I don't want to bore you all so please take a look at my thoughts on some pretty cool films! I watched ~91 movies this year and beginning January 1 I decided to keep a list and write a review if I felt inspired or didn't write one if I was too high or lazy. The list is a combination of movies that came out in 2020, movies I had never seen before, and some movies that needed a rewatch.
I am by no means a professional critic but only an incredibly passionate fan that likes to think I have a good eye! Comment if you agree, comment if you disagree, just comment so I have something new to think about some of the films.
As a quick note, this post is essentially a rip-off of a post done by u/BunyipPouch that can be referenced here: https://www.reddit.com/movies/comments/eh71gy/i_saw_192_movies_in_theaters_in_2019_here_is_my/ . I really like the way this person outlined their list so I'm pulling a Quentin Tarantino and stealing their idea! Without further ado:
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Arrival - 10/10 Confirmed my favorite movie of all time. Watching for what might be the 7th time made me realize the strength of a feeling that movies can give you. Having a favorite movie doesn’t mean it is the best movie, but the feeling you get when watching your favorite movie has you wanting to chase that feeling in every movie you see. Certain aspects are unexplainable but all I know is there is something about this movie that gets to me every time I watch it. Maybe it’s the decision she makes to live out the life she sees in front of her even though it leads to extreme heartbreak. Maybe it’s the daring concept of alien life in what is almost such a real depiction. Maybe it’s the idea that time really is a shiftable construct that we may have the power of utilizing. Whatever it is, it leads to extreme beauty and an indescribable feeling.
Parasite - 10
Spotlight - 9.4 A near perfect 10/10. This isn’t a typical movie that should be judged by the acting or camera work, but by the ability to progress and tell a sick and twisted story. The layers are peeled back with each scene, revealing a new horrific aspect about the size of the case, the attempt to cover it up, and the sickness of the individuals involved. The scope of the story can cause an emotional reaction at multiple points and makes you see the pain that the victims have gone through without leaning too much on showing this actual pain.
2001: A Space Odyssey - 9.4
1917 - 9.3
Gone With the Wind - 9.3
Waves - 9.2 There are so many interesting aspects of this film that make it unique and almost fantastic. Firstly, it is almost equally an experience of sound as it is of color and visual (hence ending on Alabama shakes’ Sound and Color). The soundtrack uses modern rap and R&B hits in an effective way and not in the way of trying to impress the audience with good music. Secondly, the emotional scenes are so genuine and the directing style is not aggressive so you can feel the emotion with the characters. The moment of Emily seeing her bf hug her dying father, causing her to walk away bursting into tears and trying to find the words to say to her parents over text, is beyond heartbreaking and done so well. The demise of her brother is depressing and felt exaggerated but goes to show that life can take crazy turns. Loved it.
Soul - 9.2 Such a beautiful film that I did not expect to move me the way it did. The film tackles incredibly deep and metaphysical questions with such ease that it makes the directing and everything about the movie feel even more genius. At times it struggles between being a movie for kids and trying to answer life's toughest questions, but overall tells a beautiful story of just living to live.
Sound of Metal - 9.2
The Lighthouse - 9.2 Oh my god. I don’t really know what to say but this movie made me feel things and that feeling is hard to find. I don’t want to rate it.
The Social Network - 9.2
Pain and Glory - 9.1
Dear Zachary - 9 Never cried more in a movie as this is what the heaviest loss looks like. The sheer passion and commitment that Kate and David have toward honoring their son and being good people is astounding and incomprehensible at times. I’ve never hated someone so much in my life before and felt so strongly about the need to live and do good. It is easy to be broken after something like this happens to you but the awe-inspiring love and devotion that these people have for this family is one of a kind. Please watch this if you need to cry.
The Tree of Life - 9
Ferris Beuller’s Day Off - 9
Midsommar - 9 I don’t even really know what I watched but I know it was genius.
Gladiator - 8.8
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - 8.8
Steve Jobs - 8.7 Shot in 3 unique stories, this movie is able to give you the spirit of Steve Jobs without needing to explain historical information like many biopics would. Faasbender is spectacular and creates the essence of Steve Jobs perfectly as someone who is utterly devoted to better the human race no matter the cost it brings to those around him. The editing is impressive with so many quick cuts and blending the shots to feel like a singular story. You walk away impressed with the legacy jobs left behind, the heartbreak of him not being around to further the human race, and the harsh reality that he was not a flawless human.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - 8.7 This film is really in a category of its own, not because it’s the greatest movie ever made, but because of how unique each of the elements are. Fincher takes his signature style of directing and combines it with a Tree of Life storytelling narrative and a Steven Spielberg/James Cameron style of creating a classic feel good drama. Overall, it’s core is designed to make you accept life for what it is, even if this is particularly a positive spin on life and its consequences.
The Grand Budapest Hotel - 8.7
Frances Ha - 8.5 It is such a realistic depiction of struggling New Yorkers without the emotional breakdown. You never really see her lose her shit even when she seems to be going crazy. I hated in the moment the separation of Greta and her best friend because of the somewhat abrupt change in Sophie’s character, but they have a nice full circle reunion. The performances are fantastic and the film has a certain air to it as if Baumbach wants you to realize that what you are watching is not real life while trying to make it seem as real as possible. Definitely a unique film that has minor flaws but overall shows a meaningful journey of a New Yorker trying to find their way.
Almost Famous - 8.5
Bridge of Spies - 8.5 Steven Spielberg has centered his masterful directing skills into telling real life stories without the need for too much artistic involvement. Movies like Vox Lux and The Lighthouse capture you with artistic involvement, but Spielberg has learned how to capture you with immaculate storytelling of historical events. If you are ever interested in learning something new, Spielberg will not disappoint.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - 8.5
The Other Guys - 8.5
Drive - 8.5
Munich - 8.4 This is an action film that takes away the historical cliches of action films and adds a layer of raw truthfulness. Spielberg uses his gift to inform people of a momentous story that affected Israel and the Jewish people without adding any propraganda-like elements to make you pity them or be completely one sided. The story is horrifically true, and Spielberg does not hold back on any of the details. The acting is solid and provides an emotional look into the consequences that come with facing terrorists both for a nation and for an individual.
Ad Astra - 8.4
Okja - 8.4 So goddamn high please don't hurt the animals.
Wedding Crashers - 8.4 You sandbagging son of a bitch
Blade Runner - 8.3
Crash - 8.3 Incredibly powerful and socially relevant, this movie was necessary during these times to artfully show the systematic racism engrained in society. The acting performances are stellar, particularly Thandie Newton, and Haggis’ directing is perfect to convey the raw emotion in each scene.
Spirited Away - 8.3
Blade Runner 2049 - 8.3
Kill Bill Vol. 1 - 8.3
