Alan David Movies

A couple with a broken relationship learns some valuable lessons about love, life, and sacrifice in this romantic drama based on a novel by W. Somerset Maugham. It's 1925, and Dr. Walter Fane (Edward Norton) is a physician and bacteriologist who has become smitten with Kitty (Naomi Watts), the beautiful daughter of a wealthy and socially prominent family. Walter proposes marriage to Kitty and she accepts; however, while he clearly loves her, Kitty is more interested in her reputation than Walter's feelings, as she's recently turned 25, an age by which most of her peers have already wed. Kitty and Walter move to Shanghai, where he sets up a practice and she takes a lover, the British Vice Consul Charles Townsend (Liev Schreiber). When Walter learns of his wife's infidelity, he becomes furious, and impulsively volunteers to travel to China to work in a village stricken with a major cholera epidemic. While Walter's actions are meant to punish Kitty rather than reflect his own benevolence, the daily trials of living in a community in crisis have a striking impact on the couple, giving them a new and deeper perspective on their relationship. The Painted Veil is the third screen adaptation of Maugham's best-selling novel of the same name; a 1934 version starred Greta Garbo and Herbert Marshall, while Eleanor Parker and Bill Travers played the leads in a 1957 remake titled The Seventh Sin. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The 10-episode opening season of Ghost Hunters finds the members of TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society), captained by a pair of level-headed professional plumbers named Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson), hunted down evidence of paranormal activity throughout New England. In the first episode, TAPs technical manager Brian Harnois alerts the team to possible poltergiest activity in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Hawes, Wilson et. al. remain in the same town for the next episode, in which they look into a reported haunting at the historic Mishler Theater and the sighting of a restless spirit at the Altoona Railroaders Memorial Musuem. Then it's off to New London, Connecticut, in hopes of finding out if the Lighthouse Inn is being haunted by one of those ghostly brides so common to paranormal mythology. Long Island Sound is the next stop, where at the request of the US Coast Guard the team looks into some curious luminescent activity at the Race Rock Lighthouse. Subsequent stopovers include Eastern State Penitentiary, an abandoned prison with a "bad" reputation, which is thoroughly scoured for evidence of spectral ex-convicts. Equally eerie is a deconsectrated 19th century New England church, where doors open and close mysteriously and strange noises are heard in the night. The team later sets up their camera equipment in hopes of catching a ghost "in the act" in New Bedford, Massachussetts Armory--with shocking results. Then, the team must determine in the "disturbances" in a college dorm are paranormal activity or merely the result of too much beer-guzzling. Also, TAPS joins forces with Mike Sinclair, founder of ORION paranormal, for a probe of the New Boston Inn in the Berkshires. And wrapping up the first season, the team looks into two different cases in a single episde: A report from a "sensitive" who claims to have been accosted by a demonic spirit, and the possibility that a family's home is still inhabited by the ghost of the man who built it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The British children's series Chris Cross chronicled the comically anarchistic pranks of two troublesome schoolboys. Chris Hilton (Simon Fenton) and Oliver Cross (Eugene Byrd) were students at Stansfield Academy, a tradition-bound private school. Forever seeking out methods of undermining authority and wreaking havoc, Chris and Cross hatched all manner of schemes, from staging elaborate "escapes" for themselves and their classmates to clandestinely recording their own rock songs. Needless to say, the series was extremely popular with youngsters, far less so with grownups. Created by D.J. McHale and originally telecast on ITV from 1994 to 1995, the 13 25-minute Chris Cross episodes were later seen in America over the Showtime cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Miraculously, the Gasforth soccer team makes it all the way to the semifinals. As a result, Inspector Raymond Fowler trains his staff to prepare for riots in the street. Neither the team nor Fowler could have picked a worse time for their individual "projects"; Mayoress Wickerham has launched a campaign to attract foreign investors to the community. "Come On You Blues" was first telecast on December 12, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Created by Harry Robertson and Brian Degas, the British series Virtual Murder took an intellectual approach to the standard cops-and-robbers business. The main character was criminal psychologist Dr. John Cornelius (Nicholas Clay), who relied upon brain rather than brawn and educated guesses rather than cold hard facts to solve all sorts of baffling murders. Also appearing was Kim Thomson as Cornelius' trusty aide, Samantha Valentine. The six 50-minute episodes of Virtual Murder were telecast from July 24 to August 28, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bassanio (John Nettles), a young man of Venice, falls hopelessly in love with fair Portia (Gemma Jones), a wealthy heiress. But his pocket lacks the jingle to woo her. So Bassanio obtains a loan from the Jewish moneylender Shylock (Warren Mitchell), and his friend Antonio(John Franklyn-Robbins) agrees to repay it in three months. However, if Antonio fails to meet the deadline, Shylock says, Antonio must forfeit a pound of his flesh -- certain death -- as payment. In his heart, Shylock hopes Antonio will default so that he can carve up one of the Christians who mock and humiliate him simply because he is Jewish. Meanwhile, Portia entertains distinguished suitors from around the world. Although she loves Bassanio, her late father made her promise to marry only the suitor who passes a strange test: He must choose from among three caskets -- one gold, one silver, and one lead. If the chosen casket contains a picture of Portia, the suitor wins her hand in marriage. After princes from Morocco and Arragon select the wrong caskets, Bassanio chooses the right one. In the meantime, Shylock's daughter Jessica (Leslee Udwin) elopes with a Christian, Bassanio's friend Lorenzo (Richard Morant), and helps herself to her father's jewels and gold before leaving. When Antonio suffers a financial reversal and fails to repay the loan, Shylock demands the pound of flesh. A trial before the Duke of Venice ensues, in which Portia, disguised as a male advocate, addresses the court, telling Shylock he is entitled to his pound of flesh according to the loan agreement. Shylock, praising her for her ruling, prepares to cut into Antonio's chest. But Portia warns him that he must take only flesh, but no blood, for the contract says nothing of blood. Shylock drops his knife, realizing he has been defeated. As punishment for conspiring to kill Antonio, Shylock must forfeit property and become a Christian. As he leaves the court, a broken man, the other principals celebrate and live happily ever after. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide