Escape from Alcatraz (1979)

Escape from Alcatraz is a 1979 American thriller directed by Don Siegel and starred Clint Eastwood. It dramatizes the only possible successful escape attempt on Alcatraz Island. The film co-stars Fred Ward, and also features Patrick McGoohan as the suspicious, vindictive warden, and features the film debut of Danny Glover.

Frank Morris is sent to the prison on Alcatraz. There, he meets his old friends, brothers John and Clarence Anglin and also makes the acquaintance of the prisoner in the cell next to his, Charlie Butts. After a series of negative experiences involving the warden of Alcatraz, Morris decides to escape and persuades the other three men to join him.

The inmates dig through the walls of their cells with spoons, make Papier-machier dummies to act as decoys, and construct a raft out of raincoats. On the night of their escape, Butts gets frightened and does not go with the others. Morris and the Anglin brothers make it out of the prison and paddle their raft towards the mainland, never to be seen again. Still, there is some hint at the end of the film that they made it to shore.

Screenwriter Richard Tuggle spent six months researching and writing a screenplay based on the 1963 non-fiction account by J. Campbell Bruce. He went to the Writers Guild and received a list of literary agents who would accept unsolicited manuscripts. He submitted a copy to each, and also to anybody else in the business that he could cajole into reading it. Everyone rejected it, saying it had poor dialogue and characters, lacked a love interest, and that the public was not interested in prison stories. Tuggle decided to bypass producers and executives and deal directly with filmmakers. He called the agent for director Don Siegel and lied, saying he had met Siegel at a party and the director had expressed interest in reading his script. The agent forwarded the script to Siegel, who read it, liked it, and passed it on to Clint Eastwood.

Eastwood was drawn to the role as ringleader Frank Morris and agreed to star, providing Siegel direct under the Malpaso banner. However, Siegel insisted that it be a Don Siegel film and out-maneuvered Clint by purchasing the rights to the film for $100,000. This created a rift between the two friends. Although Siegel eventually agreed for it to be a Malpaso-Siegel production, Siegel went to Paramount Pictures, a rival studio and never directed an Eastwood picture again.

The Moomins - Part One

The Moomins (Polish: Opowiadania Muminków, German: Die Mumins) is a animated childrens' television series based on the Tove Jansson's Moomin series of books which was originally produced by Se-Ma-Fo and Jupiter Film between the years 1977–1982, originally for Polish, Austrian and German television. The series was later on sold to other countries including the UK. The British version was adapted by Anne Wood at Film Fair and first broadcast in the UK in 1983 on CITV and was repeated until 1989, and was narrated by British actor Richard Murdoch.

This series was often referred to as the Fuzzy Felt Moomins, due to the appearance of the characters. It was the third series to be made based on the Moomin books, with two more made since then. Nonetheless, it is one of the two best known Moomin series, along with Moomin (1990). This version has at times been criticised for being scary in places and rather dark in tone for the young audience at which it was aimed. It is, in contrast to the 1990s series, widely believed to be by far the most faithful TV adaptation of Tove Jansson's stories, and much closer to her vision.

The scripts for each episode were translated from Polish into Finnish and sent to Tove and Lars Jansson, who, if they felt that anything needed to be changed, would correct the script, expand or rewrite its parts; afterwards, the scripts were sent back and only then would production of the particular episode begin.

Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) - Episode Seven: Murder Ain't What it Used To Be

Murder Ain't What it Used to Be is the seventh episode of the classic 1969 Series, Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) starring Mike Pratt, Kenneth Cope and Annette Andre. The episode was first broadcast on 2 November 1969 on ITV. The episode was Directed by Jeremy Summers.

Crime boss Paul Kirstner flies over to England from New York to attend to "business" in London. Behind most of the rackets in Chicago, he hires Jeff to protect his daughter from any of his enemies whilst in London. However, Kirstner is being haunted by the white suited Bugsy "Smiler" Spanio (closely modelled on Al Capone), a man he double-crossed and murdered after they stole a million dollars worth of alcohol before they ended prohibition.

Knowing that Jeff is being hired by Kirstner, Bugsy contacts Marty and begins to terrorise Jeannie unless Jeff kills Kirstner for him. His trademark cigar, white hat and raucous laughter is stereotypical of a Chicago gangster of the 1920s, and he appears in the mirror several times to taunt Jeannie as she is taking care of her appearance.

With Jeff constantly stalling, Bugsy changes his tactics and asks Jeff to dial a number on the telephone and tell the person on the other end that if there are any messages for Kirstner then he's with his daughter. Unbeknownst to Jeff, the man on the other end of the line is Jack Lacey, a rival criminal who also wants Kirstner dead. Lacey and his henchmen arrive at Kirstner's retreat, and they force entry and wait for Paul Kirstner to return at night fall. Shortly before he arrives, Jeff encourages Marty to make Bugsy mad by hitting him and throwing objects at him, so that Bugsy's attack on the property will distract Lacey and his armed henchman. After he does so, Kirstner arrives and gains the upper hand of the surprised enemies and leads them both outside in the dark to be murdered, planting a gun on Lacey and telling him he'll claim to the police it was self-defence. However, Kirstner is distracted by the ghost Bugsy, that only he can see and he finally gets his revenge on Kirstner by allowing Lacey to kill him.