Enemy - 8.2 Such an interesting and gripping movie that didn’t seem to make a lot of sense but I imagine a second watching would provide more insight. Gyllenhal is truly something else and should be treasured. Villanueva is so good at creating his own world and creating such a uniquely shot film with moods and coloring.
Good Time - 8.2
Snowpiercer - 8.2
The Town - 8.2
5 to 7 - 8.1 Luckily I was in the mood for a rom com but this had its own unique air to it as of course there were cheesy parts, but they were not delivered in a cheesy way. Once over the fact that someone essentially like me could find themselves in this sort of relationship, I could actually begin to root for them and understand how something like this could work. There are some amazing lines that I should go back and write down for when I want to pursue someone, and the holistic narrative of the film is done very well. There is nothing special from a directing standpoint, but his simple approach at least allows the story to progress without any complications from a camera perspective.
Oceans 11 - 8.1 The heist movie of all heist movies. You show me a young Brad Pitt and George Clooney and I’m not sure there’s a way to fuck that up. There are obviously cliche moments and the impossibility of actually pulling this off is sometimes too ridiculous (they throw glow sticks into a hidden elevator shaft to a vault), but overall wonderful to watch.
Jojo Rabbit - 8.1
Philadelphia - 8 Led by the incredible acting of Hanks followed by the emotionally gripping plotline, Philadelphia is able to tell the story of not just one gay man’s plight with aids and the repercussions socially and physically, but of an entire minority’s struggle with acceptance. The directing is very understated in a way that pays off considering the story development should be at the forefront of the film. Incredibly heart-wrenching and is clearly an important film to giving a voice to gay Americans.
Uncut Gems - 8 The Safdie brothers have a particular way of filming/directing that creates an environment of entertaining stress that is able to grip your attention for the whole film. I love the connection between the opal gem and Howard as the movie begins and ends with that connection through his body. Sandler was absolutely snubbed and perfectly portrays what it’s like to be an addict and constantly on the run.
Molly's Game - 8
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - 8
Jaws - 8
Love Actually - 8
Cruel Intentions - 7.9 A glorified soft-core porn featuring a young Reese Witherspoon? Yea, you could say I liked it.
Knives Out - 7.8 An all star cast and provides enough mystery to keep the plot moving seamlessly. It’s a very interesting film for a murder mystery as they reveal what would typically be the biggest piece of info quite early in the movie, but there are more layers that need to be peeled back. The reveal is very clever and was not too outlandish, but I think they could’ve done more to make it even more shocking. Aside from that it’s a fun film and is worth the watch.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes - 7.8 In what was a surprisingly enjoyable movie, planet of the apes takes an Avatar approach and gets you to root against the humans. The montage of the ape growing up is done concisely but effectively and allows you to connect with him while remaining entertained. There are obviously some cheesy aspects and not a lot of character development outside of the ape, but I left feeling like I could watch a sequel.
Tenet - 7.8 I love Nolan but I struggled at times to keep up even with my eyes glued to the screen.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - 7.8
Booksmart - 7.7 In what can be assumed to be an ode to the Superbad films of the late 2000s, Booksmart successfully keeps you entertained primarily driven by strong performances from Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein. They have a clear chemistry that is never doubted and play the perfect duo of extroverted smart high school kids that are finally ready to rebel. There are scenes that are a bit predictable and slightly lazy in writing in order to move the story along that I’m choosing to nitpick over (dever creating a “diversion”, using the pizza guy as the free get out of jail card), but once the little things are accepted the greater story can be appreciated. The movie has the particular feel of Superbad in which you know you’re going to see some outlandish things on the journey that will lead to laughs, but will ultimately lead in a coming of age lesson in a heartwarming way.
Out of Africa - 7.6 "You’ve ruined it for me, being alone."
10 Things I Hate About You - 7.5
Zodiac - 7.5
Frozen - 7.5
The Interview - 7.5
Casino Royale - 7.5
Skyfall - 7.5
The Talented Mr. Ripley - 7.4
Tron Legacy - 7.4
Palm Springs - 7.3
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm - 7.2 The hype was too much to overcome but Cohen really did a nice job of bringing back the classic and presenting Borat in a 2020 world. It’s genius filmmaking to have someone like Borat show America what America is really like as you can look in the eyes of a racist foreigner.
Don’t Worry He Won’t Get Far On Foot - 7
Quantum of Solace - 7
The Perks of Being a Wallflower - 6.9 The cheesiness makes it shocking that it was released as late as 2012 but overall its an interesting story clearly coming from a novel with strong themes.
Loopers - 6.9 I liked having seen Loopers, but it’s not a must see movie. The ending was creative and definitely saved my overall opinion of the movie.
Have a Good Trip - 6.9 Never forget the power of psychedelics and how these icons have had crazy trips. Carrie Fisher is your new favorite.
Coachella Documentary - 6.9
The Gentleman - 6.9
Jurassic Park - 6.9
About Time - 6.9
Spider-Man Far From Home - 6.8 Probably the worst of the new Spider-Man movies but still provides great visuals with interesting hero concepts. There is definitely a lull in the middle and there are some scenes that make you appreciate Marvel, but otherwise just another solid movie from marvel.
Oceans 13 - 6.7 While entertaining and still shows you Pitt and Clooney, there are definitely more annoying aspects and less intriguing storylines.
The Social Dilemma - 6.4 Obviously a very important topic that should have more documentaries like this one, but really overplayed some of the dangers in a dramatic/theatrical sense.
Ford Vs. Ferrari - 6.2 Not gonna lie, while the story itself is enthralling and a unique part of history, the “studio” feel of this movie took away from much of my enjoyment. I feel bad that Bale and Damon had to be in such a studio made film because they both put on great performances. Bale can do anything he wants and crush it. The way they vilify certain aspects is comical and the cliches are tough to get by, but there are some great action shots of the races and powerful scenes where bale is doing the heavy lifting.
Long Shot - 6.1 Definitely some funny and witty jokes, but overall it’s mediocre. I didn’t hate it and actually enjoyed many of the aspects, but no need to say much more.
Air Force One - 6 Patriotic in the most 90s way possible, with Harrison Ford as president, evil Russian bad guys with mustaches, and an essentially all white cast, Air Force One is a hidden American propaganda film. The movie was funnier than anticipated because of the classic Harrison Ford trope of constant survival and the dramatic set ups to make the wins look even more unbelievable. Either way, hard not to love Ford as the president of the USA and almost made me proud to be an American by the end.
Meet Joe Black - 6 With a 100% white cast and overall 90s feel to the movie, it’s hard to rate this movie “fairly” as if it had just come out in 1998. But I like the idea similarly to Tree of Life in terms of looking over your life and making sure you have lived it completely without any regrets. However, acting is mediocre and I didn’t realize how much I hate the typical 90’s businessman in movies.
Andre the Giant - 5.8
Fury - 5.5 This was definitely a disappointing letdown. Expectations were definitely high going in but the horrible special effects and mediocre acting made this tough to be invested by the end.
Armageddon - 5
Back to School - 5
Cougar Hunting - 4.9

