a gun so the police shot her. Kirsten again accuses Maggie and is suspicious even more when Maggie refuses to have her stitch into Martha. Maggie knows who called Martha=Les, the director of the program. He also killed Justin in order to stitch into him. 
Martha let the police kill her to protect Kristen... right? How? Why?
there’s also apparently a secret: what the program was really designed to do..
6-Finally
Dany, a doctor who got killed, worked on a project that sort of studied brains... kinda. Long story. She was killed because she knew the project wasn’t working and could have shut it down. 
Ed left Kirsten coded map coordinates, to her mom’s grave where she finds a hidden key.
Going back home, Kirsten meet Mr Turner inside her home, and before leaving he tells her that Ed Clark didn’t commit suicide, he died to protect her. After that, she went to sleep in Camille’s bed.
7-The root of all evil
Liam comes to see Kirsten, and she matter-of-factly tells Camille that he’s her boyfriend. Kristen’s completely tactless, I don’t like this. She says “I’m not wrong” as if that’s the only thing that matters. She has no tact, no discretion, and no empathy. 
Cameron is jealous of Liam, and that’s so boring. Liam appears to be amazing, and that’s suspicious.
The case: a girl is dead. She used to break into rich people’s homes to party and steal jewels. She died because she was blackmailing a cheating married woman. 
Liam asks Kirsten to marry him.
8-Fire in the hole
They all try to surprise Kirsten with a birthday cake, but surprises are lost on her. 
This episode’s body might be contagious, so the place is on emergency lockdown. Linus is the first to feel sick. Camille has to crawl thru a tunnel to get to a restricted area, and at a certain point she stops because she’s terrified of a rat that walks over her, and Kirsten tells her “do it for Linus” and she moves again. They all call their loved ones, but none of them says why. Everyone calls except Kirsten and Camille. Camille has nobody to call, and Kirsten says she has no intention to die.
Maggie tells Kirsten that her mom worked at the program, that she and Ed were the minds behind it. 
Kirsten figures a solution, then call Fisher to bring the cure, then he gets into trouble and she helps him because “no-one else will die protecting her”.. at the end they’re all cured, and go home taking the rest of the day off.
9-Future tense
Linus asks Camille to have dinner with his parents since he told them in last episode that she was his girlfriend. Linus is very nervous. His parents love Camille :-) His mom gives her his great-grandmother’s ring, but at the end she gives it back. Camille loves them too, and she tells his mom that they are warm, wonderful people.
A self-proclaimed psychic is found dead in her home, and while stitching Kirsten sees a murder that has not happened yet. 
Liam is being followed and wants to know what she really does. Kirsten tells him that she can’t marry him because she hasn’t yet figured out who she is and who she wants to become. 
At the end, Liam talks to someone on the phone asking what’s plan b after Kirsten turned him down...
10-Full stop
Camille and Kirsten are having a girl-talk in the bathroom when they hear gunshots: Cameron and Fisher are hit, they lie on the floor. Cameron’s fine enough, because Fisher saved him. 
Kirsten opens the security box with the key she found at her mom’s grave and finds a video of his father stitching her into her mom-in-a-coma, but it killed her and caused Kirsten’s temporal dysplasia (or something). After what happened, Cameron trains Camille to do what he does; later he injects himself with something to stop his heart so that Kirsten can stitch into him and see what he can’t remember. His mind is full of her, surprise surprise :-/
Kirsten met him when she was little: they were in the same hospital, she was at her mom’s bedside and he just had surgery.
Finally Kirsten realizes Cameron’s feelings when she says “I didn’t know” and “I’m everywhere”..
It ends with them trying to revive him, looking like they’re not succeeding. 
11-When darkness falls
It’s near Halloween and Camille tries unsuccessfully to scare Kirsten but she “doesn’t do scared”. She stitches into a dead guy, Devon, that’s suspected of having abducted a girl. Ultimately she finds her alive in the guy’s basement, but for a couple of days she actually is scared: during the stitching she freaks out when Devon talks to her directly, and then she sees Devon out of her window at night. She runs to Cameron’s place but can’t sleep because she keeps having nightmares and seeing Devon outside the door. Still, when she wakes Cameron up and he opens the door to check, there’s nobody in sight. Too scared to sleep, she asks Cameron to sleep with her and they sleep together. Poor Cameron though, she really doesn’t understand that he likes her... she hugs him and finally sleeps.
Finally it’s Halloween, the case is over, Kelly has been saved, so they have Camille’s halloween party at Devon’s house! Everyone’s having fun and Cameron asks Kirsten to dance, but she goes upstairs to look around. During the stitch she saw Devon talking to himself in the mirror, but there is no mirror in the room! She finds a picture of Devon and his twin! He comes out and grabs her and they fight.
She stalls him with “I’m just like you” speeches, until she knocks him down. Nobody knew that Devon had a twin brother, an evil twin! We’ll let this pass for Halloween’s sake...

Kirsten Clark-Emma Ishta
Cameron-Kyle Harris
Linus-Ritesh Rajan
Maggie-Salli Richardson-Whitfield
Camille-Allison Scagliotti

Fisher-Damon Dayoub

Law & Order: Criminal Intent - season 9

1-Loyalty: part 1
Goren and Eames+Nichols
Taras Broidy and his fiancée are executed; wanted for illegal weapons trading. Goren sees a picture of Broidy with his daughter and says that it was taken over four years before because she’s dressed for fox hunting, so: before they banned it....now, how is that different from being dressed for riding a horse, either for oneself or for any kind of exhibition?
He had taped himself shooting ‘pirates’ while on a cruise heavily armed with lots of friends and they all cheered like it was a lovely party. The people on the boat didn’t look like pirates at all. They were in fact a sheik with his wife and his people. 
Ross tells Goren and Eames to stop investigating and hand everything over to him. Ross gets killed working undercover for the Feds. They try to stop Goren and Eames to go near the crime-scene but Goren won’t let them stop him. Rogers was crying in shock :’(
Nichols comes in to stop him from stealing a hard-disk, but helps them making a copy. The three of them work together, and the temporary boss lets them continue until the Feds intervene. 
2-Loyalty: part 2
Goren and Eames+Nichols and Stevens
Everybody’s in cop uniform but Goren, at Ross’ funeral. Serena Stevens introduces herself to Nichols. She’s the last person that Ross hired. Zach says to Eames “she’s new” and the reply “oh it’s fun here”
Goren is suspended for attacking a suspect in federal custody. When that man is killed too, like they expected, the Feds ask them where Goren was... he’ll keep on investigating and Eames says “I really feel I should try to talk you out of this” - Goren:“but that’s always been a wasted effort” - “yeah. right”
Goren pretends to be the hitman to get a man to talk. The sheik’s son and daughter are buying weapons for their cause. Stevens’ father was a Marine officer at some embassy, so she can read Arabic. Goren is offered to help the Feds, and Eames is offered to take the captain exam. 
Assan’s girlfriend Jill is killed by his sister. He had his father killed, and this shocks his sister who didn’t know about it and she turns against him. Goren tells Eames and Nichols to let Assan go so he can give the weapons to the terrorists, weapons with gps devices so that the Fbi will find those terrorists camps. Nichols doesn’t like it but Eames agrees so they let him go. Eames tells Goren about the offer to be captain. He knows they want him fired. She cries but he accepts him quietly. Eames: “you’re the best, you always will be”  he gives her a big kiss on the cheek, hugs her, says “I’ll see you around I guess” and he leaves. After he’s gone, she calls the chief to say that she won’t be taking that captain exam, and she also puts her gun and badge on the desk... 
3-Broad channel
Nichols and Stevens
There’s been a murder in Broad Channel, Ryan Fields, a cop. He had just busted a Russian mob’s place, after Irish boss Jackie Dooley tipped him off. The police convince Jackie to find out where the boy who shot him, Eddie, is but before Nichols or Jackie arrive the local cop Atwater has shot the kid dead. Eddie’s mom Moira is in love with Jackie but they open her eyes by letting her watch and hear Jackie’s interrogation. They use this to have him make a deposition about what Atwater did: use Eddie to kill Fields to take his place on Jackie’s payroll and then kill Eddie. At the end they arrest Atwater while Jackie walks free. 
4-Delicate
Nichols and Stevens
A ballerina is killed. She had a boyfriend but also had an affair with her dance teacher Ethan. Alona was very competitive, specially against Jocelyn. Paulette was once expelled from a school for stalking, and her record says she had potential for violence. Paulette goes with Jocelyn to her family dinner where she fought with them. Paulette tells her “she did it to make her happy”.
Paulette poisoned every girl but Jocelyn, to make them sick. They arrest the two girls, but their bond seems too strong, but it gets broken when Jocelyn learns that Paulette once helped Alone by hurting Jocelyn’s foot, before they bonded. Alona turned on her for what she did and then Paulette turned to Jocelyn. Now Paulette is on her own.
Nichols parents considered him a piano prodigy. 
5-Gods & insects
David and Nathan were in Iraq together, and are friends. Nathan is now CEO of the bank where David works. David was dishonorably discharged from service. A callgirl’s boyfriend Kevin is found dead with his head, hands and feet cut off. David always helped Nathan and covered for him, like he covered for him in Iraq. Now, Nathan killed Kevin then he called David and he disposed of the body. Finally he snaps and says that he won’t let him do this to him, not anymore. Kevin wanted to blackmail Nathan with compromising photos that David kept as insurance. 
6-Abel & Willing
Nichols and Stevens
A social worker, Dr Abel Hazard, gave interviews saying that given the choice between love or survival, everybody would always choose survival. He abducted couples to prove his theory: he asked a wife or a husband to shoot their spouse or be killed. When his grandfather was given the same choice during the war, he survived...
Hazard recorded everything to have “scientific proof” and he shows Nichols his proof: 10 couples total in four or five years. 
7-Love sick
A nurse and her firefighter boyfriend abduct girls, rape them, kill them and dump their bodies after dressing them up as prostitutes. They catch them when they try again with the only girl still alive. 
8-Love on ice
Bailey O’Doyle, ex baseball player, is killed. 22 years ago four boys (Bailey John Chris and Greg) made Tom swim on a winter night and he drowned. 
Greg kills himself after John told him the police were after him for the murder since he was the one who beat him up. Actually, his wife killed him, angry that he was a ‘loser’.
9-Traffic
Nichols and Stevens
A woman killed the man that was sleeping with her daughter, much younger than him, but she did it because he was now praising the girl’s writing the same way ten years ago he praised hers. 
She thought her writing was much much better, the narcissist. When they take the family in she tries to blame it on her daughter and then on her ex-husband, the shameless...
10-Disciple
A serial killer is executed. He murdered prostitutes but was killed for the murder of Courtney, a ‘clean girl’ as Nichols put it, but before dying he said he did not kill her, and he gave a priest a letter to Dale, his disciple. Dale was with him and was supposed to kill Courtney but couldn’t, he “failed him, but I haven’t failed him since”. Dale started killing now, after receiving the letter. They were both killers, did it really matter which one had killed Courtney? Why did it matter so much to Stevens that the evil guy was executed for her murder, only because they couldn’t prove the other murders? Maybe it was so important to her because she knows Courney’s family, a ‘clean family’ ? I don’t know, but something about this whole thing felt weird, wrong, like she only cared about her and not as much for the other girls that died :-/
11-Lost children of the blood
A goth girl, daughter of a congressman, is found dead covered in blood. She vomited blood that wasn’t hers, and Rogers couldn’t find in her any of her blood to test for toxic substances. The blood was of a healthy illegal man who sells it to make money for his family. A man, Jeremy/Anton lives as a vampire (has the teeth, drinks blood), and he had sex with her but didn’t kill her, he got his money as an elite prostitute. When they meet him, he acts like a leader but actually he’s a follower too. It’s Virgil the real leader, the real psychotic who really thinks he’s a vampire and believes in what he is and what he does. I liked this actor in the first part, his speaking was peculiar and mesmerizing, at least at first. The final showdown was a bit disappointing.
Sarah’s boyfriend is found dead in Anton’s place, where Virgil drained him dry of blood. Virgil has no feelings but Anton does. Virgil (real name Jonathan) changed Jeremy’s life, creating Anton, giving him his belief, but then tried to frame him for Sarah and Kyle’s murders.
12-True legacy
Nichols and Stevens
Ryan is found dead in the truck of his car. He had an affair with Angela Caldera, daughter-in-law of congressman Caldera, now up for elections. Stevens has her confide in her, but then she goes to talk about it to her husband with Nichols. Rick didn’t know about him or about the affair Angela had with his father before senator Victor and his wife knew about Ryan, though, and she had her brother kill him. She couldn’t have more children so she planned for Angela to have a baby with Victor, then arranged to kill her own son who said he wanted to take “his son” away. She’s arrested and who knows, maybe Rick and Angela can build a family with the child out of all those ashes...
13-The mobster will see you now
Another one of those episodes: a man is dead. The doctor is happy to call it accidental, no evidence to the contrary whatsoever, but they are all “I’m not sure, give us time...”, like the police are so eager to have more cases ...
The son of a mob boss, who wanted to appear legit starting a business. At the end he confesses because Nichols gives him his word that his friend Dom - who was also his father’s friend, and more dear to him than his real dad - won’t do time, but the DA disagrees and tells the guy that he’ll personally see to it that Dom be charged.
14-Palimpsest
Nichols is in London to talk to a friend about a case, and talks to her about it, about what happened and what he felt. I liked this episode, finally he showed some emotions. 
The case: a man Nichols knew is dead, along with another man. The murder/suicide was staged though. Zach talks to the man’s daughter, Lenore. The man was an old friend of Zach’s father because he sent to him Lenore for schizophrenia. There’s a picture of him and her in the house. They were together before her condition worsened “she was always odd, wonderfully odd” and Nichols kept seeing the man from time to time to play chess. The last time was a year ago. The house is full of rare books, and a very valuable book is hidden somewhere in it. The other man sold them stolen books and then blackmailed them to reveal it. Lenore slept with him to protect her father. A couple have been giving money to Lenore and her father Palmer, because they’re antiquarians who love old books and love Lenore who “lives in the past” but “has no choice about it”. The man serving in the house as a caretaker is actually Father Celeste, looking for the book to burn it, fearing it could change Jesus’ story as we know it. A fanatic.
The book collection will be sold, that antiquarian couple will keep visiting her and Lenore will live there as long as she wants. As goodbye, she asks Zach when will he kiss her and he says “tomorrow” :-)
He says she was the one person he fell in love with and that “she was just magical” and right there : the Goldblum smile I like :-) “if you really love somebody, maybe it never goes away”...
15-Inhumane society
Boxer Danny Ford got two years jail for dog fights. The guy who ‘snitched’ now gets killed by dogs. 
Danny’s coach Sal Biaggi wants him to win, to have the ‘killer instinct’, not to go to Church. Another one of Danny’s old pals gets murdered, beaten to death. Nichols kicks a van to get the owner to show up when the alarm goes off... really? it’s amazing that it worked...
and what a surprise, the coach did it, personally, but with a little help from one of his boys - not Danny. What a big surprise, I knew it as soon as it started, same case as the one with Logan, if I remember right.
Does Stevens talk while chewing gum in order to seem tough? :-/
16-Three-in-one
A woman killed in an empty building, an angel and words on the wall written in blood. The writing was very bad “qles stoq” instead of “please stop”. Nichols suspects Dr Curtis to have multiple personalities: a house painter and a child.
We meet Zachary’s dad Dr Nichols (F. Murray Abrahms). Zach seemed nervous when he goes to him for advice on “dissociative identity disorder”. They catch him, but they need him to tell them where the second woman is because she might still be alive, and finally Nichols and Stevens find the teacher alive :-)

The doctor is the violent personality, he kills women that talk about discipline regarding children. Zach and his dad find a way to work together. I liked this Dr Nichols and the way he looked at his son :-) I know this is a little thing, merely a series episode not a big movie, but this is one of my favorite FMA’s roles :-) The last scene is very nice, with Zach and dad meeting in a bar and talking : “should I take that as approval?” Zach :) and then he adds “I’m so glad you called, dad” and it was a very nice ending :)

Eames-Kathryn Erbe

Goren-Vincent D'Onofrio

Nichols-Jeff Goldblum

Ross-Eric Bogosian

Stevens-Saffron Burrows

Woman in a dressing gown - 1957

I hate it. It’s well done, well acted, and I hate it. It’s about a middle-aged man wanting to leave his wife for a much younger woman, and they make it look like it’s all her fault, even the title points to her and not to him; only the son is angry at him, for like a minute! At the end he comes back to them as if nothing happened.
Jim Preston (Anthony Quayle) works in an office. He’s been married twenty years, and with Amy (Yvonne Mitchell) he has a teenage son, Brian, who works in a factory, and they lost their daughter right after her birth. Amy gets up early every day and tries to do everything, but she starts a lot of things and never seems able to finish anything. The house is never tidy, she’s always late with the tea or the dinner, and always stays at home in her dressing gown. Georgie (Sylvia Syms) is the other woman. She works with him and she’s a lot younger, and she’s the usual type that you always see in the movies. The perfect kind. She’s in love with him and they’ve been together for months now. She asks Jim to tell his wife, she tells him that he deserves someone who can take good care of him.
Amy always listens to the music on the radio and is always cheerful; she’s always running around doing things but is very disorganized. She’s presented as a failure because she doesn’t have everything perfectly ready for her husband and son’s demands, because she’s unable to take good care of them and their house; well, who takes care of her? Who comforted her after her daughter died? Who gives her anything ever? When she learns that Jim wants a divorce so he can marry Georgie, she’s devastated, and she asks him what did she do wrong; she borrows a little money from her son and goes out to get her hair done, paying for it by pawning her engagement ring. She buys some whisky as a treat for Jim and goes home, but it started raining and she can’t get a bus or a taxy, so she gets home looking worse than when she got out. She tries to wear her pretty dress, but the zip breaks. She tries to arrange a good meal but the table breaks and everything falls on the floor. Her neighbour has her drink some of the whisky, so when the son comes home he finds her drunk on the floor, crying. 
She had asked Jim to bring Georgie home, to meet her and beg her to leave him to her, but all her plans went wrong. They now have a discussion, then she helps him pack a case and has him leave immediately with her. No point in waiting. 
Jim and Georgie go out together, but they haven’t gone far when he tells her that he can’t do it, and he goes back, saying that you can’t throw twenty years in a suitcase just like that. 
It really upset me how his only fault was to be a little weak, while Amy was presented as a big failure for not being a perfect housewife. But really, who ever took care of her? She never had her hair done, she has no money at all so that she has to beg her son for some and secretly pawns her own ring, her one good dress must be twenty years old itself since it breaks so easily when she tries to put it on, there’s nothing more than bacon eggs and tea in the house, she has nothing for herself, her whole life gravitated around her men, but she never cared about anything of it because she thought they were happy! Every morning and every night she was late with the food and the ironing, but she was always there with a cheerful smile and lots of love. Did anyone ever consider her needs? Did anyone ever have a nice word for her? She was a good loving person, helping her neighbour with her little baby, caring about people’s health and lives, and in her own words knowing her husband’s inside out and still loving him, that’s marriage. And he tells her that they were once happy but “now it’s just habit”, as if he ever did anything about it. The only true thing he says in the whole movie is at the end, when he leaves Georgie, and he tells her “maybe she is what she is because I am what I am”.
At least her son loves her, and for a moment gets angry at his father for walking out on his mother, but his next scene is to ask Georgie what kind of woman would do that to a family, as if again it was a woman’s fault. Who blames him, really? Is it either the wife’s fault for being sloppy or the other woman’s fault for loving a married man? It’s him the one who lied to his family and broke it apart!
Plus, when Amy told him that her lack of concentration might be an actual problem and that some pills might actually help her be better, he simply dismissed her as an excuse! He had no consideration for her at all! 

