flashback42

...Back to Round 13... *Return of the Killer Tomatoes!*

Think Ethan. Think Joel.

*Scaramouche* -- Henry Gordon, uncredited, in a support role in the 1952 film in which his character's name was the title.

WAG: *The King of Comedy* ??

Hmmm. Clues lead one to guess it's 1958's *The Reluctant Debutante*, but I'm not resourceful enough to track down the quote itself. ??

...a final conversation -- on the telephone... "Hello?" "_____?" "Yes." "Hi. Len S_____." "Dr. S______?" "Listen. Could you come in to discuss these X-ray results?"...Hello?" "Yes?" "Listen, could you come in to discuss these X-ray results? Remember the X-rays we took?" "We can't discuss them on the phone?" "I think we'd be more comfortable in person." "...When?" "Now. Now is good. I've cleared some time now." This exchange ends a grim comedy in which this character has not received good news on any aspect of his life whatsoever. What seems to be following seems to be more of the same.

*The Princess Bride* Military person AWOL

*Wednesday's Child* *The Great Scout and Cathouse Thursday*

*Any Given Sunday* *Sunday, Bloody Sunday* *Friday After Next* *Stormy Monday* *Any Wednesday*

Organa, Princess Leia -- Carrie Fisher in *Star Wars* (1977)

*266* "The doctor's confirmed it. Little Ricky is lacking the Babalu gene."

*Doctor, You've Got to be Kidding!* (Rejected this one earlier, because Maltin doesn't have the punctuation. Turns out IMDb does have it.)

...rather thin pickings here, I'm afraid... *Oklahoma!*

jakeem, you've covered most of it. The plot was actually born in Hammett's 1929 novel Red Harvest, in which the hero/narrator was "the Continental Op", i.e, the Operative for the Continental Detective Agency. -- the original "man with no name". He came in from the outside and settled hash with rival gangs of bootleggers. Next came the novel The Glass Key, which was filmed twice. George Raft was the star in the 1935 version, and Alan Ladd did the 1942 remake. In these two films, and also in 1990's *Miller's Crossing*, the star figure started out as a member of one of the gangs, and a pal of the leader. In all three, they were friends again after everything was settled. Director Akira Kurasawa named the 1942 version of *The Glass Key* as the source for *Yojimbo*, which set the story in Feudal Japan as a Samurai epic. That was remade as *A Fistful of Dollars* (enter Eastwood), in which the whisky runners and the gun smugglers struggled over the domination of a town. These two used the device about getting away from trouble by hiding in a coffin. Then Bruce Willis got between Prohibition-era rival bootleg gangs in a Tex-Mex border town in *Last Man Standing*. These last three titles all used the subplot about a captive woman, freed by the hero. jakeem's thread.

Correct, Dothery. And the thread is back to you.

Another shared plot point: The hero suffers but survives a terrible beating by one of the gangs. Spends a time recovering, gets revenge. Another: One gang gets the upper hand, destroys the other. Fire, explosives, automatic weapons are used, depending on the setting. An American writer-novelist-scriptwriter with a background in detective work was behind this plot that was adapted so many times. One of these movies was remade, and the plot was first used in a novel that was never adapted for the screen.

The doctor and her patient in this scene -- Well-known and well-respected actresses, both with a sibling in the Biz. Color. Mid-1980s.

*Dude, Where's My Car?* *Is Anybody There?* *Who Framed Roger Rabbit?* *Who'll Stop the Rain?* *When Will I Be Loved?* *When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?* *Where Are The Children?*

A series of camera shots during continuing dialogue show that several people in the apartment building are listening to the same TV newscast while a Police Dept Profiler describes what conclusions were reached about the serial killer. Summing up, he remarks that the killer blends in well with the society around him, and "it could be somebody near you, could be someone you know." Another series of shots show the residents all looking upward, toward the flat where their new neighbor has moved in.

(23,098) The different versions of this story have some plot-point variations. In some the man-in-the-middle is a former member of one of the gangs. In others he is an outsider who came in and stirred things up by playing them against other. In some of them, there is a woman held captive by one of the gangs, and her husband and son are in danger. More than once, there was an escape from danger by means of being carried out in a coffin.

Okay... *Who Slew Auntie Roo?* *Who's That Knocking at My Door?* *Who's That Girl?* ...goodnight...

In a plot that has been used in a variety of settings, one constant element: A central character is caught between two violent gangs, and must outsmart both sides in order to survive.

Thanks. Longer conversation here, but I tried to find something that can't be Googled. "You want to talk about the baby, don't you." "Would you like to talk about it?" "I never saw any baby. I think they made it up." "Why should they?" "I don't know." "Do you remember the night they said it came?" "No. I was sick." "How were you sick?" "Something I ate." "Did it hurt?" "Yes." "Where?" "Down...there." "And what did you do?" "I went to my room." "And what happened?" "I got sicker." "And then what?" "I fell asleep." "In the middle of all the pain?...Where did the baby come from?" "What baby?" "The baby they made up" "...From their heads." "Is that where they say it came from?" "No, they say it came from the waste paper basket." "Where did it come from before that?" "From God." "After God...And before the waste-paper basket." "I don't understand." "_____, how are babies born?" "Don't you know?" "Yes I do, but I want you to..." "I don't understand what you're talking about! You want to talk about the baby...but I never saw the baby, so I can't talk about the baby because...I don't believe in the baby." Film? Characters? Performers?

The fugitive is forced to kill a couple of people in course of maintaining his cover. The police assume that a random-selection serial killer is on the loose.

*A Tree Grows In Brooklyn* Plain girl gets a makeover and a hair touchup from a friend; becomes a beauty.