Best run in terms of anything
William Wyler: The Westerner, The Heiress, The Little Foxes, The Letter, The Best Years of Our Lives, Mrs. Miniver, Memphis Belle, and Thunderbolt.
Orson Welles: Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, The Lady from Shanghai, Macbeth, Journey into Fear, The Stranger, Black Magic, and Follow the Boys.
John Huston: The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Key Largo, We Were Strangers, In This Our Life, Across the Pacific, and Let There Be Light.
Howard Hawks: Red River, I Was a Male War Bride,A Song Is Born, To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Sergeant York, His Girl Friday, Air Force, and Ball of Fire.
Alfred Hitchcock: Notorious, Rebecca, Shadow of a Doubt, Spellbound, Rope, Suspicion, Under Capricorn, Foreign Correspondent, Saboteur, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Lifeboat, and The Paradine Case.
Preston Sturges: The Palm Beach Story, Sullivan's Travels, Unfaithfully Yours, The Great Moment, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek,I Married a Witch, Christmas in July, The Lady Eve, and The Great McGinty.
George Cukor: The Philadelphia Story, Gaslight, Adam's Rib, Susan and God, Her Cardboard Lover, Keeper of the Flame, Edward, My Son, A Double Life, I'll Be Seeing You, and Desire Me.
John Ford: The Grapes of Wrath, The Long Voyage Home, Tobacco Road, How Green Was My Valley, 3 Godfathers, December 7th: The Movie, My Darling Clementine, They Were Expendable, We Sail at Midnight, Fort Apache, Torpedo Squadron ,The Battle of Midway, How to Operate Behind Enemy Lines, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and The Fugitive.
Jacques Tourneur: Cat People, I Walked With a Zombie, Out of the Past, Canyon Passage, The Leopard Man, Phantom Raiders, Days of Glory, Easy Living, Experiment Perilous, and Berlin Express.
Vittorio De Sica: Shoeshine, Bicycle Thieves, Heart and Soul, The Children Are Watching Us, The Gates of Heaven, A Garibaldian in the Convent, Teresa Venerdì, Maddalena, Zero for Conduct, and Red Roses.
Roberto Rossellini: Rome, Open City, Paisan, Germany, Year Zero, L'Amore, The White Ship, A Pilot Returns, and The Man with a Cross.
Ernst Lubitsch: To Be or Not to Be, The Shop Around the Corner, Heaven Can Wait, Cluny Brown, That Uncertain Feeling, A Royal Scandal, and That Lady in Ermine.
Powell and Pressburger: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Red Shoes, A Canterbury Tale, I Know Where I'm Going!, A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus, Contraband, 49th Parallel, One of Our Aircraft Is Missing, The Small Back Room,and An Airman's Letter to His Mother.
Michael Curtiz: Casablanca, Mildred Pierce, The Sea Wolf, Yankee Doodle Dandy, This Is the Army, Night and Day, Romance on the High Seas, Santa Fe Trail, Virginia City, The Sea Hawk, Captains of the Clouds, Dive Bomber, Life with Father, Mission to Moscow, Janie, Passage to Marseille, Roughly Speaking, The Unsuspected, My Dream Is Yours, Flamingo Road, and The Lady Takes a Sailor.
John M. Stahl: Leave Her to Heaven, The Foxes of Harrow, The Eve of St. Mark, Our Wife, Immortal Sergeant, Holy Matrimony, The Keys of the Kingdom, The Walls of Jericho, Father Was a Fullback, and Oh, You Beautiful Doll.
Billy Wilder: The Major and the Minor, The Lost Weekend, Double Indemnity, Five Graves to Cairo, Death Mills, The Emperor Waltz, and A Foreign Affair.
Nicholas Ray: They Live by Night, A Roseanna McCoy, Woman's Secret, and Knock on Any Door.
Elia Kazan: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Pinky, Boomerang, The Sea of Grass, and Gentleman's Agreement.
Frank Capra: It’s a Wonderful Life, Arsenic and Old Lace, State of the Union, and Meet John Doe.
Carol Reed: The Third Man, Odd Man Out, The Fallen Idol, The Stars Look Down, Girl in the News, A Letter from Home, Kipps, The Young Mr. Pitt, Night Train to Munich, The New Lot, and The Way Ahead. David Lean: In Which We Serve, This Happy Breed, Brief Encounter, Blithe Spirit, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, and The Passionate Friends.
Mervyn LeRoy: Waterloo Bridge, Random Harvest, Little Women, East Side, West Side, Without Reservations, Any Number Can Play, The House I Live In, Madame Curie, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Blossoms in the Dust, Johnny Eager, Escape, and Homecoming.
Vincente Minnelli: Meet Me in St. Louis, I Dood It, Cabin in the Sky, Yolanda and the Thief, The Clock, Undercurrent, Ziegfeld Follies, The Pirate, Madame Bovary, and Till the Clouds Roll By. Charles Walters: Ziegfeld Follies, Easter Parade, Good News, and The Barkleys of Broadway.
Leo McCarey: The Bells of St. Mary's and Once Upon a Honeymoon.
Jean Renoir: The Woman on the Beach, The Southerner, The Diary of a Chambermaid, Swamp Water, and This Land is Mine.
Anthony Mann: Moonlight in Havana, Sing Your Way Home, My Best Gal, Nobody's Darling, Dr. Broadway, Strangers in the Night, Bamboo Blonde, Raw Deal, T-Men, Desperate, Railroaded!, Border Incident, Reign of Terror, Two O'Clock Courage, and Strange Impersonation.
King Vidor: The Fountainhead, On Our Merry Way, Duel in the Sun, An American Romance, Comrade X, Northwest Passage, H. M. Pulham, Esq., and Beyond the Forest.
Robert Rossen: All The King’s Men, Johnny O'Clock, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, A Child Is Born, Edge of Darkness, Out of the Fog, Blues in the Night, A Walk in the Sun, The Undercover Man, Desert Fury, and Body and Soul.
Fred Zinnemann: The Search, Kid Glove Killer, Eyes in the Night, The Clock, Act of Violence, The Seventh Cross, Little Mister Jim, and My Brother Talks to Horses.
Robert Wise: Criminal Court, The Curse of the Cat People, Mademoiselle Fifi, The Body Snatcher, Born to Kill, The Set-Up, A Game of Death, Blood on the Moon, and Mystery in Mexico.
Akira Kurosawa: Sanshiro Sugata, Sanshiro Sugata Part II, The Most Beautiful, One Wonderful Sunday, Drunken Angel, The Quiet Duel, Stray Dog, The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail, and No Regrets for Our Youth.
Otto Preminger: Laura, Fallen Angel, Daisy Kenyon, Forever Amber, Whirl Pool, The Fan, Margin for Error, In the Meantime, Darling, and Centennial Summer.
Jules Dassin: Thieves' Highway, A Letter for Evie, Brute Force, Two Smart People, The Naked City, Young Ideas, The Canterville Ghost, Nazi Agent, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Affairs of Martha, and Reunion in France.
Charlie Chaplin: The Great Dictator, and Monsieur Verdoux. George Stevens: The More the Merrier, The Talk of the Town, Penny Serenade, Woman of the Year, Vigil in the Night, On Our Merry Way, The Nazi Plan, and I Remember Mama.
Yasujirô Ozu: Late Spring, Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family, A Hen in the Wind, There Was a Father, and Record of a Tenement Gentleman.
Fritz Lang: Secret Beyond the Door, The Woman in the Window, Scarlet Street, Cloak and Dagger, Man Hunt, Ministry of Fear, Hangmen Also Die!, Western Union, Moon Tide, and The Return of Frank James.
Raoul Walsh: High Sierra, White Heat, Colorado Territory, Fighter Squadron, Silver River, Pursued, The Man I Love, Cheyenne, Uncertain Glory, Objective, Burma!, Manpower, Desperate Journey, Northern Pursuit, The Strawberry Blonde, They Died with Their Boots On, Gentleman Jim, Dark Command, and They Drive by Night.
Vincent Sherman: Nora Prentiss, Mr. Skeffington, Adventures of Don Juan, The Unfaithful, The Hard Way, Old Acquaintance, The Hasty Heart, In our Time, Pillow to Post, Janie Gets Married, Saturday's Children, The Man Who Talked Too Much, Underground, Flight from Destiny, Across the Pacific, and All Through the Night.
Anatole Litvak: The Snake Pit, City for Conquest, The Battle of Russia, Why We Fight, Sorry, Wrong Number, This Above All, The Long Night, All This, and Heaven Too, and Castle on the Hudson.
Max Ophüls: Caught, The Reckless Moment, The Exile, Letter from an Unknown Woman, Vendetta, and Sarajevo.
Charles Vidor: Gilda, Cover Girl, Over 21, The Loves of Carmen, The Tuttles of Tahiti, The Desperadoes, Together Again, A Song to Remember, The Man from Colorado, New York Town, Ladies in Retirement, My Son, My Son!, and The Lady in Question.
Edgar G. Ulmer: Detour, Isle of Forgotten Sins, Girls in Chains, Tomorrow We Live, Club Havana, The Strange Woman, My Son, the Hero, Jive Junction, Strange Illusion, Bluebeard, Her Sister's Secret, The Pirates of Capri, Ruthless, The Wife of Monte Cristo, and Carnegie Hall.
Victor Fleming: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Joan of Arc, Adventure, A Guy Named Joe, and Tortilla Flat.
Joseph L. Mankiewicz: A Letter to Three Wives, Escape, House of Strangers, The Late George Apley, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Dragonwyck, and Somewhere in the Night.
Robert Bresson: Angels of Sin and Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne.
Luis Buñuel: Gran Casino and The Great Madcap.
Fei Mu: Spring in a Small Town, Confucius, The Beauty, A Wedding in the Dream, The Magnificent Country, Songs of Ancient China, and The Little Cowheard.
Kenji Mizoguchi: The 47 Ronin, A Woman of Osaka, Flame of My Love, The Love of the Actress Sumako, Victory Song, Utamaro and His Five Women, Women of the Night, Victory of Women, The Famous Sword Bijomaru, Three Generations of Danjuro, The Life of an Actor, and Miyamoto Musashi.
Douglas Sirk: Lured, Sleep, My Love, Hitler's Madman, Summer Storm, A Scandal in Paris, Shockproof, and Slightly French.
René Clément: The Battle of the Rails, The Damned, Mr. Orchid, and The Walls of Malapaga.
Robert Hamer: Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Spider and the Fly, It Always Rains on Sunday, San Demetrio London, and Pink String and Sealing Wax.
Robert Siodmak: Criss Cross, Cry of The City, Dark Mirror, Phantom Lady, The Killers, The Spiral Staircase, Christmas Holiday, The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry, Time Out of Mind, Son of Dracula, The Suspect, The Night Before the Divorce, Someone to Remember, Cobra Woman, The File on Thelma Jordon, The Great Sinner, West Point Widow, My Heart Belongs to Daddy, and Fly-by-Night.
Humphrey Jennings: Spring Offensive, Welfare of the Workers, London Can Take It!, A Diary for Timothy, This Is England, Words for Battle, Fires Were Started, Listen to Britain, The Silent Village, The True Story of Lili Marlene, The Eighty Days, Myra Hess, A Defeated People, The Cumberland Story, and The Dim Little Island.
William Dieterle: Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet, Kismet, This Love of Ours, Syncopation, The Searching Wind, Rope of Sand, Portrait of Jennie, The Accused, I'll Be Seeing You, A Dispatch from Reuters, The Devil and Daniel Webster, Tennessee Johnson, and Love Letters.
Edmund Goulding: The Razor's Edge, Nightmare Alley, The Shocking Miss Pilgrim, Everybody Does It, Claudia, Of Human Bondage, Flight from Folly, Forever and a Day, Old Acquaintance, The Constant Nymph, The Great Lie, and Til We Meet Again.
Luchino Visconti: Ossessione and La Terra Trema.
Ernest B. Schoedsack: Dr. Cyclops and Mighty Joe Young.
Roy Del Ruth: It Happened on 5th Avenue, Red Light, The Babe Ruth Story, The Chocolate Soldier, Topper Returns, He Married His Wife, Du Barry Was a Lady, and Ziegfeld Follies.
Rene Clair: And Then There Were None, I Married a Witch, Man About Town,It Happened Tomorrow, The Flame of New Orleans, and Forever and a Day.
John Cromwell: Victory, Abe Lincoln in Illinois, So Ends Our Night, Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake, Anna and the King of Siam, Dead Reckoning, The Enchanted Cottage, Since You Went Away, and Night Song.
Richard Fleischer: Trapped, Make Mine Laughs, The Clay Pigeon, Follow Me Quietly, Banjo, Design for Death, So This Is New York, Bodyguard, and Child of Divorce.
Norman Z. McLeod: Jackass Mail, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Panama Hattie, The Paleface, and Little Men.
Dorothy Arzner: Dance, Girl, Dance and First Comes Courage.
George Sidney: Pilot No. 5, Holiday in Mexico, Ziegfeld Follies, Thousands Cheer, Anchors Aweigh, The Harvey Girls, Bathing Beauty, The Three Musketeers, Cass Timberlane, and The Red Danube.