ITA l’adultero

Crimson Peak - 2015

I liked it. In a strange way. It was well done in all its aspects, only the ghosts puzzled me, in the way that they were not scary in the least. Were they supposed to be? They’d been more scary had they been more ghost-like and less corpse-like, I thought they were grotesque, not scary. 
On the other hand, Jessica Chastain was. Her Lucille was the scary part, the mansion was the atmosphere, Tom Hiddlestone’s Thomas provided the charm, Mia Wasikowska’s Edith the innocence. 
One thing I totally disliked, just one: the cheap trick of the murder: they didn’t show the face of the murderer to make us believe that it was Thomas, only to reveal at the end that it was Lucille... but it wasn’t really a surprise, actually it was the only explanation, and a cheap one. We saw only the back of the murderer but it had Thomas clothes and hair... so it’s only annoying when they show us that it was her, not surprising or thrilling or scary, merely annoying, and the scene becomes upsetting in its stupidity. It would have been much better had they not shown the murderer at all, leaving it all to the imagination, that way we would have thought of him and been surprised by the revelation. Why did they fall for such a stupid, senseless deception? 
Moving on: 
I think it was well done, and the house and the red clay in the white snow  were very cool and perfect, and Thomas had exactly the right air about him: he was broken, confused, a child dreaming of a future he knows he can’t have, slave of his past. 
Edith was a spoiled but good girl, only child of a rich man. Her mother died when she was young and came to her as a ghost, warning her to stay away from Crimson Peak, but the poor child had no idea what that meant, and was scared to death by the ghost because, as I said, in this movie all ghosts look grotesquely like rotten corpses with some black or red smoke floating around them. 
When she grows up, Edith wants to be a writer, but nobody takes her seriously, maybe because she’s a woman, or maybe because she’s a woman who wants to write ghost-stories instead of love-stories, or maybe simply because she’s not the good writer she thinks she is, who knows. What we know is that Thomas wins her over the first time they met when he tells her how good a writer she is - after having looked at her manuscript for a second, what an expert critic...
Her father barely knows him but doesn’t like him, without knowing why he sensed something off. 
Thomas courts Edith by asking her to dance at a party, and his sister Lucille looks at them with jealousy and dislike that feels very off, the first time you see it. 
When her father finds out things about Thomas past, he bribes brother and sister with a generous check on condition that they leave immediately after he breaks Edith’s heart. 
It’s obvious that he’ll end up dead, you know that since you hear Thomas ask him if Edith knows about it, about the secret... she doesn’t yet, and she can’t know, so he’ll have to be taken out of the picture. As I said above, it’s not a good scene: they show you a figure very much like Thomas, with the same hair, and dressed like him, but they never showed his face, and the whole thing felt utterly wrong. 
The “break her heart” scene on the other hand was very good. Mr Cushing ordering Thomas to break his daughter’s heart for good, and then he going to dinner and stating publicly that he’ll be going back home with his sister was simply the appetizer; Edith runs out, he goes after her, tells her that there’s nothing holding him here, but it doesn’t seem enough so he hits her where it hurts, he destroys her writing, raising his voice, telling her she writes about feelings she knows nothing about because she’s nothing more than a spoiled child... let’s face it, everything he says is true... and it is a great scene, I loved it, he was very good. 
That night Mr Cushing is murdered, but she doesn’t know it yet when she receives a letter from Thomas ‘explaining’ the bribe and what he had to do (but of course he lies, saying that her father objected to his poverty); she runs to his hotel and learns that he’s gone already, but nobody is surprised to see him standing outside the door, ready to definitely win her over with words of love.
When she learns about her father’s death, as devastated as she is still there’s nothing more to hold her here so she marries him and goes to his house, in England I think, to Allerdale Hall. The mansion was once very grand but is now falling apart: as they enter there’s even a broken roof that lets the rain in - later will be snow, a circle of snow at the centre, very effective. The house is amazing, beautiful and horrible at the same time, with the red clay that looks like blood and stains the bottom of her dresses as she walks along..
Once there, Edith sees strange ghosts of women; also, Thomas and Edith never make love, she always wakes up during the night to find her bed Thomas-less. The one time they had ‘a moment’ that promised passion Lucille showed up uninvited with some tea, that only Edith drank. 
Because of the ghosts, Edith finds out strange things here and there in the house, and slowly learns more than she hoped to find. Thomas had three wives already, all dead, and they all were poisoned and killed after giving to him and Lucille their inheritance - she even receives a letter from Italy, intended for the last of Thomas wives, Enola from Milan; Enola? Not an Italian name, but the letter was beautifully written in Italian :-)
One night a ghost, that she now calls by her name Enola, points her in the direction of where she can find out what is going on in that house: she finds Thomas and Lucille together, and understands they are lovers and have been the whole time. Lucille tells her that they are indeed brother and sister right before pushing her off the staircase to the floor.
Meanwhile in America her childhood friend Alan is investigating, and discovers a lot of things. He leaves for England too, to go get her and bring her back. He arrives right after she fell down, so they let him cure her. As soon as she comes to, he tells her that he’s come to take her away. He has found out everything about the Sharpes: she started the incest when she was like 14, and when their mother found out about it Lucille killed her with a meat hatchet on the head and she was sent to a mental institution. We know that she’s always had power over Thomas, he grew up under her control, and he just can’t leave her.
Lucille tells Thomas that this time he’ll have to kill him (clearly meaning that the last time he didn’t). Still, it’s Lucille that stabs him the first time while Alan is trying to take Edith away, then she gives the knife to Thomas and we have another great scene, when Alan is trying to go away but Thomas comes near him and tells him “if I don’t do it , she will”, and then looks at him and adds “you’re a doctor, tell me where”. Alan is the smart one in this movie, and he can see in Thomas pleading eyes that he doesn’t want to kill him, and that his only chance of surviving is to let him stab him in a non lethal way, so Alan leads Thomas hand to his side, and Thomas stabs him, satisfying Lucille. 
There’s no need for pretending anymore, so Lucille forces Edith to signs the document leaving all her money to them; Edith signs it but then she uses the pen to stab Lucille. Thomas runs to her telling her that Alan is alive and that he loves her and wants to help them get away. When Thomas goes to Lucille to burn the signed document, and admits that he has fallen in love with Edith, Lucille stabs him out of jealousy, twice in the chest and once in the face - another gruesome scene but with very little blood, my stomach was never upset in this movie: again, it was more grotesque than scary.
Lucille loses it completely after killing Thomas, and she goes after Edith to kill her. Edith defends herself with a knife, then runs out of the house in her white dressing gown, and outside the landscape is all white, but stained by the red clay.. again quite effective. 
Lucille is all ‘I won’t stop until I kill you or you kill me’, and they fight, and then Edith says ‘help me’, and to Lucille she says to look at him, behind her. Lucille turns around, and it wasn’t a trick, Thomas is really behind her, the ghost of Thomas that is, and now Edith has the chance to hit her and she does: twice, with a shovel. Edith walks near Thomas and touches his ghost-face before he vanishes. Now alone, Edith and Alan make their way out of the property, and we see the townsfolks  coming to meet them, because Alan had told them to. So you know they’ll be rescued, and we hear Edith’s voice narrating how ghosts are real, and are sometimes trapped somewhere, and we see Lucille’s ghost at the piano that she loved to play, alone now that Thomas is gone. During the credits, we also see a book called Crimson Peak, by Edith Cushing, so she wrote a book about her adventure, and it was probably successful enough that it got printed, and she used her maiden name. 
The end. 

p.s. let me compliment them on the fact that it is a gothic love story and yet there are no cheap sex-scenes, we only see a leg of Edith and a glimpse of Thomas butt and that's it, and the only two scenes involving sex in some way are actually important to the movie, the way they are, and not useless additions to raise curiosity as is often the case. 
I love Tom Hiddlestone and I liked him here, I love his voice and I liked how he could be charming one moment and scary the next one, and fragile with Lucille...

Mia Wasikowska was a very good choice too, but Jessica Chastain was a brilliant one. She plays it so well you start fearing Lucille before even knowing who she is, as you see her at the ball. She did a great job here; never mind the ghosts, the scary presence in that house was her!

A bride for Henry - 1937

A nice surprise. Never boring, a sparkling little movie: the ending is obvious, but it’s an enjoyable ride to get there. 
It starts with the wedding march, because Sheila Curtis (Anne Nagel), a spoiled girl, is supposed to be getting married, but her husband-to-be is late at his own wedding. Furious with him she plans to teach him a good lesson. Most of all, she thinks of all the people waiting, the embarrassment, and makes up her mind to give them a wedding after all. She calls her lawyer Henry Tuttle (Warren Hull) and asks him to marry her. He does, and they leave for their honeymoon, where he learns that she doesn’t take it at all seriously, to her it’s a simple matter of making her fiancée Eric Reynolds (Henry Mollison) pay for being late, but has no doubt on what it’ll happen next. She brings his picture with her (of when he was a little baby... :rollingeyes: ) and candidly tells Henry that she’s very grateful and that “this will teach him (Eric) a lesson” and that “next time he’ll be more punctual”. She says “our marriage is a purely social gesture to save a purely social situation”. He’s upset, asks her for how long will she require his services but she doesn’t get the sarcasm and very normally explains that it won’t take long, then she’ll take care of the matter. She keeps treating him like her lawyer who will do what she tells him, and then Eric joins them at the hotel and keeps saying how much he resents Henry’s attitude. After he goes away, Sheila tells him how she resents his attitude towards Eric and he tells her that he’s tired, “I get pushed into marrying you and then you start pushing me out. I’ve been in love with you for years, you knew that, that’s why you asked me to marry you and that’s why I married you” and “you’re a spoiled, willfull, headstrong brat”. She’s shocked: “you’ve always been so kind and patient”. Starting next morning, things take a different turn when he starts going out and enjoying himself, showing off his diving abilities at the pool, surrounded by screaming girls, and spending a lot of time with Miss Helen Van Orden (Claudia Dell). Sheila’s plan was to spend her honeymoon with Eric as planned, but nothing goes as she had envisioned it. It’s not clearly explained but it seems like Henry had the support of the locals: Sheila and Eric are even tricked and put in jail for trespassing, and Helen knows very well that he’s in love with Sheila. 
Henry had simply been someone who worked for her I guess, so Sheila never knew that he could swim, ride a horse, sing, dance... apparently this Henry can do everything... even, obviously, make her fall in love with him, because that’s what happens and that’s what everyone knows it’ll happen. She gets to know him and grows jealous of Helen, to the point of showing up unexpectedly at her party where she knew he was. Sheila dances with him, and then stares irritated while he dances with Helen, so much that when a man makes a comment on what a marvelous night it is, she replies sharply “for what?!” before leaving to return to her room and start crying. It’s near the end of the movie, she tells Eric that she was serious when she broke off their engagement, and Henry comes back right on time to send him away, then Henry starts packing and she tells him that she doesn’t want to go away, that she doesn’t want to divorce him, but he keeps playing her, saying that he wants to divorce her. At the end she says in a crying tone “if you divorce me you’ll be sorry, I’ll do something desperate” and she walks out of the balcony and won’t come back in to safety until he says that he loves her and that he’ll never leave her. All the people down look at her and laugh for her stunt, and the last scene she finally says that she loves him. 

ITA luna di miele a tre

Penthouse North - 2013

Not bad, glad I watched it once, but that is enough I think. It’s acted well enough, but the ending annoyed me.
I liked that the Sara character is not the screaming type, she’s a fighter, but there was also something about her that made one suspicious, not sure if we should like her or not.
After a bomb exploded in front of her, Sara (Michelle Monaghan) is now totally blind, but in Ryan’s apartment she seems perfectly at ease. How long have they lived together? Anyway, she calls his name but he doesn’t answers. She can’t know why, but we can see his murdered body on the floor. Sara walks back and forth, also not noticing that Ryan’s murderer is still in the house. When she accidentally walks over Ryan’s blood, she slips and fall down and finally finds the body. 
Chad (Barry Sloane) doesn’t let her go out, instead he ties her up to her bed and questions her. She manages to hit him and run away, and she hides in the basement when she hears a friend approaching. She shouts for this Antonio to go and find help, but instead he comes forward. She tells him that there’s a dangerous man, and Antonio is all ‘I won’t leave you here’, which may seem a very brave and noble thing to do, but it also means that he hasn’t yet told anybody, and that when Chad kills him nobody will come to help her. She ran downstairs without calling for help. Is there nobody in the whole building? Of course shouting ‘help’ may not be useful, but she could shout ‘somebody call the police’... in the privacy of their home maybe someone would actually call.
Anyway, she manages to run outside, and she walks in the street asking for help when a ‘policeman’ approaches her, telling people to move on, that he’ll take care of it. It’s too early in the movie, it didn’t really fool anybody. We knew Chad has a partner, so it’s pretty obvious that poor Sara is not safe, she simply met the partner...
Chad is the thug type, while his partner Hollander (Michael Keaton) is the thinking type, but they’re both very dangerous.
When they find a lot of money hidden behind a photo enlargement on a wall, she tells them to take the money and go away, but they only pretend to leave to see what she’d do. They are still inside because there’s much more to find. Ryan had taken some diamonds that they now want. They’re worth millions. Hollander tries to get her to tell him where the diamonds are by threatening her cat, and then he throws it off the balcony... (it is rather high, but it’s a cat after all......)
When her pregnant sister  and her husband finally come, they were expected to celebrate together the new year - I think. Sara does her best to send them away saying that she’s fighting with Ryan, but naturally they’re not keen to leave her there alone and want to talk to Ryan, but then Blake’s water break and they hurry to the hospital. 
Hollander orders Chad to make him a drink and goes with Sara on the balcony. She tells him that she thinks Ryan might have hidden the diamonds in a vase because she once saw him with dirt on his hands, but Hollander understands quickly that she’s playing him, to buy some time, since there are lots of vases there (all empty though, why so many empty vases??). Meanwhile, Chad finds the diamonds hidden in the ice-cubes, so he uses water to melt all the ice-cubes and he retrieves all the diamonds and puts them in a little plastic bag, and tells nothing to Hollander, but as I said before Hollander is the thinking type, and he saw him act strangely, and now he’s offered a ice-less drink... 
Chad realizes that he knows, and he tries to kill Hollander, who is quicker and kill him instead. That is what often happens when a guy with a knife tries to kill a guy with a gun. 
Sara attacks Hollander in the back with a sort of big barbecue fork, which seems rather stupid, and tries to run away, but of course he’s not injured and he stops her. Chad was not dead yet and tries again to kill Hollander, but this time he’s killed with his own knife. 
Taking advantage of the two men fighting, Sara tries to run away, maybe to hide, when she stumbles on the gun, and she takes it. She waits for Hollander on the balcony, where she can hear him moving and shoot at him, but the fireworks start creating more trouble, and she has yet another flashback of the woman with the fake baby that exploded in front of her. 
Sara keeps pointing the gun at Hollander (the fireworks stopped rather quickly after all...) and threatens him to throw the diamonds away, because she needs him to move or make noise to know where he is and shoot him. She throws a couple of diamonds off the balcony, and then threatens to throws the whole bag, so Hollander has no other choice and moves towards her; she shoots him, he grabs her, she turns and throws him off the balcony too, and we can see him down there with the cat walking over his corpse, maybe wondering why isn’t he getting up and concluding that humans are indeed bigger but cats are definitely better.
Now that they’re both dead, she’s safe and she walks back in the apartment, with the remaining diamonds still firmly in her hand. She puts them in the ice tray, spreading them, before putting them in the freezer.
This is the end, so it means that she had known all along that the diamonds were there? That’s why she hides them again? I really disliked seeing her freezing the diamonds again, it was very unpleasant to see her do that before calling the police, before telling anybody to come get Ryan’s body, before calling her brother-in-law to see how’s her sister doing....  it didn’t seem the right thing to do after what had happened, not for a good innocent person at least. 

ITA sola nel buio

Knowing - 2009

It’s an interesting movie the first time you watch it. I already watched it twice, and the second time it wasn’t as enjoyable as the first, now that there was no mystery anymore. 
It stars Nicolas Cage as John, a widower with a son, Caleb. Fifty years ago, at Caleb’s school, the students hid letters in a time capsule that is now opened. Caleb gets the only letter without a drawing, the letter of Lucinda, a little girl that was believed to be insane because she heard voices and instead of drawing something like the others she scribbled lots and lots of numbers. John finds out that those numbers are the exact dates of accidents throughout the world, complete with number of deaths and coordinates. He manages to meet Lucinda’s daughter Diana and her own daughter Abby, and together they find out the meaning of the “EE” written at the bottom of the sheet of paper. They mean “everyone else”, meaning that in a few days there will be a solar flare that will kill everyone on Earth, and there’s nothing anybody can do. 
Meanwhile, throughout the movie there are strange people, aliens, giving black stones to chosen children to communicate with them. John and Diana think that they are dangerous and try to escape, until the aliens kidnap the two children and Diana dies in a car accident while chasing them. John is sure to know where they are headed, sure that he found the location hidden in Lucinda’s house, and drives there. He’s right, he finds the aliens with Caleb and Abby un-harmed, and he understands that the aliens plan to take them away. Finally realizing that  keeping Caleb here would only mean his sure death, he lets the children go. He can’t go with them, because only the chosen children will be accepted by the aliens. The last scenes shows us many alien ships departing from Earth, meaning that more children were chosen, and transported to a new planet where they will have a chance of growing up and create a new Earth. It is not explained how the children will manage to survive alone, or if every couple of children brought with them a couple of animals (Caleb and Abby had a rabbit each when they boarded the ship). We only see the children on a green field running towards a big beautiful tree.  

ITA Segnali dal futuro 

Up close & personal - 1996

I love this movie. It’s a bit sad, but also a great love story. It stars Michelle Pfeiffer, which has probably a lot to do with why I like it so much. I’m pretty sure that without her I wouldn’t care much for it.
She plays Sally, renamed Tally, a young ambitious woman who sends a tape around dreaming of a job in journalism. Warren (Robert Redford) hires her, and gives her only small secretary tasks at first, as a trial. The first time she asks for screen time, to read the meteo, he accepts but she makes a mess. Warren believes in her though, and encourages her, gives her new tasks and teaches her how to be a good journalist. When it’s finally her turn to read the news, she gets upset at being considered Warren’s protegée, and goes away to seek a career on her own in Philadelphia, thanks to her agent Bucky (Joe Mantegna).
Before leaving for Philadelphia, Tally and Warren take their relationship to a new romantic level, revealing that they love each other. 
Tally has now to deal with Marcia (Stockard Channing), the lead journalist there, but it’s not just that that keeps her back. She seems to have lost something, being on her own. Bucky calls Warren to come and help Tally and he does. He helps her find herself again, they start working together, and when she finds herself trapped inside a prison during a riot, he guides her from the outside and she makes an important coverage of the events. During that experience, Warren realizes that he has nothing more to teach her. She’s now a grown-up, professional journalist, and her career is bright. 
He leaves for a war assignment, and she’s devastated when she learns that he has been killed there. 
She can now find the strength to go on, doing what he taught her to do. 

ITA qualcosa di personale

Eternally yours - 1939

A great love story, and yet not the movie I'd watch again, I didn't like it very much.
Anita (Loretta Young) is to marry Don (Broderick Crawford) but when she goes with her friends to see the show of the Great Arturo (David Niven) it's love at first sight. They get married and she works with him in the show. They are extremely in love and happy. One night, at a reporter's party, he gets drunk and apparently - as he reads in the paper the next day - he boasted around that he could even jump out of a plane handcuffed... and now the world expects him to do it. Anita is strongly against it, and he promises that he won't do it, but then he sees all the fans cheering, waiting only to see him, and goes through with it. She's mad at him, and again he promises that he won't do it again. And again he breaks his promise, and they start a tour all over the world, where he performs it again and again. She gets tired of that life, and has secretly bought a house for them.
They had planned a vacation, where she planned to take him to the new house, when he informs her that he has signed a contract for a new tour around the world. She tries to talk to him but he won't listen to her, saying that it's not for them to settle down, to have a house, that they're happy the way they are. His slogan on the papers is "the great Arturo sees all, knows all" but it seems that he can't see her and doesn't know a thing of what she wants.
One day after a show he finds a message where she tells him that she's gone, that they've come face to face with reality, that "I cannot go your way any longer and I know you'll never go mine. This is good-bye".
It's a huge blow for him, and he starts looking everywhere for him, but she hasn't gone home. He keeps looking for her and asking about her, until he's told that she's divorced him. He tries to go on with his life. Anita marries Don, in an attempt to move on, but she knows very well that it's not Don that she really loves.
After the marriage, Don's boss invites them at a party, and Tony is there to perform. When they meet again, he does all he can to talk to her and to see her again. On another occasion he asks her to be his assistant, and as much as she begs Don to get her out of it he doesn't because he doesn't want to go against his boss' wish. Tony hypnotizes her, explaining that in a state of post-hypnosis she'd do anything he orders to do, but only the things that she wants to do. He could never order her something that she wouldn't want to do. She hands a cigarette to a lady, a flower to another, and then goes to him and kisses him. That night he tells Don that he thinks she still loves him, and the next day he talks to her alone, and she admits that she still loves him, that she left so he'd be free to live the life he wants, and that there's nothing he could do to patch things up, because he doesn't need her , he doesn't need anyone but himself.
Tony prepares for another performance, another jump off a plane, and is trouble to see that he won't be on the same plane where he hid the picklock, and yet he goes through with it anyway. Anita is attending, and suffers terribly watching him fall down. He's successful enough, but not completely. When he's pulled out of the water Anita runs to him, and when he finally opens his eyes she hugs him and cries, and is obvious to anyone watching, even to Don, what she really feels.
In the last scene of the movie Anita and Tony enter their house in Connecticut.

I don't understand why Tony went under the name "great Arturo", what has Tony to do with Arturo?

Four star playhouse - 1952-1956

This was a series of half-hour episodes that starred actors like David Niven, Dick Powell, Charles Boyer and Ida Lupino.
The episodes made : (the ✔️ marks the ones I've seen)
I'm sorry if it's written in bigger and smaller characters, but blogger won't save my changes. I've tried many times to correct it, but it doesn't work.

season 1

1-my wife Geraldine✔️ with Charles Boyer

2-Dante’s inferno

3-the lost silk hat

4-backstage

5-welcome home

6-the island

7-the officer and the lady

8-knockout

9-the man on the train ✔️ with David Niven

10-trail’s end

11-sound off, my love

12-man in the box

13-no identity ✔️ with David Niven

14-the man who walked out on himself

15-the last voyage

16-night ride ✔️ with David Niven

17-ladies on his mind

18-to whom it may concern ✔️ with David Niven

19-shadowed

season 2

1-finale ✔️ with David Niven

2-the squeeze

3-a place of his own

4-love at sea

5-the witness

6-a matter of advice ✔️ with David Niven

7-search in the night

8-moorings

9-the hard way

10-for art’s sake ✔️ with David Niven

11-the girl on the park bench

12-the room

13-a man of the world  ✔️ with David Niven

14-the gift

15-house for sale

16-the test

17-the bad streak

18-a string of beads

19-indian taker

20-second dawn

21-the gun

22-the bomb ✔️ with David Niven

23-meet McGraw

24-detective’s holiday

25-an operation in money ✔️ with David Niven

26-lady of the orchids

27-the book ✔️ with David Niven

28-a study in panic

29-masquerade

30-village in the city ✔️ with David Niven

31-the doctor and the countess ✔️ with Charles Boyer

season 3

1-the man in the cellar

2-never explain ✔️ with David Niven

3-interlude

4-the wallet

5-the adolescent

6-the contest

7-vote of confidence 

8-my own dear dragon

9-marked down

10-meet a lonely man ✔️ with David Niven

11-bourbon street

12-a championship affair

13-the answer ✔️ with David Niven

14-go ahead and jump

15-a bag of oranges

16-stuffed shirt

17-breakfast in bed ✔️ with David Niven

18-the good sister

19-a kiss for mr. Lincoln

20-fair trial

21-the wild bunch

22-tusitala

23-the returning

24-Eddie’s place

25-Henry and the psychopathic horse ✔️ with David Niven

26-night at Lark Cottage

27-the girl on the bridge

28-the collar ✔️ with David Niven

29-Madeira, Madeira ✔️ with Charles Boyer and David Niven

30-with all my heart

31-the house always wins

32-uncle Fred flits by

33-alias Mr Hepp

34-Trudy

35-broken journey

36-the executioner

37-the frightened woman

38-award

season 4

1-the firing squad

2-face of danger

3-let the chips fall

4-full circle ✔️ with David Niven

5-a spray of bullets

6-the devil to pay

7-here comes the suit ✔️ with David Niven

8-looking glass house

9-something very special

10-a place full of strangers

11-one way out ✔️ with Ida Lupino

12-dark meeting

13-magic night

14-tunnel of fear ✔️ with David Niven

15-high stakes

16-the listener

17-safe keeping ✔️ with David Niven

18-no limit

19-command

20-once to every woman

21-red wine

22-to die at midnight

23-desert encounter

24-the story of Emily Cameron

25-the rites of spring

26-autumn carousel

27-wall of bamboo

28-touch and go ✔️ with David Niven

29-a long way from Texas

30-that woman

31-the other room

32-one forty two

33-beneath the surface

34-watch the sunset

35-second chance ✔️ with David Niven

36-woman afraid

37-the stacked deck

38-distinguished service

39-yellowbelly

40-the stand-in

41-success story

My wife Geraldine
Mr Graham (Charles Boyer) is under suspicion of having killed his wife Geraldine. When his landlady goes to tell him that an investigator will come with questions for him, he tries to explain the truth to her. He was a lonely man with little hope, until one day someone answered his job application. Mr Martin values age and responsibility over youth, and is ready to give him a good job, but is startled to learn that he has no children. When Mr Martin asks him if he is at least married, he knows that he will lose the job if he tells the truth, so he lies and says yes. He starts a different life that includes a wife: he rents a larger apartment, he buys women clothes and perfumes and magazines, he writes letters addressed to her, everything to make everyone believe that he has a wife. Geraldine became such a part of his life that people didn't even realize that they had never seen her. One day he is hit by a car coming out of a parking lot, and a man from the hospital keeps calling home to let Geraldine know, but nobody answers of course. Neighbours complain about the phone ringing night and day and the landlady Rose Barton goes to check. She finds the apartment empty, while his boss comes to see if Geraldine's alright because Mr Graham told him she was ill. Confronted with these lies, they start suspecting that something happened to her, but instead of calling the police Mr Martin calls the firm's investigator. 
Rose wants to help him because he's afraid that nobody would believe him and also he'd lose his job, so when the investigator comes she pretends to be his wife until he goes away.
She tells him that the easiest way to solve things would be to get married for real, but now Geraldine is so real in Mr Graham's mind that he can't imagine to give her up...

The man on the train

Bill Langford (Niven) speaks to a man on a train, but then the man’s brother-in-law tells him that it’s impossible, that it couldn't have happened. He’s questioned by him and also by sir Charles and by an inspector: they all say that the man disappeared after stealing 75000£. Sure of what he saw, Bill goes to sir Charles’ secretary’s house: he saw the man talking to him at the station, and yet the secretary denied it; after seeing the mysterious man entering the house, Bill confronts the secretary, telling him to look at the man in his apartment. The secretary then sees him too and starts crying out that it’s impossible because he killed him after taking the money. The police arrest him but they find nobody in the house. The case is now wrapped up, and at the end we see that the man was a ghost, and he vanished after having accomplished his mission.

No identity

Lovely and touching. Mitch (Niven) and Lynn (Frances Rafferty) Carver have been married for a year, when on a fishing trip Mitch meets a nine-year-old boy, Tommy, who lives in an orphanage. Mitch was adopted when he was little, and he had no identity, he was simply found. When he hears    that Tommy was found too and has no identity, he’s struck with the desire to adopt him. Lynn doesn’t want to hear about it, she wants a family of her own, but Mitch grows very fond of the boy during his visits to the orphanage, and one day he brings him home. Lynn comes home happy to tell her husband that she’s pregnant, and is faced with the surprise of the boy in her home. She can’t adjust to him, although he’s a lovely, polite, good boy, she resents his presence and the affection that Mitch has for him. A  few months go by, but at last Mitch realizes that the situation is not improving, and thinks he’ll have to bring the boy back to the orphanage. 

Mitch’s mother tells him that she didn’t love him at first, it was very difficult for her, but she did eventually and her love grew deeper and deeper, and tells him to try and understand Lynn’s point of view. To save his family, Mitch tells her that when he’ll get back from his business trip, he’ll take Tommy back. 

While Mitch is away, Lynn falls down the stairs; Tommy is deeply worried but hurries to the phone to call the doctor, and says “this is Tom Carver, my mother just fell down the stairs” and then calls Mitch’s office “This is Mr Carver’s boy, Tom; you better find my father right away and tell him to get back here”. Then, he tries to make her comfortable while waiting for the ambulance, and tells her “you mustn’t be scared mother, there’s nothing to be scared of” and “you rest … you’ll see, I’m going to take care of the both of you, honest I will” and he kisses her… 

Maybe I was already in some kind of emotional state, but when he said on the phone “my mother” it was the most touching thing, and the way she looked at him said it all.

Tom waits at the hospital, when finally Mitch arrives. They are told that she’s ok, and her daughter is alive too, although small. When Mitch can see her, she tells him how wonderful Tommy was, and when Tommy calls her Mrs Carver again, she asks him what did he call her when she fell down the stairs. “I called you…mother” - “that’s right, mother, don’t you ever forget it”.

Now Tommy finally has a family, as he always wanted, and a little sister too :-)

Night ride

Interesting, it somehow reminded me of DW’s ep Midnight, because of the violence that can derive from panic.

Five people on a night train, the doors close before two policemen can get on board. Four men and a woman start theorizing on the reason why the cops were there: were they looking for somebody on the train? Two people had been killed near the train station, so maybe they were looking for the killer? That means that one of them is a murderer. Phil (Niven) tries to keep cool, to convince the others that all they need to do is simply wait a few minutes for the next stop, when the police will sort it out. A man can’t keep it together, and when the lights go out he takes the train’s emergency axe “to defend himself”. Not knowing who he is, Phil feels that he shouldn’t have a weapon, and tries to take it from him. The little man convinces the others that Phil must be the murderer, calling him manipulative only because he was the only one who didn’t lose his head, and they all turn against him, and hit him. When they finally reach the next stop, the woman runs out to a policeman shouting that they caught the maniac, but it turns out that the real killer had been caught fifteen minutes ago. Three of them are ashamed of how they reacted, they panicked and couldn’t think straight. The fourth man claimed to be a mere spectator of the dance of death, and yet he was amongst those who left their mark on his face; at least the others had the decency to feel ashamed afterwards, which makes him the worst of them all. 

To whom it may concern

A sad story. Mr Bingham writes a confession: he stole money from the bank where he works, bought some stocks but lost everything. He mails this letter then he's about to shoot himself when he reads a shocking news on the newspaper: the stocks he bought went to the roof, worth a fortune! He tries everything to get his letter back, but fails. In the morning, his boss tells him that he's been promoted, and speaks of his honesty and integrity, then as Bingham walks to the door he prepares to open his mail. 

He's in a desperate state and his neighbour (I think) thinks that he's not well. He shouted at her to leave him alone the night before, so when the postman comes, saying that he didn't put enough stamps on his letter, she doesn't want to disturb him and pays it for him... while she says goodbye to the postman, we hear a gunshot, which they misinterpret as traffic noise. The end..

Finale

Steve and Roger Carlyle are cousins, and since their fathers were twins they too look just alike. Steven is a talented actor and a kind man, but is desperate because he can’t find any acting part because of their resemblance. Roger is not as talented as he is, but somehow is already a famous actor. Jealous of his younger cousin’s talent, he does all he can to make sure that Steve won’t be offered any part, even buys a play on which Steven had put a lot of hope, because it stars two characters looking just alike… Roger has no intention of appearing on stage alongside his cousin, instead he takes it to Hollywood because in a movie he could play both parts. Steven even thinks of killing him and take his place, but he can’t do it. Discouraged, he undergoes plastic surgery to change his features. While recovering at the hospital, he learns that Roger had died and the studio would like him to take his place in the movie…. it ends with Steven’s hands desperately over his face, because of this cruel joke of destiny…

A matter of advice-1954
Jonas Gentry is a doctor, a pediatrician with a lot of patience and love for children. He has three of his own. The eldest is excited about her new play, she'll be playing Juliette and her parents will be present... but then the play is disturbed by an "emergency call" for him! It's a new-mother that keeps worrying over nothing, always calling him for stupid things: he's very patient, always says "anytime.
Later though he's rather upset, thinking he's a bad father, not seeing that his other daughter is growing up, ruining his oldest daughter's play... but it wasn't ruined and all's well, because the way she reacted to the interruption was very appreciated so she has no resentment at all for him, his whole family loves him and they are about to enjoy a quiet family night when there's another call: that mother called to say that the baby is finally asleep...