Best run in terms of anything
William Wyler: The Westerner, The Heiress, The Little Foxes, The Letter, The Best Years of Our Lives, Mrs. Miniver, Memphis Belle, and Thunderbolt.
Orson Welles: Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, The Lady from Shanghai, Macbeth, Journey into Fear, The Stranger, Black Magic, and Follow the Boys.
John Huston: The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Key Largo, We Were Strangers, In This Our Life, Across the Pacific, and Let There Be Light.
Howard Hawks: Red River, I Was a Male War Bride,A Song Is Born, To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Sergeant York, His Girl Friday, Air Force, and Ball of Fire.
Alfred Hitchcock: Notorious, Rebecca, Shadow of a Doubt, Spellbound, Rope, Suspicion, Under Capricorn, Foreign Correspondent, Saboteur, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Lifeboat, and The Paradine Case.
Preston Sturges: The Palm Beach Story, Sullivan's Travels, Unfaithfully Yours, The Great Moment, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek,I Married a Witch, Christmas in July, The Lady Eve, and The Great McGinty.
George Cukor: The Philadelphia Story, Gaslight, Adam's Rib, Susan and God, Her Cardboard Lover, Keeper of the Flame, Edward, My Son, A Double Life, I'll Be Seeing You, and Desire Me.
John Ford: The Grapes of Wrath, The Long Voyage Home, Tobacco Road, How Green Was My Valley, 3 Godfathers, December 7th: The Movie, My Darling Clementine, They Were Expendable, We Sail at Midnight, Fort Apache, Torpedo Squadron ,The Battle of Midway, How to Operate Behind Enemy Lines, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and The Fugitive.
Jacques Tourneur: Cat People, I Walked With a Zombie, Out of the Past, Canyon Passage, The Leopard Man, Phantom Raiders, Days of Glory, Easy Living, Experiment Perilous, and Berlin Express.
Vittorio De Sica: Shoeshine, Bicycle Thieves, Heart and Soul, The Children Are Watching Us, The Gates of Heaven, A Garibaldian in the Convent, Teresa Venerdì, Maddalena, Zero for Conduct, and Red Roses.
Roberto Rossellini: Rome, Open City, Paisan, Germany, Year Zero, L'Amore, The White Ship, A Pilot Returns, and The Man with a Cross.
Ernst Lubitsch: To Be or Not to Be, The Shop Around the Corner, Heaven Can Wait, Cluny Brown, That Uncertain Feeling, A Royal Scandal, and That Lady in Ermine.
Powell and Pressburger: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Red Shoes, A Canterbury Tale, I Know Where I'm Going!, A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus, Contraband, 49th Parallel, One of Our Aircraft Is Missing,The Small Back Room, and An Airman's Letter to His Mother.
Michael Curtiz: Casablanca, Mildred Pierce, The Sea Wolf, Yankee Doodle Dandy, This Is the Army, Night and Day, Romance on the High Seas, Santa Fe Trail, Virginia City, The Sea Hawk, Captains of the Clouds, Dive Bomber, Life with Father, Mission to Moscow, Janie, Passage to Marseille, Roughly Speaking, The Unsuspected, My Dream Is Yours, Flamingo Road, and The Lady Takes a Sailor.
John M. Stahl: Leave Her to Heaven, The Foxes of Harrow, The Eve of St. Mark, Our Wife, Immortal Sergeant, Holy Matrimony, The Keys of the Kingdom, The Walls of Jericho, Father Was a Fullback, and Oh, You Beautiful Doll.
Billy Wilder: The Major and the Minor, The Lost Weekend, Double Indemnity, Five Graves to Cairo, Death Mills, The Emperor Waltz, and A Foreign Affair.
Nicholas Ray: They Live by Night, A Roseanna McCoy, Woman's Secret, and Knock on Any Door.
Elia Kazan: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Pinky, Boomerang, The Sea of Grass, and Gentleman's Agreement.
Frank Capra: It’s a Wonderful Life, Arsenic and Old Lace, State of the Union, and Meet John Doe.
Carol Reed: The Third Man, Odd Man Out, The Fallen Idol, The Stars Look Down, Girl in the News, A Letter from Home, Kipps, The Young Mr. Pitt, Night Train to Munich, The New Lot, and The Way Ahead.
David Lean: In Which We Serve, This Happy Breed, Brief Encounter, Blithe Spirit, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, and The Passionate Friends.
Mervyn LeRoy: Waterloo Bridge, Random Harvest, Little Women, East Side, West Side, Without Reservations, Any Number Can Play, The House I Live In, Madame Curie, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Blossoms in the Dust, Johnny Eager, Escape, and Homecoming.
Vincente Minnelli: Meet Me in St. Louis, I Dood It, Cabin in the Sky, Yolanda and the Thief, The Clock, Undercurrent, Ziegfeld Follies, The Pirate, Madame Bovary, and Till the Clouds Roll By.
Charles Walters: Ziegfeld Follies, Easter Parade, Good News, and The Barkleys of Broadway.
Leo McCarey: The Bells of St. Mary's and Once Upon a Honeymoon.
Jean Renoir: The Woman on the Beach, The Southerner, The Diary of a Chambermaid, Swamp Water, and This Land is Mine.
Anthony Mann: Moonlight in Havana, Sing Your Way Home, My Best Gal, Nobody's Darling, Dr. Broadway, Strangers in the Night, Bamboo Blonde, Raw Deal, T-Men, Desperate, Railroaded!, Border Incident, Reign of Terror, Two O'Clock Courage, and Strange Impersonation.
King Vidor: The Fountainhead, On Our Merry Way, Duel in the Sun, An American Romance, Comrade X, Northwest Passage, H. M. Pulham, Esq., and Beyond the Forest.
Robert Rossen: All The King’s Men, Johnny O'Clock, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, A Child Is Born, Edge of Darkness, Out of the Fog, Blues in the Night, A Walk in the Sun, The Undercover Man, Desert Fury, and Body and Soul.
Fred Zinnemann: The Search, Kid Glove Killer, Eyes in the Night, The Clock, Act of Violence, The Seventh Cross, Little Mister Jim, and My Brother Talks to Horses.
Robert Wise: Criminal Court, The Curse of the Cat People, Mademoiselle Fifi, The Body Snatcher, Born to Kill, The Set-Up, A Game of Death, Blood on the Moon, and Mystery in Mexico.
Akira Kurosawa: Sanshiro Sugata, Sanshiro Sugata Part II, The Most Beautiful, One Wonderful Sunday, Drunken Angel, The Quiet Duel, Stray Dog, The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail, and No Regrets for Our Youth.
Otto Preminger: Laura, Fallen Angel, Daisy Kenyon, Forever Amber, Whirl Pool, The Fan, Margin for Error, In the Meantime, Darling, and Centennial Summer.
Jules Dassin: Thieves' Highway, A Letter for Evie, Brute Force, Two Smart People, The Naked City, Young Ideas, The Canterville Ghost, Nazi Agent, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Affairs of Martha, and Reunion in France.
Charlie Chaplin: The Great Dictator, and Monsieur Verdoux. George Stevens: The More the Merrier, The Talk of the Town, Penny Serenade, Woman of the Year, Vigil in the Night, On Our Merry Way, The Nazi Plan, and I Remember Mama.
Yasujirô Ozu: Late Spring, Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family, A Hen in the Wind, There Was a Father, and Record of a Tenement Gentleman.
Fritz Lang: Secret Beyond the Door, The Woman in the Window, Scarlet Street, Cloak and Dagger, Man Hunt, Ministry of Fear, Hangmen Also Die!, Western Union, Moon Tide, and The Return of Frank James.
Raoul Walsh: High Sierra, White Heat, Colorado Territory, Fighter Squadron, Silver River, Pursued, The Man I Love, Cheyenne, Uncertain Glory, Objective, Burma!, Manpower, Desperate Journey, Northern Pursuit, The Strawberry Blonde, They Died with Their Boots On, Gentleman Jim, Dark Command, and They Drive by Night.
Vincent Sherman: Nora Prentiss, Mr. Skeffington, Adventures of Don Juan, The Unfaithful, The Hard Way, Old Acquaintance, The Hasty Heart, In our Time, Pillow to Post, Janie Gets Married, Saturday's Children, The Man Who Talked Too Much, Underground, Flight from Destiny, Across the Pacific, and All Through the Night.
Anatole Litvak: The Snake Pit, City for Conquest, The Battle of Russia, Why We Fight, Sorry, Wrong Number, This Above All, The Long Night, All This, and Heaven Too, and Castle on the Hudson.
Max Ophüls: Caught, The Reckless Moment, The Exile, Letter from an Unknown Woman, Vendetta, and Sarajevo.
Charles Vidor: Gilda, Cover Girl, Over 21, The Loves of Carmen, The Tuttles of Tahiti, The Desperadoes, Together Again, A Song to Remember, The Man from Colorado, New York Town, Ladies in Retirement, My Son, My Son!, and The Lady in Question.
Edgar G. Ulmer: Detour, Isle of Forgotten Sins, Girls in Chains, Tomorrow We Live, Club Havana, The Strange Woman, My Son, the Hero, Jive Junction, Strange Illusion, Bluebeard, Her Sister's Secret, The Pirates of Capri, Ruthless, The Wife of Monte Cristo, and Carnegie Hall.
Victor Fleming: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Joan of Arc, Adventure, A Guy Named Joe, and Tortilla Flat.
Joseph L. Mankiewicz: A Letter to Three Wives, Escape, House of Strangers, The Late George Apley, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Dragonwyck, and Somewhere in the Night.
Robert Bresson: Angels of Sin and Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne.
Luis Buñuel: Gran Casino and The Great Madcap.
Fei Mu: Spring in a Small Town, Confucius, The Beauty, A Wedding in the Dream, The Magnificent Country, Songs of Ancient China, and The Little Cowheard.
Kenji Mizoguchi: The 47 Ronin, A Woman of Osaka, Flame of My Love, The Love of the Actress Sumako, Victory Song, Utamaro and His Five Women, Women of the Night, Victory of Women, The Famous Sword Bijomaru, Three Generations of Danjuro, The Life of an Actor, and Miyamoto Musashi.
Douglas Sirk: Lured, Sleep, My Love, Hitler's Madman, Summer Storm, A Scandal in Paris, Shockproof, and Slightly French.
René Clément: The Battle of the Rails, The Damned, Mr. Orchid, and The Walls of Malapaga.
Robert Hamer: Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Spider and the Fly, It Always Rains on Sunday, San Demetrio London, and Pink String and Sealing Wax.
Robert Siodmak: Criss Cross, Cry of The City, Dark Mirror, Phantom Lady, The Killers, The Spiral Staircase, Christmas Holiday, The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry, Time Out of Mind, Son of Dracula, The Suspect, The Night Before the Divorce, Someone to Remember, Cobra Woman, The File on Thelma Jordon, The Great Sinner, West Point Widow, My Heart Belongs to Daddy, and Fly-by-Night.
Humphrey Jennings: Spring Offensive, Welfare of the Workers, London Can Take It!, A Diary for Timothy, This Is England, Words for Battle, Fires Were Started, Listen to Britain, The Silent Village, The True Story of Lili Marlene, The Eighty Days, Myra Hess, A Defeated People, The Cumberland Story, and The Dim Little Island.
William Dieterle: Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet, Kismet, This Love of Ours, Syncopation, The Searching Wind, Rope of Sand, Portrait of Jennie, The Accused, I'll Be Seeing You, A Dispatch from Reuters, The Devil and Daniel Webster, Tennessee Johnson, and Love Letters.
Edmund Goulding: The Razor's Edge, Nightmare Alley, The Shocking Miss Pilgrim, Everybody Does It, Claudia, Of Human Bondage, Flight from Folly, Forever and a Day, Old Acquaintance, The Constant Nymph, The Great Lie, and Til We Meet Again.
Luchino Visconti: Ossessione and La Terra Trema.
Ernest B. Schoedsack: Dr. Cyclops and Mighty Joe Young.
Roy Del Ruth: It Happened on 5th Avenue, Red Light, The Babe Ruth Story, The Chocolate Soldier, Topper Returns, He Married His Wife, Du Barry Was a Lady, and Ziegfeld Follies.
Rene Clair: And Then There Were None, I Married a Witch, Man About Town,It Happened Tomorrow, The Flame of New Orleans, and Forever and a Day.
John Cromwell: Victory, Abe Lincoln in Illinois, So Ends Our Night, Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake, Anna and the King of Siam, Dead Reckoning, The Enchanted Cottage, Since You Went Away, and Night Song.
Richard Fleischer: Trapped, Make Mine Laughs, The Clay Pigeon, Follow Me Quietly, Banjo, Design for Death, So This Is New York, Bodyguard, and Child of Divorce.
Norman Z. McLeod: Jackass Mail, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Panama Hattie, The Paleface, and Little Men.
Dorothy Arzner: Dance, Girl, Dance and First Comes Courage.
George Sidney: Pilot No. 5, Holiday in Mexico, Ziegfeld Follies, Thousands Cheer, Anchors Aweigh, The Harvey Girls, Bathing Beauty, The Three Musketeers, Cass Timberlane, and The Red Danube.
Howard Hawks, John Ford, and Orson Welles are my Top Three.

Teen Titans

In Illumination
Issue Eight: Who is Cassie Sandsmark?
Originally posted January 2018
 
 
Blüdhaven wasn’t good for much. An old whaling town, the dirty, industrial cityscape was later transformed by wealthy, criminal investors, building its industrial district into a neon paradise, a city-sized casino idyllic as long as you never looked beneath the surface.
And though the Teen Titans were almost always preoccupied with minimising the rampaging of emerging metahumans, they would often strive to tackle the crime that lurked in the shadows cast by the neon lights. One such criminal was André LeBlanc.
See, the smarmy and greasy Angel Marin, one of the ‘philanthropists’ so cherished in Blüdhaven had held an exhibition to show off the depths of his riches, including his star piece: the Night Diamond, a priceless gemstone. This naturally presented a challenge for the self-styled ‘world's greatest jewel thief’ LeBlanc.
He was a wanted man internationally due to his masterful skills and cutting edge tactics, but targeting the home of such a dangerous man as Angel Marin, LeBlanc was - even to his own admission - pushing his luck.
The thief darted silently down the crime lord’s corridor, his footfalls suppressed by his rebalancing boots and his hi-tech jumpsuit hiding him from thermal sensors despite its garish white colour. On his cracked face sat a green monocle, which LeBlanc used to scan for traps in real time. As he ran, LeBlanc gripped the azure jewel tightly, the diamond no bigger than a golf ball despite its exorbitant worth. The man’s agility and resolve was unmatched for someone of his age, but unfortunately his resistance came in the form of three meddlesome teenagers.
Angel Marin slept soundly in his bed, LeBlanc having eluded all of his security, but the Teen Titans had already seen the thief’s approach. Thanks to a recent upgrade to Cyborg’s tech, the teen was able to piece together a wealth of technological information sources to track LeBlanc all the way from his previous heist, and now they were moments from thwarting him.
LeBlanc pushed into the drawing room, the window he had entered through still cracked open. But as the man emerged through the open doorway, the oak door immediately pushed shut. The thief turned back towards the door, drawing a glowing, white knife to slash out at whoever had pushed the door to, only to find an empty place. Furiously, he pivoted back toward the window, now to find the shadowy figure of the blue-clad vigilante blocking his path. Nightwing. LeBlanc threw his arm out, slashing at the slender assailant, only for Nightwing to strafe aside with a boastful cartwheel. “No thanks!” Nightwing spat, springing off of the ground and throwing himself at the thief. Quickly, he struck with his twin sticks, aiming to disarm the thief as well as snatch the stone from him in one fell swoop, but André wouldn’t unhand his prize so easily.
The thief swung out once more, with Nightwing this time much closer. Before the vigilante could bounce back, he cried as the searing hot blade streaked across his chest, cutting through his black-and-blue armour as if it were butter, exposing his pale and bleeding flesh.
“Heh.”
Recoiling, the vigilante brought his hand across his chest, wiping the blood aside before clutching at his sticks once again. Nightwing leapt vertically and hooked his sticks around the industrial-looking chandelier above, using it to fling himself across the room to intercept the white-clad thief who continued his way to the open window. He landed and - stick still in hand - threw a fist out, striking LeBlanc cleanly in the nose.
The thief staggered, dazed. He would have just shot the kid if he had even brought a gun, though in his line of work a firearm was such a clumsy weapon. Narrowing his gaze on the dark figure he faced, LeBlanc focused himself. How strong could one kid be? Arrogant as ever, he then threw his knife aside and slipped the Night Diamond into his white satchel. He brought up his fists, ready to exchange blows.
The two men clashed, and quickly LeBlanc began to impress Nightwing as he dealt fast and powerful strikes. As they traded attacks, blocking and leaping up and down, they almost seemed to dance with each other, with LeBlanc using his streamlined gauntlets to deflect strikes from Nightwing’s escrima sticks. But LeBlanc caught Nightwing off-guard when he delivered a spinning kick to the vigilante’s head, flooring him with a manoeuvre Nightwing never would have expected from a man approaching forty. Though as LeBlanc turned away with a sneer, seemingly having bested the Gotham crimefighter, he turned to find himself face-to-face with none other than a towering, green gorilla. With a single punch, he was out.
“You know, I don’t know why you didn’t just let me just punch him sooner,” Gar grinned, morphing back to human form. As he rose from the ground, Dick produced a pair of black boxer shorts from his belt compartment, unfurling them and throwing them the way of the nude, green child as if it were a regular occurrence (which, by this point, it was).
“That’ll be because we’re sitting in the house of a dangerous gangster,” Dick smiled coolly, his hand pouring over his throbbing head, “Ever heard of ‘lowkey’?”
“Ah, you got me there!” Gar exclaimed, slightly quieter this time, “I’m many things but lowkey isn’t one of them.”
“Nice work though,” Dick replied, before activating his communicator, “Cyborg: you still on overwatch?”
Beat.
“Cyborg?”
Vic spluttered, suddenly bursting in over comms, “Yeah. Of course, sorry just got distracted by… things...”
“Finlay,” Dick continued, “Of course. I’m sorry. Look, head back to the roof of Iris Cove Casino, and we’ll regroup with you there.”
“Got it.”
Since Dick had discovered that it was an associate of Vic’s father, Jacob Finlay, who was responsible for stealing the Cyborg blueprints, as well as springing the metahumans that almost killed Vic, he had wanted nothing less than see the crooked physicist see what was coming to him. But what he couldn’t have expected was for the doctor to turn up dead - his neck wrenched - in Gotham River. It was a tragedy, and not at all what the man deserved.
The Teen Titans had attempted to follow up on the death, but had found nothing. That was until Dick received a clandestine call from Silas Stone.
 
♦ ♦ T ♦ ♦
 
The fifteen-year-old Cassandra Sandsmark emerged from the Music Box Theatre wide-eyed, her mind blown. Growing up in Buckinghamshire, England, Cassie had always dreamed of seeing a Broadway show, and it was every bit as amazing as she had expected it to be.
Her mother was an archaeologist, and therefore was often away for long periods of time, and when Cassie wasn’t couped up at her boarding school, her grandparents were too old and untrusting - despite their riches - to fly her out to New York. And though Cassie had finally gotten her wish, it was through the most distressing of circumstances. Now, though Cassie was raised by a strictly Christian family, she always found difficulty in believing in a God for one reason or another, so imagine her surprise when she was visited by the image of what appeared to be an angel, imploring her to flee to New York City, of all places, that she was being hunted and would only be safe within the bounds of that city so far across the pond. No answers, only urgency.
And so, the Fear of God firmly instilled in her, the fifteen-year-old stole as much money as she could from her grandfather’s bank account and grabbed the first plane ticket to the United States.
Though Cassie honestly didn't know what to expect. Upon arriving in the ‘greatest city in the world’ she had heard nothing from the otherworldly figure that had addressed her before, and she quickly began to realise that she couldn't occupy herself in her hotel room for very long. And hence, she decided to indulge herself in an overpriced visit to Broadway, and it was worth every penny to the young girl.
But now Cassie was lost once again. Cars hurtled past her along the wide road, as monolithic buildings stretched high into the jet black sky. There wasn't a moment of silence, the city filled with a cacophony of noise, even at this hour. Quickly, she pushed over to the nearest taxi, pulling her red hoodie up tight over her slender shoulders to keep out the quickly emerging chill. As the driver rolled his window down, Cassie doubled over, peering through the window to address him.
“Hello? Do you go to the White Ram Hotel?” she chirped in a polite tone.
“Do I!?” the driver exclaimed. He was a middle aged man with olive skin and a sleazy black tracksuit. “This ain't the subway. I’ll take you anywhere you want, hot stuff!”
“Excuse me?!” Cassie cried, pulling herself up. Sure, she was more developed than other girls in her year at school, but she was only fifteen. Surely he could see that! Right?
“I love me a British accent,” the driver sneered, “Say somethin’ sexy and I’ll give you half fare!”
Cassie was flustered and infuriated. Slamming her foot down on the pavement, she pushed away. “I’ll think I’ll walk, thank you very much!!”
And so Cassie took off down the street, walking against the flow of heavy traffic, the sounds of the city growing more fierce. Quickly, the black of the night seemed to slowly seep in around her, the darkness consuming her, but Cassie kept plodding on towards the White Ram.
As Cassie walked, a enigmatic presence lurked in the distance, watching her; stalking her from the shadows. There was a quality to Cassie, something powerful that just made her unignorable, something that called to the presence in the dark.
Unbeknown to this, Cassie continued on, eventually coming to pass the exterior of an old Irish pub that stretched along the street. Nervously, Cassie pulled up the hood of her red hoodie and picked up her pace, the footfalls of her black Chucks growing heavier against the concrete sidewalk. Something she’d call the pavement.
Though Cassie wouldn’t get off so easy as from the pub, right as she passed its doors, emerged three men of varying levels of intoxication, all swaying with the breeze. They each looked around thirty and each similarly struggled to keep their balance as they poured out onto the street. Quickly, one caught a glimpse of the young girl attempting to hurriedly make away, catching the side of her face as she walked past. “Hey!” He blurted out, steadying his lacking weight on his friend’s shoulder, bottle in hand. “You’re very pretty!! You should be… v… very proud.”
She ignored him and continued down the street, still a while off the next corner.
“Hey–” he repeated before bursting into a cry, “I SAID HEY!!”
Cassie jolted, glancing over her shoulder for just half second, enough time for a few of the boys to catch her eye. She turned away and continued on.
“HEY!!” Another man called after Cassie, this time annoyed, “He’s talking to you!!”
“Fucking bitch…” the first man mumbled to himself.
“No!” the third man called out, pulling the first man forward and snapping him out of his sulk, “N– No she doesn’t get to ignore you like that!!”
The third took off in a sprint after Cassie, continuing to define call out, “My friend wants to talk to you!!”
The first and second men looked to each other, too drunk to roll their eyes, and began to stumble after their leading friend. Cassie looked over her shoulder once more to see the three men clambering towards her. But before she could run, the man threw himself in the way of her path.
“No need to be rude…” he grumbled, his friends then catching up behind.
None of the men were cruel, but all were plenty menacing as they surrounded the 15-year-old girl, who stood alone and afraid in a city mostly unknown to her.
“Get out of my way…” Cassie seethed, her breath unsteady as she pretended to be as tough as she could muster.
“Ah! British!” exclaimed the youngest of the men, the one who had first noticed Cassie, “I like British!”
He placed a hand forcefully on Cassie’s shoulder as she faced away from him, and pulled her around to face him. “C’mere.” Instinctually, Cassie reacted, flinging herself back, and crashed into the chest of the man who had first pursued her.
“We ain’t gonna hurt ya!” the crushing man cried, only for Cassie to react by delivering a swift kick to the man’s groin. He fell quickly, groaning in pain.
“What the fuck, lady!?”
The man behind her jostled Cassie’s shoulder, threatened and enraged. Taking no shit, Cassie turned socked the man in the jaw, causing him to stagger back.
“Stay away from me!!” she cried before punching him once again, unaware of the third man behind her as he drew a knife.
But as the man threw himself forward to slash out at the increasingly violent young girl, out of nowhere flew a glowing gold chain that seemed to magically wrap itself around the wrist of the man’s knife hand. And with one quick tug, the man went flying several feet. Though as Cassie turned to see just what had occurred behind her, she saw not the floor assailant, but a woman, tall and draped in black, her skin lightly tanned and her hair as dark as her plated armour. “You need to come with me.”
 