For art's sake
Ted Parker is a mature rich bachelor collecting young girls: the latest one is 21-year-old Lois (Nancy Gates), a terrible painter. He's trying to woe her by making her think that she's a success. Ted asks his friend Addy Bancroft (Barbara Billingsley), a famous art critic, to look at her paintings, then contrary to her opinion he sets up a gallery for Lois, asking people he knows to visit and even instructing his cleaning lady to buy one. Addy goes along with it only because she's in love with him. Lois' dad comes too, telling Lois that Tommy from Texas wants to talk to her and she's so happy she runs to phone him. Daddy knows Addy already, and seeing the two of them holding hands makes Ted jealous, and he finally realize that he loves her too, and always has. She says "I know" and they finally kiss.

A man of the world
Andy Bush is a very predictable man, about to take his usual annual trip. His wife helps him pack his bag and fixes him something to eat on the train. He resents that everybody seems to know him so well, he want to think that when he's away alone he can be a different man: "I leave my home and my familiar routine and I become a man of the world". On the train he meets a pretty young woman who starts talking to him. She accepts his invitation to have dinner together, wants to see his compartment and leaves her things there saying that she'll retrieve it "later"... she tells him that they could be together in New York a whole week, seeing each other every day, doing everything they want... then she adds that she's in trouble because her husband died and she's pregnant, so she stole some money to make a new life for her and her baby, but a detective is looking for her, and she asks Andy to cover for her saying that they are husband and wife... when a man comes, she takes Andy's arm and says that he's her husband, but when he's directly asked to confirm it he says "no, I only met this young lady half an hour ago, right here...", rather frightened and uncomfortable with such a situation. Later he learns that the woman and the fake-detective were actually accomplices, that it was all a con-game, that they would have blackmailed him for his lie... a real detective on the train finally caught the in the act and ran after them. Andy sits alone in his compartment, eating the food his wife gave to him...

The bomb

Interesting. Jane (Margaret Sheridan) tells her boyfriend Richard( Niven) that she’s going to marry Charles Quine (John Dehner). He seems to take it very well, all considering. He congratulates them and goes away without fuss. They need to get going to meet his family for the engagement celebration. Richard takes a piece out of Charles’ car, so that when they try to leave it won’t start. Richard shows up again, with the excuse that he got her a wedding present, and offers to drive them himself. Janet doesn’t seem keen on the idea, she thinks he’s plotting something, but it’s late at night and therefore not easy to find a mechanic, and they’re late, so they accept. 

A flat tyre and the heavy rain will force them to take shelter. They enter an abandoned place but then they discover that there’s a bomb in there, a German bomb that didn’t explode. They’d be glad to get the hell out of there, but are trapped by a cave-in. 

The police had been informed by two kids of its presence, but are unable to enter for the same reason. When they realize each other’s presence, the colonel sends them a phone so they can communicate. Charles wants them to get them out of there, but that would take a lot of time, and the bomb has already start ticking, getting slower with time. Richard knows that when the ticking will stop, it will explode, so he takes the phone and asks the colonel if there’s something he could do. The colonel gives him instructions on how to defuse the bomb. Charles is very frightened, and finds it a very bad idea, but of course had no other solution.

Richard follows carefully every instruction, but at some point Charles panics and tries to stop him. The two men fight until Janet hits Charles on the head with her torchlight. 

Charles had broken the phone, so now they’re alone. It’s the last step, but the bomb has already stopped ticking, so there is no time to waste, and Richard is faced with the usual dilemma. 

This is a black&white movie, so no red or blue wire here. Instead there are three pieces of metal. Two of them are ok, the third will make it explode if touched. Richard simply takes a chance, thinking that they have no more time and no other chance; before touching one, Richard and Janet confess how they really love each other and then , luckily,  he touches one of the right ones and the bomb is defused. 

It ends with Richard and Janet kissing each other while Charles comes to. Richard admits that his present was the piece of the car, and that all’s fair in love and war.. 

An operation in money - 1954

A funny little thing :lol:  Andy Fields (Niven) has been working in a bank for eight years, but now that he wants to marry his fiancée, he realizes he can’t do it with his current salary. He asks for a raise but it’s denied. He even gets threatened with a decrease. Tired of being taken for granted, to the point of disrespect since they don’t even know his name, he makes a plan. There’s going to be an important merger between the bank and Mr Hepplewhite, and auditors will be checking the accounts. Even the slightest error might make him rethink the deal. Andy hides 100.000 $ to force the board of directors to give him a raise. He says that a scandal, as well as the loss of money, would break the deal. He even spends his own savings to make them think that he’s spending their money, to try force their hands. They seem to capitulate, when they’re informed that the audit will be postponed, so they’ll be able to find the money to cover the loss, and he’ll be left with nothing. 

With an astute plan b, Andy befriends Hepplewhite and subtly convinces him that it should be wiser to do the audit at once, so the directors sign a new contract for him, at 300$ a year for his current position. Then, they promote him to vice-president only to invalidate the contract and then they fire him. It seems everything’s lost when suddenly Hepplewhite comes in, and is very happy to meet him, even invites him and his fiancée over for dinner, but when he learns that Fields ‘might have to go away because ‘they haven’t reached an agreement on his salary’ he says that if they let him go,  “if this organization is as short sighted as that I don’t want any part of this merge” … so it ends with Fields and his now wife entering the bank all smartly-dressed, and going into his new office as the new vice-president in charge of security, “non negotiable” :-p

The book
Mr Mason is a writer of famous adventure books. He never travels, he gets his inspiration from books in the library. This time he borrows a specific book on Tibet that is wanted by another man, who approaches him and then later tries to steal the book from him, but in his hurry he doesn't look and gets hit and killed by a car. Mason doesn't know at this point that he was an assassin.
When he finds a note hidden between two pages glued together, with an address, a time and the name Clarissa, he goes to the appointment. He meets Linda and another man, and he's rather shocked when they give him a gun and he learns that Clarissa is the name of the ship where he's supposed to kill a man, a foreign minister of some Country (not specified). He can't pull back now, he goes along looking for a way out at every turn. Nobody knows what the assassin looks like but he's supposed to wear the uniform of a sailor looking much like him. When the sailor shows up and they see that he's much shorter than Mason, they understand that Mason is an impostor. They don't shoot him right away so not to make noise in a public place, and while they are going out Mason intentionally bumps into a man so that he would start a fight. Mason escapes, sees the woman trying to run away and stops her. A policeman sees him, whistles for a back-up and they all go back inside. Presumably all the dangerous conspirators are arrested. What we see is Mason in his own apartment making up the end of his new novel, where he grabbed the woman, hold her tight and silenced her screams with kisses... (that is, in the fictional novel :p )

Village in the city - 1955

Interesting, a mystery story with a twist. Of course nowadays I’ve seen everything so it didn’t really surprise me, but I like how it was made, it was nice and interesting. 

It starts with hands stealing a ring from a girl that has been strangled. It is not explained how she was found, who called the police, but it happened very quickly, before in the morning the police are already investigating. The murder happened in the studio of a talented painter, Royal Thurston (Niven). He’s dismissed as a suspect right away because Leslie Lorraine (Antony Eustrel) says he’s been in his house all evening and all night. Roy is doing a portrait for him, but a terrible headache forced him to spend the night there. Roy explains that he picked up some kind of disease in India that no doctor knows how to cure: he calls it “Thurston’s folly”. Lorraine describes Roy as “the world’s greatest living artist”. 

Roy was in love with the girl, she had been his model for a year, but she loved many men, couldn’t love just one, “she was very democratic” as Roy put it. He’s so shaken up by her death, that he wants to find her killer : “I’ve always been very good at anything I ever attempted; this time I’m gonna try extra hard”.

He questions a man who gave her many gifts, jewels that she loved, and he explains that it wasn’t a crime of passion. He had given her a very precious gift, a ring, very valuable, which was not found on her body. Next Roy goes to question his cousin Mario, who is in the criminal business I’d say, since he sends two men to beat him up good. He stands his own quite well, until a terrible headache knocks him down. Police sirens stop them from hitting his head with a brick, and a girl, Sally, helps him up and takes him home. She looks around, among his stuff, and for a moment I thought she might be bad news, but only for a moment. 

Next thing we see, Roy is finishing a portrait he made of her. Leslie comes to him and appears annoyed by it, saying that he did a lot of those, but in her memory Roy wants to complete this one with the jewels she liked the most: a necklace and a ring, “I’m dreaming it up, it’s the sort of thing she would have loved”. Leslie asks to buy it, but Roy doesn’t want to sell it. 

Sally comes back saying that she forgot something, while he’s having another one of his headaches, his “spells”, as he calls them. This time it’s unbearable, so Sally takes him to Leslie’s house to retrieve his medicine. While there, Roy finds the ring, hidden; a ring looking exactly like the one he painted. When Roy finds a gun into Sally’s bag he realizes that she’s a policewoman. He gives it back and tells her to hide while he talks to Leslie, because she might hear something interesting. Leslie comes home with the portrait of the girl that Roy just finished, but he blackened out her hand. Roy says “you always hated Sharon, haven’t you?” and “was it this what you wanted?” and Leslie replies “I had to make it look like robbery so I took the ring, I thought it was the safest thing to do”, and then Roy calls Sally. She comes gun in hand, and it’s all supposed to make us suspect Leslie of the murder. He says that now he’s asking too much of him, but Roy isn’t asking anything. He starts talking, saying that he’s come to realize that he’s not just unconscious during his blackouts. When he comes to he finds himself writing about places he’d never been to, or painting things he never saw before… Sally:”you think you killed the girl?” -  “I think I must have, I can’t remember”. He asks Leslie to tell him what happened, he doesn’t want to. He tells him not to cover up for him. He insists, until Leslie lets something slip and then tells the whole story: Roy went out that night and he followed him “like you always do” and heard them having an argument, while she taunted him with the ring not realizing the state he was in (a year modeling for him and she never knew about his condition??) and after Roy left Leslie went inside and found her dead, so he took the ring “but I tell you he’s sick, he isn’t to be treated as a criminal”.

Leslie loves him, and has tried to help him as much as he could, but “I’ve always been able to master everything I’ve ever tried. I would have been so disappointed if I hadn’t become a good detective” and Sally calls homicide. Roy solved the case, finding out that he himself is the killer. 