♦ ♦ T ♦ ♦
 
The next morning, Dick Grayson pushed hurriedly through the S.T.A.R. Labs security checkpoint, already a registered visitor at this point. He didn’t know the cause of Silas summoning him, but he had guessed from the police cars lined up on the street outside that the scientist likely had information regarding Finlay’s death.
And as Dick entered the central lab, he was implicitly proved correct as he found Silas seated, the figure of a tall, muscular man in a beige coat and a black-banded, white cowboy hat. Immediately, Dick recognised the lone policeman as NYC Sheriff Saunders. It was rare that the man ever came out to investigate first hand since his election, and he and Dick had never crossed paths, especially while the latter was Nightwing.
“And… Dr Finlay: any reason to believe he had any enemies?” the Sheriff spoke in a gruff, deep tone, befitting of his fearsome silhouette and his fifty years of smoking. The man was no nonsense.
Silas took a second. A part of him wanted to pretend the man was a saint, but the truth was that he was far from it. Similarly Silas knew that what he had to said could incriminate himself, but was already worn down by the death of his coworker and his son shunning him for a second time. He had no time for lies.
“It was... I strongly suspect it was Finlay who allowed the meta thief - Selinda Flinders - to break into the lab. There, she not only freed her brother but also stole my blueprints for the cybernetics I used to treat my son from a safe that only myself and Finlay knew even existed.”
The Sheriff took a deep breath, still unaware of Dick standing in the doorway behind him. Carefully, he jotted down some notes in his small paper pad. “And what would Dr Finlay have wanted those… blueprints for? Industrial espionage?”
“No,” Silas sighed, “He wanted them so that he could save his brother the way I saved Victor, despite all my protests that the technology wasn’t ready.”
“His brother: This is Arthur Finlay, correct? Paralysed after a burglar attacked him in 2006.”
“That is correct.”
Saunders paused and took another long, deep breath, before launching into hurried speech. “Now it’s funny you should mention that as Arthur Finlay was nowhere to be found when we visited his estate earlier this week. Odd for a man who can't wipe his own ass.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying it’s entirely possible that Dr Finlay– that Jacob succeeded in ‘fixing’ his brother.”
Beat.
The Sheriff smiled. “But that’s for me to chase up. Sorry, I shouldn’t have divulged that with you, - it’s as of current - entirely unfounded.”
“It’s fine.” Silas smiled tiredly, “We can all speculate. Now, if you don’t mind, I have another visitor.” Silas gestured graciously towards the door, where Dick Grayson was standing.
Sheriff Saunders looked across and his face immediately dropped, realising his mistake. “Ah, I see. Well, I won’t keep you then. Thank you for your insight, Dr Stone. We’ll be in touch.”
Quickly, the Sheriff wrapped up his notepad and made his way over to the door. As he exited, he tipped his hat towards the young spectator. “Nice to meet you, young man.”
And he was gone.
Silas stood, meeting Dick in the centre of the lab. “You know, I thought he’d never leave.”
“Was that it, Dr Stone?” Dick asked, perturbed, “You think Jacob’s brother killed him?”
Silas sighed. “That seems to be the leading theory, but no, that’s not why I called you.”
“Then what–”
“Christmas has come and passed, and this is the first year I’ve spent it without my Victor since he was born, the first year since my Elinore…”
Silas blinked.
“I wanted to give you a package. A gift. To give to Victor. A belated Christmas present.”
“He’s still not talking to you?”
Silas crawled along to his desk where, from a lower drawer, he produced a small purple box tied with a red bow, no bigger than a ring box. He held it out to Dick, his eyes so tired.
“Just please make sure Victor opens it,” he replied, “Won’t you do that for me, Richard?”
 
♦ ♦ T ♦ ♦
 
Silently, a robed figure approached the derelict apartment block in Avalon, Blüdhaven. This was the only known address for the Teen Titan known as Cyborg, but clearly circumstances had forced him to move on. The figure sighed, shaking her head before moving on.
 
♦ ♦ T ♦ ♦
 
“It was like my nan always said: that someday I’d feel something, and all that crap about burning bushes and… the big man in the sky would just slip into place.”
As Cassie spoke in the relative warmth of the drab, grey squat, her words were lost on Donna, who - despite having developed more than adequate conversation skills - had no idea what the young girl was talking about after she had asked her why she had come to New York City.
Cassie grinned, sat on the only chair in the apartment, as she registered her saviour’s bemusement. “I had a vision. It sounds crazy I know, but some angel came down and told me that… I was being hunted… and that I’d only be safe if I came to New York.” Her eyes were wild, as if she were reliving those impossible moments as she told the tale, “She told me some monster wanted to kill me, that it was the plan of the Gods that I remained safe. Truth is, I struggled believing in one God, never mind plural!”
Donna was beginning to understand, but remained bemused as she looked up from the floor to the girl she had found herself driven to protect. The idea that anyone could believe in just one God perplexed her. Surely there would be too many responsibilities for just one God to handle.
Shaking off her confusion, Donna stood up from the floor and made her way to the open window. Behind her, Cassie sat by the breakfast bar, wrapped in a shawl Donna had found in the bedroom. Donna needed to understand the connection she shared with this girl. They had to be connected somehow, or else what would explain the otherworldly, gut-wrenching pull towards her that Donna had experienced as soon as Cassie had stepped within a thousand mile radius.
Who was Cassie Sandsmark? That’s what Donna kept asking herself. What did Cassie mean to her? Though Donna supposed that to answer that question, she’d have to figure out just who she was herself.
Cassie sat up quickly, shrugging off her trepidation for the thrill of the adventure. “So is that it then?” she asked. Donna moved away from the glass to face her. “Are you my guardian angel? The person the vision said would protect me?” “I…?” Donna honestly didn’t know.
“Come to think of it: why are you wearing battle armour?” Cassie’s eyes were wide as she looked upon her fearsome protector, stood against the New York City skyline through the thin glass, “Are you - like - one of those Amazons? Like Wonder Woman?”
“NO.” Donna spat, suddenly recoiling. Immediately, she realised her mistake as she watched Cassie flinch back. Calmly, she elaborated. “No. I’m nothing like… I’m not Wonder Woman…”
“Oh.”
“But I think I am supposed to keep you safe… from whatever monster is trying to harm you.”
 
♦ ♦ T ♦ ♦
 
Vic fumbled with his keys, half distracted by his conversation with Gar as he stood in the hallway of his new apartment block on Payton Street, attempting to unlock the door. He’d gotten into his new place over Christmas, his last home desolated when Shimmer and Mammoth attacked him at his home.
“So the guy goes through all the trouble of hiring these supervillains to steal your… thing and then just mysteriously ends up dead?” Gar jested, his voice animated and non-serious.
Finally, Vic turned the key and the two entered into his new apartment. The place was much more spacious than Vic’s previous place, with a more open-planned layout which Gar definitely considered an upgrade. Though a winter chill emanated through the place, visually it was quite warm, the Christmas decorations still up and on full display almost a month later.
“The guy was my dad’s friend, Gar.” Vic replied, irritated. “If he weren’t such a jackass, he’d be like my uncle, so please take this seriously.”
Vic pushed forward, pulling off his thick, grey hoodie and laying it across the arm of his couch along with his keys.
“Dude, he tried to kill you!” exclaimed Gar, “That doesn’t exactly scream close family friend.”
“A man is dead!” Vic snapped, his tone now deadly serious, something entirely unheard by Gar until now from his usually somber but amicable friend, “Get a grip.”
Gar lingered in the doorway. He took a deep breath. Vic was right. “I– I’m sorry, man. I guess that’s just how I cope with... things. He was your friend, I get it.” He stepped forward, slowly pushing the door shut behind him.
Jacob Finlay wasn’t a friend of Victor’s. In fact, Vic could never stand the man. But it saddened Vic deeply to know that he was gone, even after all the hurt he had caused him.
Slowly, Vic made his way over to the fridge, feeling his stomach yearn for a snack. He opened the metallic white door and looked upon its contents with disappointment. He sighed.
“I know we just got in, but do you fancy heading back out for food?” Gar suggested earnestly, “I know a diner that’s cool with people like us in downtown Blüd.”
’People like us’. Vic was used to that meaning something else, but he supposed he did have that in common with his plucky, if not crass, young friend. They were both outcasts due to their appearance. Vic was half-metal, Gar was green. On the rare occasions Vic had left the house as himself (rather than the superhero Cyborg) he made sure to never stay too long in one place, as to avoid anyone noticing his horrific visage under his shadowy hood.
“How do you mean?”
“This old couple owns the place,” Gar explained, “Man’s blind and the lady’s… well, actually open-minded and reasonable.”
Vic froze, actually considering the proposal. It’d been a long time since he’d sat down in a restaurant - however fancy - and eaten out. He looked to the empty, open fridge and then back to his discarded hoodie. His eyes flashed.
“Sure,” he smiled, “You wanna grab your coat this time? You’ve been complaining about the cold all day!”
Gar grinned back at Vic, deeply pleased by his response. “Yeah, one sec!” He ran, bounding across the floor and over to the hat stand Vic rarely seemed to use. From there, Gar pulled down his orange-red Parka and pulled it on in one fluid motion. As he did, Vic made his way to the couch and slipped back into his hoodie, zipping it up slowly.
The two smiled at each other and Vic - now stood closer to the door - pushed forward, wrapping his metal grip around the door handle and pulled it down. As he swung the door open, there stood a startled Dick Grayson, moments from ringing the doorbell"
“Woah!” Dick jumped.
“Dick!” Gar exclaimed, “We’re heading out to eat, you coming?”
“You?” Dick replied, pleasantly surprised to see Vic trying something new. “Uh, yeah… sure!”
From the pocket of his black pea coat, Dick produced the purple box he’d been handed earlier, nervously fidgeting with it between his hands slightly as he glanced up and down from it to Vic. “Though, uh… I actually came to give you this, Vic.”
Dick held the box out. Vic looked open-eyed to Gar and then back to him. “Dick, you already got me a Christmas present,” he laughed, walking over and taking the purple-wrapped present, eyeing it curiously.
“No, it’s… it’s from your dad. Cos you missed Christmas.”
Beat.
Vic looked back up to Dick. “Dick, I missed Christmas cos I can’t stand the man. He made me into this… thing, and it was his lies that almost got me killed.” Without even looking, Vic tossed the box over his shoulder, it hitting the ceiling and ricocheting before landing between the couch and the television.
“Vic…” Gar moaned disappointedly.
“What?!” Vic cried, “He’s human garbage. Has that brilliant mind and uses it to constantly fuck with my life. I don't need him. He’d be better off dead.”
Dick and Gar both looked at him in stunned silence. Dick’s eyes flitted back and forth and his moved out of the doorway and into the apartment. He looked to Gar, an orphan like himself, and then to Vic. He nodded. “How about we go get that dinner?”
Vic took a breath, calming himself. He nodded reluctantly, his confidence shaken but determined not to let his dad ruin his victory. “Right, yeah. Sure!” he affirmed himself. “I– I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to–”
“It’s fine.” Dick smiled, turning to face the open doorway, “Let’s just g–”
Just as Dick had moved, replacing him in the doorway was a tall, hooded figure: one none of the teens had met before yet one that all three recognised.
“Holy fuck!” Gar exclaimed, “It’s Wonder Woman!”
 
♦ ♦ T ♦ ♦
 
“I was speaking with my former teacher Athena after I sla–” “Wait, Athena?” Gar interrupted, starstruck, as if he were taking notes, “As in Popped Out of Zeus’ Forehead Athena?” Diana nodded solemnly. The Amazon sat on a kitchen chair, comfortably at a level to explain herself to the three young men, who each stood.
“Athena revealed to me a child of both Ares and Circe roamed the man’s world, that… an adversary of mine sought to hurt the child, for the misdoings Circe had committed against her.”
Diana told the tale, her eyes hollow as she seemed to hold back some inconvenient truths, something Dick picked up on easily, “I was told that I would find the child in New York City, and knew that Batman had established a strike team nearby. So here I am, hoping you can lend me your assistance.”
Dick sighed, running his hand through the front tuft of his dark hair. He’d never met the Amazon warrior before, but knew that she and Bruce were friendly, with Diana being part of his ‘Justice League’ initiative. But Dick was disappointed to hear how the Teen Titans were perceived by the older heroes. “Batman had nothing to do with it. I formed this team, uh… we formed this team. Together.”
Diana smiled. “Of course.”
“So that’s all you know?” Vic replied, addressing the matter at hand, “Some kid is in danger in New York City. No idea whereabouts?”
“That was where I was hoping that you could help me,” said Diana, addressing Vic directly.
Vic smiled softly to have garnered any sort of attention from somebody as powerful and well… beautiful as Wonder Woman. “Well I suppose we could tr–”
“This doesn’t have anything to do with that other Wonder Chick running about New York? Does it?” Gar interjected, perhaps a bit louder than he had intended.
Diana cocked her head, moving her vision away from Vic and towards Gar, “I don’t know what you mean.”
“This amazing, gorgeous warrior. Long, flowing black hair. This awesome armour, all jet black and mysterious. She looked a lot like you actually.”
Diana’s eyes darted open as she bolted to her feet. Could it be? The doppelganger she had faced in the Trials, who had fought with her own skill and ferocity.* Had Ares sent her here? It was more than possible that she was an emissary of Ares, posthumously working to secure Ares’ progeny.
It was as Athena had said to Diana: death was the only way to transfer the mantle of God of War.*
“Gods…” she groaned, “I’ve fought her before. She is far more dangerous than the woman I seek to stop. If she gets her hands on Ares’ daughter, the consequences could be dire. We need to find them both and pray that she hasn’t already found her.”
Dick stepped forward. “I’ve been trying to locate this black-armoured Amazon since Gar ran into her a couple months back. She’s been being very discrete. I’ve tried everything.”
Vic stepped forward. “I haven’t.”
 
♦ ♦ T ♦ ♦
 
“Don’t you have any games? Or a telly or something?” Cassie sighed, stood peering out of the frosted window onto the New York skyline.
“Telly?” Donna asked, standing a few feet behind Cassie, surrounded by a whole load of nothing. “I’m afraid not. This place doesn’t have much outside of shelter, and sometimes warmth.”
“Then what do you do for fun?” Cassie had been cooped up in Donna’s squat for some time now and was beginning to grow restless. Despite the drab decor, the place was an improvement on sitting alone in her hotel room, but the boredom was killing her.
“I’ve found the city to be the best source of entertainment,” Donna explained very matter-of-factly, “Although I think it might be best for us to stay put until we know you are safe.”
“And when is that? When the thing hunting me gets bored? When I get a follow up message from the angel?”
“I don’t think that was an angel.”
“That isn’t the point!” Cassie groaned, frustrated. “I just wanna have some fun!”
Donna stopped. She thought for a moment and then nodded. “Alright.”
Donna couldn’t recall much of her past, but did remember one thing that she had always enjoyed: combat. She didn’t remember all the details, but Donna used to love sparring as a child, with Diana, the monster that now plagued her nightmares. It was always so exciting, and it really seemed to develop an interpersonal closeness between the combatants. She smiled before removing her silver gauntlets slowly.
“Here.”
“What?” Cassie asked.
“Take them.” Donna held the gauntlets out for Cassie, one in each hand. Carefully, the younger girl took them and slipped her wrists into them.
“They’re too big.”
Donna grinned as the gauntlets seemed to magically adjust, twisting and forming into a perfect fit around Cassie’s forearms. Donna then flicked her own wrist forward, causing a cloud of black smoke to erupt from the palm of her hand. Cassie recoiled, watching the black smoke move and stretch before giving way to the form of a solid, golden sword. Donna gripped the blade tightly and pointed it forward.
“Wait, what?”
“We shall fight?”
“Fight?!”
“Well, you won’t have a weapon, so it’s more like exchanging blows. I’ve found it quite enjoyable.”
“Right…” Cassie replied, reluctant, “So what’s gonna happen?”
“I will make an attack with my blade, and you shall bring up your gauntlets to intercept. You’ll find them more than capable of deflecting my attacks.”
“Like…?” Cassie practiced thrusting her arms back and forward, flashing the silver gauntlets as she moved.
“Exactly! We’ll start slow.”
And they did. Beat-by-beat, Donna would move the sword towards Cassie, giving her plenty of time to bring up her gauntlets to clink against the blade. One strike. Two strikes. Three strikes. Four. Gradually, Donna increased her speed, and with her Cassie would begin to move with increasing ease and agility. She was a natural.
As they grew more and more rapid, their movements also increased in intensity. Before they knew it, both began to shift their footing until they were dancing back and forth around the room, sparks flying each time Donna’s blade crashed against Cassie’s forearms. First, Cassie began to cackle with laughter, then allowing Donna to join with a more conservative chuckle. But all this ceased with a knock at the door.
They stopped. Cassie glanced over to the door first, then Donna. They weren’t expecting visitors. Donna flourished the blade in her hand, furrowing her brow and narrowing her gaze, ready to attack whatever came through.
And just as expected, the door came crashing, the wood obliterated into splinters. Through it leapt a fearsome warrior clad in red and gold, a beast of a woman, a terrifying figure. The demon Diana.
Nightwing had tried to knock, but the Amazon warrior wasn’t willing to wait. Bursting into the room, Diana charged at Ares’ puppet, seeing her with her blade drawn, the young Cassie Sandsmark terrified beside her.
Donna slashed out as Diana came crashing down on her, unarmed yet incredibly dangerous, but the strike was fruitless as Diana evaded with ease, delivering a mighty punch to the centre of Donna’s chest. Diana of Themyscira didn’t need a weapon.
Donna stumbled, kicking over a small coffee table as Cassie scrambled out of the way. The demon moved incredibly quickly, far faster than Donna could comfortably comprehend. She hadn’t been this fast when they’d fought before. First, another punch to the chest, then grabbing Donna by the arm - catching her sword strike - to pull her close, only to pound her back into the ground.
As Donna hit the ground, she skidded, whipping back around onto her feet, beaten but ready to persist. “Your master is dead,” Diana seethed, “And you shall fall with the rest of his forces!”
As the two warriors clashed, Cassie scurried away, ducking and running for the door. However, she found herself blocked by the bodies of three young men: one some kind of robot man, one green and the other clad in blue and black spandex. “Ack!”
“We’re not gonna hurt you!” Cyborg panicked, holding his large, cold hands up.
“Like shit you don’t!” Cassie spat, her teeth clenched, pivoting back around to watch her friend fight off the red-and-gold blur of a woman. Wait... That was Wonder Woman!
Donna grumbled, moving her sword arm back and shifting her off-hand forward. She then allowed her bronze shield to materialise magically in her grip with a flash of amber light. “I see you have new toys.” Diana smirked, her gaze as steely as her black-clad doppelganger.
She was right. Donna recalled easily that in their last encounter, the one that haunted her, she fought Diana unarmed. Now, Donna couldn’t recall how she came to wield the magic required to summon her weapons, but she was more than happy to use them if it meant having an edge over the tyrant that had previously terrorised her.
Donna didn’t reply. Instead, she threw herself forward, shifting her weight rapidly across the wooden floorboards, heaving the mass of her shield against Diana enough to stagger her, giving her an opening to strike with her blade. Diana cried out and kicked, colliding her leg into her adversary’s shield and dragging her strike to the right.
Donna saw through this trick immediately, it was an attempt to disarm; to wrench the shield right from her hand. It wouldn’t work. Not if Donna kept as best a grip as she could. However, Donna had underestimated the strength of her foe, and subsequently found herself launched across the room along with the shield, leaving her sword by her feet, crashing down on a pile of wood in the corner of the shabby apartment.
She attempted to pull herself up, but couldn’t, her armour too heavy on top of the weight of her aching bones. Diana persisted however. Breathing heavily, she pulled herself over to her floored quarry, scooping her foe’s blade off of the ground as she moved. Finally, she stopped. Planting her crimson boots into the wooden floor, Diana loomed over Donna, a relentless, fearsome monster.
Diana looked upon her quarry, this supposed emissary of Ares, deliberating over her fate. Perhaps she had overestimated her, for the puppet Diana had fought during the Trials fought with such ferocity and intensity that she now found entirely lacking. It was as if she was another soul inhabiting the body of that abomination.
But that moment of hesitation on Diana’s part was exactly what Donna need to act. In one fluid motion, Donna burst from her pile on the floor with new mobility. After delivering a kick to the monster’s head, Donna swung her empty hand out in a wide arc. Instantly, the sword vanished from Diana’s grip, reappearing in Donna’s own with a black flicker.
As Diana staggered, Donna let loose with slash after slash before finally winding up for an overhead attack, a killing blow. However–
“STOP!!”
A shock wave exploded through the room, launching its contents as well as the two combatants. Donna hit the ground and skidded once more. Bloodied, she looked up to see Cassie between her and Diana, her silver gauntlets glowing white hot, her face mortified.
“She doesn’t want to hurt you!” she screamed to Donna before turning to look upon Diana, scraping herself off of the floor, “You don’t want to hurt each other.”
Donna stood up uneasily, her eyes still wild, waiting for Diana to attack once again.
“I…” Diana mumbled, gripping her bloodied arm.
“You’re Wonder Woman. You save people.” Cassie explained, her voice compassionate yet quivering, “And I don’t need saving. Not from Donna. She’s my friend.”
Diana painted, finally looking upon her adversary with new eyes, “... Donna?”
Donna’s eyes flickered, filled with doubt. She looked to Cassie, then finally to Diana, and instead of a demon, saw an injured woman. She lowered her sword.
Diana saw this and recalled her parting words to the black-clad warrior, when Diana had pummeled her into the bloody waters during the Trials. 'Barely real and always a copy. What kind of emptiness must exist inside you?'
But when she focused on Donna’s eyes, those that so closely resembled her own, she saw not the rage she had seen during the Trials, but fear. Pure fear. There, she remembered.
“Great Hera, what have I done…” Diana groaned, looking upon her friend with a long forgotten familiarity. “Donna…”
But the moment wouldn’t last, for Gar was moments too late to cry out, warning them as a fearsome feline figure crashed through the window, emerging from the urban jungle of New York City’s skyline. There, the animal moved immediately for Diana, launching into an all out assault, no longer Dr Barbara Minerva, but The Cheetah.
 