The Doctor and the Countess

A famous plastic surgeon (Charles Boyer) is approached by a woman on a ship. The countess tells him that her husband is dead, and she seems very interested in his job. She asks him to join her at her villa, saying that it’ll be full of people. He agrees, and arranges for his bags to be sent to the polyclinic in Rome, but as he arrives at her villa he discovers that there’s nobody else there, and that she misdirected his bags to be bought there. He asks for an explanation: she says that her husband Andrea’s mother had died in a fire, and in trying to save her Andrea had remained disfigured. Still, it is not for him, who is still alive, that she wanted his services. Andrea is so consumed by pain and guilt that stays all day locked up in his room and won’t let any doctor operate on him. 

She loves him so desperately that she asks the doctor to make her face hideous so that she’ll be able to share her husband’s life again. Of course it’s madness, the doctor wouldn’t agree to that, but she won’t listen to reason. He tries to talk to Andrea about it, but he refuses to believe that he’d ever do such a thing. With the help of a friend, the doctor prepares everything for the operation, right there at the villa, but then Andrea comes to stop them, yelling that he’ll do anything, but they must stop it. The woman flies into his arms, loving him as much as ever, and the doctor is satisfied now that his plan has worked. 

Never explain-1955

Marjorie (Barbara Lawrence), a new girl from the social welfare office, is sent to talk to a man who lives alone with his two children: he is a widower who appears to have no job and refuses to sent his children to school. He tells her that “the world would be a much better place if there were fewer people going around telling the others how to improve it”. Hal Winters (Niven) kisses her and promises to send them to school and find a job, but he doesn’t, so Marjorie and her boss Mr Carter go to his house together. A woman is there and Marjorie gets jealous. He’s out fishing with the kids, and teaching them French.  As an explanation, he says that he had a meeting with his children and they chose not to go to school. Carter calls the police to investigate his case, and it turns out that he’s qualified to teach his children after all, and that the woman in his house is his sister-in-law, so Marjorie runs to him. He has a saying: “never explain, your friends won’t need it and your enemies won’t believe it anyway”. After another meeting he proposes to Marjorie and they kiss …

Meet a lonely man
A man is run over by a car. He goes into Burt Sommers room.
A p.i. friend asks George Buber what did he get himself into that they tried to kill him. George tells him his story: he's been a hotel clerk for fifteen years, "fifteen years of being an accommodating nobody in a world of somebodies" yet he liked the job but he felt alone "no messages, nothing waiting for me in that room, no family, no friends, no real life outside the hotel, no fun, no romance, just years disappearing, an existence of too little life and too much loneliness".   (I don't remember having ever seen such a raggedy Niven before)
One day he meets young and rich Janice, who appears sure that she knows him already, and she thinks he is Burt Sommers whom she met in Texas last year and who works in oil. He tries to tell the truth, but she doesn't let him, he doesn't know what to do they go out to dinner together so he doesn't say anything anymore. He thinks that for one night only he could enjoy the experience, and is unable to confess. She's already a widow. They dance, and it's like a dream. This wasn't the end of it though. The next day she called him because she left her purse in his pocket, so he takes a day off to go to her and give it back. To better impersonate Sommers, he buys a used car with a Texas plate for 4000$. Her father tells him that after years of sadness she finally seems happy again now, and tells him "she's being pursuing you" to which he replies "I don't think Jan could really being pursuing me because she would have caught me by now, I've not being running very fast"  :-)
He wants to tell the truth, "I must". She thinks that he might be married but he's not, so she kisses him... and he doesn't tell her. Now he fakes his (Sommers') presence in the hotel using again his own money to rent a room, "saving of fifteen years had disappeared" , but you know, he was happy now, until... Jan cancels her trip to Paris to come back to him, she talks of marriage and love, but "marry you? that's impossible, I never even thought of that" and then "I could never give you the things you're used to" which of course breaks her heart, to think that he never even considered a life with her, and about the money "I don't want the things I'm used to, I want you". He says "you want me? you want me when I tell you that the money I put in that I. stock is the only money I've got, and the oil in this thing is the only oil I've ever owned" (the thing is something like a lighter I guess but I don't know what he says there so I wrote 'thing' ) and also "I mean that I'm a room clerk on the hotel Gregory, you decided to put me in the oil business" and "my name is George Buber, I've been a room clerk for fifteen years, I've never been near Texas" and "I never thought the time would come I'd have to explain, I never dreamed you might love me. I kept telling myself that it couldn't last and at the same time praying that somehow it could".
He wants to explain himself but she's angry, she thinks that he played her for three weeks. She borrows his car to go to the airport and that's when she hit him. It was dark and she was crying and she didn't see him. 
She calls him and the p.i. (who must be a house detective of the hotel) tells him "she doesn't seem to know she hit you". She came back so he runs to her, they kiss and she'll marry Buber :-)

The answer
The Deacon (Niven) is a brilliant writer and an alcoholic. His knowledge is so great that he trades it for drinks. He tells people to ask him any questions and verify his answers on an encyclopedia that he carries around with him. He gets thrown out of Rocco's bar because they think Deacon cheats somehow, but then Rocco's nephew comes home: he is a Hollywood screenwriter in search of himself. Seeing a new face, Deacon tries again and answers three questions correctly. Bart Thomas, Bartolomeo's Hollywood name, is intrigued. He buys Deacon a couple of drinks, and the Deacon offers one free answer in return. Bart asks what exactly is his play about. Deacon has never revealed that to anyone, but he likes Bart and this time he answers: the world has only a few hours left to find a solution that will bring world peace forever. All the major scientists of Earth gather round and put their knowledge into the greatest, most advanced machine ever built. Deacon says that this is where he got stuck 15 years before, when he felt that he had to know everything too. Bart admires him intelligence and his dedication and commitment, and his lack of regrets too. 
Deacon finishes his story: the machine finally gives an answer, what will bring eternal world peace, and in the complete silence, with all the faces looking at him, he starts quoting the ten commandments... simple right? but it's true of course. If humanity respected a few simple rules, there would be world peace. Only these: respect your parents, don't fight your neighbours, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't kill.... what else does the world need to know? 
At the end, the Deacon leaves, saying that he'll go for a walk by the river and think, and Bart joins him, and they go out together, like kindred spirits.

Breakfast in bed - 1955
Charles (Niven) is draws pictures of women with food for advertisements companies, when a young model makes him think that he's wasting his talent. Germaine (Gloria Talbott) starts talking about Van Gogh and other great artists who did their best work while they were broke and starving, so Charles makes up his mind to enter a competition for oil paintings (her idea, so that her pictures would he hung in a gallery) and leaves home to go to his cottage in a small island. His wife Nina (Barbara Billingsley) doesn't like the girl's influence on her husband, and plans to have him come back to his senses by hiding every comfort in the cottage. Without food and without a fire he's very uncomfortable and in a bad mood, but when Germaine finds the food that Nina had hidden, Charles understands the sabotage and is angry, and he goes away to finish his painting of Germaine. 
At the competition, Charles didn't invite Nina because he's not at all happy of what he did, he doesn't like it and openly complains to Germaine, when suddenly he finds out that he won another competition, for watercolors and drawings! Nina secretly submitted his last drawing of her with a loaf of fresh bread and it won all the prizes :-) 
The credits read 'Charles', but I thought they all said Chazz.

Henry and the psychopathic horse-1955

Henry (Niven) is a city man, a psychiatrist, who met his fiancée Claire (Barbara Lawrence) while she was there to attend med school. They got engaged but she hasn’t had the courage to tell her father. She loves her father and will do anything he wants, so Henry has to prove himself to him. 

The man has a ranch and only speaks about horses. Their neighbor Cal wants to marry Claire too, and proposes a challenge. Whoever will be able to ride Sundance, a wild black horse, will marry her. 

Honestly Claire is pretty yes, but also very very annoying. She told Cal she doesn’t want to marry him, now she tells Henry that by accepting that challenge he basically gave her away since he can’t win; she tells him not to ride that horse or he’ll get hurt; tells him that if he doesn’t try it means he thinks that she’s not worth it… very pretty indeed but I couldn’t stand her.

Anyway, Henry starts talking to Sundance every day like a patient, brings him food, calms him down… when finally Cal comes to try, Sundance throws him down. Next morning, while shaving, Henry hears Sundance quite loudly: looking out the window he sees Cal hurting the horse in punishment, promising to break him :’( so Henry runs out, stops him and they fight. When Henry is down, Sundance hits Cal :-)

Claire’s father is rather impressed by what he thinks Henry did, and wants Cal out of his property once he learns that he mistreated the horse, but even if he’s out of the way Henry says that he wants to ride Sundance. Half-shaved, in a pois-dressing-gown, he rolls up his sleeves and approaches the horse :-p

They’re friends now, so Sundance lets him… and father and daughter can’t believe their eyes.

At the end, Henry chases Claire for all she put him through. 

The collar

Interesting. It’s about religion and conscience. Capt. Webber is giving order to kill an entire village of Indian people, the blackfoot, when a man comes in asking to talk to him. He says he’s an Anglican minister, name’s Wyeth (Niven), and he was their prisoner for two years, and is now come to ask that they be spared. They don’t understand him, so he tells them his story.

He was an arrogant priest (with no mustache) who knew more about practical things than about God; quite normal as we all know but here his bishop is a true religious man who sends him far away because he says that mission work will help him find himself and his spirituality. The journey itself was very tiring and wearying; at last he collapsed, he had no more food or water, and was found by the blackfoot tribe. Their chief had a bad history with white men : a priest once laughed watching him being  whipped by the soldiers; he was beaten up, chained, showed around like a beast with a collar around his neck, while people went to see him, to laugh and throw stones at him. Finally he was sent to a school where they tried to teach him to be like them but he ran away. Now he hates white men, and takes it out on him. Wyeth tries to tell him that there are good people, but his history with them tells him otherwise. Wyeth is made to wear the same collar the chief brought back with him, and he was whipped, and tortured with thirst. The second year he was put to work as a slave, and then freed of the chains. He lived among them until that same day, when the chief told him that they were to be massacred in the morning, and there was nothing he could do, but his punishment had ended, and now he was like a brother, and there was no need for him to die with them. The chief let him go to his own people, towards safety. 

The captain tells him that he’s free now, he’ll be taken home, but he says no, he says that they are his people now, that they helped him to find something in him that he had never found before. He doesn’t hate them, he understood and he saw the hunger in them too, and now asks for their lives to be spared. 

The captain replies that he’s a soldier and must refuse his plea. Wyeth chooses to go back to die with them, otherwise everything that he’s been teaching them will have been in vain.  

As a last prayer, Wyeth tells the captain that he’ll have the children and the women ride in front of the others, so that maybe he might spare them at least. After he’s gone, the captain orders his lieutenant  to let the women and children ride away, although the men will have to die. 

Madeira Madeira

Jacques (Charles Boyer) goes to Madeira to find out what happened to an old friend, William, who wrote in one of his letters that his wife “would be the death of me” and shortly after that the papers reported his death. He goes to meet the widow, to see if it might be possible that she killed him. She (Angela Lansbury) is immediately happy to meet him, offers him even begs him to stay there for some time in her husband’s studio, and instantly proposes that he starts writing there. Jacques is a writer who never had anything published, not for lack of talent but for lack of trying. She has a typewriter sent to him and encourages him to write 1000 words every day. She sends his work out without asking him, and since he’s in some trouble financially, she proposes that they get married, because she has enough money for the both of them, and without troubles he could even write 2500 words a day! Jacques agrees, it seems he can’t say no to her, but is not excited at all about it. Shortly before the wedding, William (Niven) appears in his studio, alive and well. He pretended to be dead to escape, because his wife’s lust for success was driving him crazy. Still, he doesn’t want him anyone else to know that he’s alive, he only came to ‘save’ his old friend, so Jacques does exactly what William did, he tells her that he’ll “just go for a little swim” and then disappear…

Full circle-1955
I didn't like this, it was very plain and I didn't like the girl or the ending. It starts with Maxwell (Niven) watching a terrible play and then going home to write his review. He's a critic, and rightly destroys it, but actress Terry (Joanne Woodward) takes it very badly, saying that they rehearsed and rewrote everything again and again and then he destroyed their careers just like that! She wants revenge and that night she goes to his home with a little gun in her hand. He's not at all frightened for himself, he only looks annoyed, and doesn't believe her when she threatens to kill herself in his apartment. She calms down but asks to stick around a while while he goes back to sleep. In the morning she's still there, making him breakfast. He tells her that he has a good technique as an actress, but she's not convincing, and that she should live a little, get to know real people, before she can act convincingly. They start seeing each other from time to time, until after only a few weeks she asks him to coach her for a new play. She reads her lines in front of him, but he tells her again that she's not convincing, that she doesn't seem really in love, and she tells him that she is, that she loves him, and he looks at her and believes her. During a party with their friends, to celebrate their engagement, she makes a big speech about how much she wanted revenge, how he wrote that she was not convincing and yet she convinced him that she loved him! He's devastated. Terry doesn't feel happy about her victory though, and is surprised when he shows up at her door again. He says that she doesn't fool him, that the critic in him recognizes when she was sincere and when she wasn't, and that she can't convince him that she doesn't love him. She hugs him, says "I do love you" and it's the end... honestly, the actress was really not convincing, throughout the episode she was plain and not involving. 

Here comes the suit

It was nice :-) Philip (Niven) likes to read crime stories and hopes for a promotion in his toy firm, but is offered an assistant position instead. As a publicity stunt a man offered him a free suit for a dollar, and he took him on his word. Mr Simpson puts his guy Stanley to work on it, but when he tries it on they hide his own suit so that he’s forced to go out with that flashy, striped suit.

He thinks it’s terrible and embarrassing, but he has to walk with it on.

He’s twice mistaken for someone else and even brought in by the police. They think him a gangster and order him to “just talk!”, so he spends the night talking and confessing and explaining, making it all up from the stories that he read. A lie detector finally reveals that they are all lies, and the whole thing is cleared up. Still, he comes out a different man, more confident and resourceful. At a firm meeting, a colleague who stole his latest idea makes fun of his suit, which is his first false step because the boss likes it. Philip explains his new, much better idea and is offered the vice president position, then he kisses the boss secretary and walks out. 

One way out

Diana (Ida Lupino) is a rich woman who is about to leave her husband. King (Scott Forbes) only married her for her money, and now they loathe each other, to put it in his own words. She leaves California and goes to New York, where her friend Connie has found an apartment for her. A very nice one, in a new building, completely empty so she’ll be alone.

The place is so nice that Connie says she would have taken it herself, if only she could afford it, and only Diana could not read envy in such a remark.

Finally Diana settles in with her bags, and is trying to rest when the phone rings, but nobody answers. She tries to call, but it doesn’t work. The piano doesn’t work either. She decides to go out but the door is locked. Frightened, she checks the whole apartment. All the drawers are empty, the living-room windows are totally boarded up, there is no light, only the fridge is full of food. Looking around she finds a suitcase “for her enjoyment”; it contains a phonograph with a record. She plays it and a male voice says that she is completely locked in, and that some of the food might be poisoned but it won’t matter when she will get hungry, but there is one way out if she can find the right key. She frenetically searches for it: the clue is obvious: look up; she sees that there is a key up high but can’t use any chair or table because they’re bolted to the floor. She uses her suitcases and reaches it, but doesn’t know what it opens. She searches the place again for a hidden door and finds one, only to discover that it leads to a small closet with only a noose inside. The sick joke is that her only way out is to hang herself. She screams. 

Next thing we see, but we don’t know how long has it been, is King entering the apartment and calling her. She seems oblivious of his presence, and acts as if she’s still in California and must prepare her bags. Connie comes in too, they planned it together to drive her crazy, put her in an asylum and have all her money for themselves. 

Diana doesn’t respond to their presence, doesn’t seem to notice either of them. Connie wonders if she might be pretending, but King is sure that she’s gone crazy, and starts searching for the record, but can’t find it. While both King and Connie are in the kitchen looking for it, Diana slips out the door and locks it behind her, leaving the building and the two of them screaming inside the apartment. 

Wow, the vengeful ending… still, I’m a bit sorry that it wasn’t better explained at the end: how long has it been? Is she really crazy, or was she simply pretending? The way she locks them in seems very deliberate, so she wanted to do it, but will she be alright now?

Tunnel of fear

Sir George is a millionaire philanthropist. Larkin (Niven) is a man who spent twenty years in prison for the diamonds that "his friend George" stole many years ago. George is now an invalid. Larkin approaches him on the train, threatens to kill him as soon as the train reaches the tunnel, unless he signs a confession and gives him lots of money. George signs, but then says that his signature means nothing without witnesses, and that he's a fool and a coward who never really intended to kill him. Larkin is angry, tells him that he will, pulls a knife out of his jacket. The train enters and exits the tunnel... Larkin didn't do it, admits that he couldn't kill in cold blood, that he lost but somehow he's not even angry anymore... George doesn't reply and Larkin calls his doctor. George died of a heart attack. Larkin learns that George left him good money in his will, but on one condition, that he'd be far away at the moment of his death... at which point the doctor asks for his name... and the episode ends...

Safe keeping

Rather a plain one, not very interesting. It's set in a foreign country, not specified, so that they can brag about  how civilized and respectful of human rights England is without offending anyone :-/

yeah, right. 

Frank (Niven) is a journalist, and with his photographer he meets a chancellor who asks him a big favour. The man knows that he'll be arrested for treason, and also knows that he won't be able to resist if they torture him, so he wants Frank to smuggle a letter out of the Country, a letter in which he says that anything he may have confessed was only due to torture, that he is no traitor. Frank has his partner take a picture of the letter, so that they might double their chances of succeeding. The photographer uses a very small camera, pretty much like the one used in Roman Holiday, and we're supposed to believe that the picture will be perfectly readable.. anyway, that's not the problem. The episode is very slow; the photographer is taken very soon, and we learn nothing more about it for sure, only at the end Frank  'is told' that he's alright..

Frank himself seems to be in constant danger, although you don't really feel the danger. A former lover, Krista, goes to him in search of the letter. He knows about her job, but she tells him that she wants him safe. He hides the letter in his typewriter and nobody finds it :-/ later some man bring him the chancellor himself, who tells him that they didn't torture him, he came to realize his betrayal by himself, and is ashamed of it and sorry for putting him in a difficult position he asks him to give him back the letter. At last Frank accepts, and gives it back. Before saying goodbye, the chancellor's last words are about him painting a good 'picture' of him, and follow his will to the 'letter'.. so Frank understands that he confessed only to avoid torture but he really wishes for him to make his letter knows, thru the photo that they took. Krista now has it, because he had hidden it in his handkerchief that she took as a memento. When they say goodbye and he's about to leave, he takes the handkerchief back, but it's empty. She has it, and she hands it to him. She kept it safe for him. They say goodbye and he leaves. 

Touch and go-1956

Ted (Niven) goes to Walter Pomeroy  to ask him 10.000$ to start a new job that could mean a lot to him. They’ve known each other for years but are not friends; Walter laughs in his face and makes fun of him so Ted punches him once. Walter falls down and hits his head. Ted calls him and shakes him but he won’t get up, so Ted thinks he killed him and panics.

He’s about to leave the room when he notices that there was a woman on the phone who heard their whole conversation. He thinks he must find her and explain everything to her, that it was an accident, but doesn’t know his name. It’s a long search but with a lot of persistence and a bit of luck he manages to find her. He sees a cop talking to her, and then she takes the morning newspaper. He thinks he must do something before she reads what happened to Walter, and follows her. He sort of lures her into a dark street and when he sees a policeman he tries to cover her mouth with his hand so that he won’t hear them, and then he kisses her because in the movies that’s the perfect way to shut a woman’s mouth… luckily for Mr Charming she’s not angry about it at all, quite the contrary; he tells her very openly that he had intended to kill her, but came to his senses and couldn’t do it, and could never do her any harm, and when she asks why, asks him to tell her what has been troubling him all along, what has he done to Walter, he finally tells her everything. She listens to him very calmly and then reads to him what the newspaper says: Walter is not dead, he only has a concussion and has not named the man that was with him. Ted is extremely relieved of course. “I’d better go now” - “no” - “after what happened?” -  “nothing that a cup of coffee won’t cure” and they walk away together like a couple….

Second chance-1956

Quite plain really. A writer hasn’t had much success lately, until he stumbles on a good story. He writes a new script that could become a Hollywood picture, but is trouble when the lead part is offered to his young fiancée. Lee (Niven) keeps saying that Holly (Beverly Garland) although talented, must start low and learn the acting craft before she can play a big part and become a start. When he refuses to sign the contract after knowing that she’d be in it, she gets furious with him and leaves him. She says she’ll marry another guy who is in love with her and star in his movies and become a star. Shortly after that, he comes home to find her there. He’s very surprised, and she says that she felt lonely and thought about it and understood what he was giving up for her and how much he loved her and came back to him, telling him that he could do his movie without her and it’d be okay. He tells her that he’s been thinking too and maybe she was right and he was afraid that a beginner might ruin his big comeback. At the end, they agree to get married first and worry about their careers later..