 
Continued in Wonder Woman #21
 

So this is a really juicy tale per se and it involves my cousin who is the same age as me and has been my best friend since a youngin and his 52 year old twice divorced with 4 kids girlfriend. I will refer to my cousin as Jordan and his woman as Sara. I'm from Tucson & Jordan lives in Palm Springs, California and we talk about once a week. About 6 months ago he told me had met a girl but didn't really call her his girlfriend and therefore I didn't really probe because it's common for him to meet girls off of tinder and then discard of them shortly thereafter. He told me she was older and that really didn't surprise me either because when he was living in Iowa with his father prior to moving back to PS he had dated a woman in her 30's . On top of that, when he was 16 him and his friends went to Huntington beach and at the hotel they were staying at he lost his virginity to a 30 year old woman. Ever, since then it's been "I like my older women cousin" to which I would reply yeah you like that roast beef (IK I'm gross) so its always been a running joke between him and I. Anyways, he never really mentioned this girl anymore after the first mention and so I didn't think anything of it figuring he just moved on like the rest of em. Fast forward a few months, his dad who lives in Tucson came over to my families house for a steak dinner and he said he'd been having terrible headaches but we really didn't think anything of it because he's a former collegiate wrestler who'd go for walks everyday and was in pretty good shape for a guy in his mid 60's. Not even 2 days later Jordan's father calls him and says the headaches are persisting, he can't keep food down, and the pain is so bad that he can't even sleep. Jordan like the good son he is drives straight down to Tucson to take his dad to the hospital (he knew his father was stubborn and wouldn't call us or even EMS to take him). While Jordan was down here he gave me a call to update me on the condition of his father (diagnosed a brain bleed) and mentioned he had came to town with his girlfriend and wanted me to meet her but they had already turned back around and left town because he had to get back to work. So I told him next time. My dad and I picked up his father from the hospital the next day and he was a bit weak and had lost ten pounds but it sounded like he was recovering. In the mean time, Jordan had called me and we were discussing the wellbeing of his father and it was on that phone call that he revealed to me his girlfriend was quote "50". I told him I didn't care as long as he was happy and told him I was happy for him but also reminded him that his twenties are precious and girls who are 50 can't have children lol. He knew I had his best interest at heart and everything was going to be fine as I really didn't care that much. Next couple of days go by and Jordan calls me scared because his dad won't pick up his phone and when I tried his number I got an answer but no one speaking on the other end, being a former EMT that scared the shit out of me and so I rushed over there. When I got to my Uncles house I banged on the window and door and got no reply and so I called the FD and they got in through the window and sure enough he was in the state he was before he went to the hospital but worse (could only speak in single words and couldn't get out of bed). The FD suspected a stroke and took him back to the hospital. So after getting him transported, I gave Jordan a call and he shot right back down to Tucson with his girlfriend Sara and had re insisted that I meet her so I just said sure give me a call after you see your dad and I'll come meet her. A whole day or two goes by and I hear nothing and figure out he had gone back to PS. So I'm thinking he was apprehensive about me meeting her which I thought was odd bc I pretty much said I didn't care. Fast Forward a couple weeks and his dad is out of the hospital and recovering at our house in our guest bedroom. He's getting physical and speech therapy in our home for a perceived stroke resulting in a brain hemorrhage (I think). 2-3 weeks go by and the vomiting, headaches and weakness return so we are advised by the home care nurse to take him to the hospital again so we take him to a different hospital nearest our house. Not even 2 days go by and it was determined through a CAT scan that he had lung cancer that had already metastasized to his brain. Of course we're all devastated and Jordan comes back into town again with Sara to see his dad. My cousin never brought her to the hospital (although Im wondering if he would've if covid didn't limit visitors) but my dad who was spending every day all day with my Uncle said Jordan would show up late to their agreed upon time to visit his dad (who is essentially non verbal at his point) and meet with DR.'s to discuss his condition and treatment and then leave after a few hours to return to the hotel with his woman. (sometimes saying he was going to return but never doing so) Pretty much it was determined based on his dads condition that radiation and chemo weren't an option and that it'd be best to put him in hospice. After all this was determined he was put into hospice care at our house and Jordan had to return to PS to get back to work planning to come visit every weekend. A few days go by and we could tell his condition was worsening quickly so he came down Saturday morning and arrived at our house Saturday evening and not even 2 hours after Jordan arrived his dad passed away in his arms. Even though he was non verbal and couldn't even open his eyes I truly believe his dad waited for him. So we arranged the funeral services and Jordan made it known that he'd be accompanied by Sara and we'd all be meeting her for the first time. Of course with us being so close he wanted me to meet her first. The day before the funeral I go over to their hotel to meet her and so i get there at first and it's a bit awkward as expected but we have a couple beers and get to talking and that's when I find out that she's actually 52, has 4 kids and is twice divorced mentioning that her first husband "picked up the bottle" after she left him and ended up dying from something liver related. I then proceed to ask how they met and they look at each other and go "you want to tell him? No you tell him" she says so my cousin goes on to tell me they met at a Casino and in my head i'm like hmmm I've only been to a casino once but I gathered that if you're looking for wifey material you best look elsewhere. So im a little skeptical but I brush it off because I'm there to support my cousin who just lost his father. We have, a couple more beers and hit the hot tub at their hotel and continue to reminisce mostly telling stories about his father and then we go back inside to watch Jordan's raiders play. This is where the tides shift, we're watching the game and one of the players has a fairly large diamond chain dangling from his neck and Sara goes "Put that N***er chain away" and I look to the left bug eyed and say "Woah, that's not cool. I don't play that shit" she's dead silent and so is my cousin and it's awkward between her and I the rest of the time but the part that irked me the most was my cousin was sort of rude and condescending towards ME for the rest of the night. So at that point im thinking to myself ok I definitely do not like this woman at all...whatsoever. But his dads funeral is tomorrow and it's not about me so we just gotta trudge along. To make matters even worse, I give Jordan a copy of the eulogy my brother wrote. My brother is his dad's Godson and Jordan didn't want to do the eulogy because he was still so hurt and shocked and public speaking isn't his strong suit. My brother asks if there was anything he'd like to add, perhaps a story or something he wanted to mention about his father. He takes a pen and writes "I'd like to thank my Uncle ***** (my dad) for taking all the appropriate measures to get my dad the care he needed while he was sick and especially Sara for her endless love and support during these hard times" or something along those lines. Keep in mind his father never met this girl and neither had anyone in our family except for the shit impression she left on me. Now before I even expressed my opinion of her to my parents they said yeah we're not putting that shit in there and so that comment was left out completely. Are my family and I blowing things out of proportion or is this completely un fucking acceptable? You have to understand, from the time Jordan's father got sick until he passed it was literally 5 weeks. We have never experienced sudden death in our family like this and we spent 90% of those 5 weeks at his side and when he died so suddenly it literally crushed us. It was just a huge slap in the face to us and most importantly his father that all he had to say was that he was thankful for this woman with shit character who came into his life 7 months ago. So my question to you guys and please please please I need some insight is with Christmas around the corner and him most likely wanting to bring this woman into our household for xmas festivities what should we do? Am I overreacting? I just feel bad because my cousin is living with this piece of work in Palm Springs and she's literally all he has there and if I were to tell him don't bring her for xmas dude I just feel like that would be another blow on top of just recently losing his father. At the same time, my family and I know she's not good for him therefore don't want her around, my cousin is not mature for his age and I just don't see anything remotely positive amounting from this girl. Please help, I'm so lost as to what to do in this situation.
PS his mom and my mom have already expressed their disdain towards her to Jordan and while I haven't directly but I'm sure he knows what I'm thinking. He doesn't seem to care and has a skewed perception of her.

Best run in terms of anything
William Wyler: The Westerner, The Heiress, The Little Foxes, The Letter, The Best Years of Our Lives, Mrs. Miniver, Memphis Belle, and Thunderbolt.
Orson Welles: Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, The Lady from Shanghai, Macbeth, Journey into Fear, The Stranger, Black Magic, and Follow the Boys.
John Huston: The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Key Largo, We Were Strangers, In This Our Life, Across the Pacific, and Let There Be Light.
Howard Hawks: Red River, I Was a Male War Bride,A Song Is Born, To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Sergeant York, His Girl Friday, Air Force, and Ball of Fire.
Alfred Hitchcock: Notorious, Rebecca, Shadow of a Doubt, Spellbound, Rope, Suspicion, Under Capricorn, Foreign Correspondent, Saboteur, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Lifeboat, and The Paradine Case.
Preston Sturges: The Palm Beach Story, Sullivan's Travels, Unfaithfully Yours, The Great Moment, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek,I Married a Witch, Christmas in July, The Lady Eve, and The Great McGinty.
George Cukor: The Philadelphia Story, Gaslight, Adam's Rib, Susan and God, Her Cardboard Lover, Keeper of the Flame, Edward, My Son, A Double Life, I'll Be Seeing You, and Desire Me.
John Ford: The Grapes of Wrath, The Long Voyage Home, Tobacco Road, How Green Was My Valley, We Sail at Midnight, Sex Hygiene, 3 Godfathers, My Darling Clementine, Torpedo Squadron,December 7th: The Movie,They Were Expendable, Fort Apache, The Battle of Midway, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and The Fugitive.
Jacques Tourneur: Cat People, I Walked With a Zombie, Out of the Past, Canyon Passage, The Leopard Man, Phantom Raiders, Days of Glory, Easy Living, Experiment Perilous, and Berlin Express.
Vittorio De Sica: Shoeshine, Bicycle Thieves, Heart and Soul, The Children Are Watching Us, The Gates of Heaven, A Garibaldian in the Convent, Teresa Venerdì, Maddalena, Zero for Conduct, and Red Roses.
Roberto Rossellini: Rome, Open City, Paisan, Germany, Year Zero, L'Amore, The White Ship, A Pilot Returns, and The Man with a Cross.
Ernst Lubitsch: To Be or Not to Be, The Shop Around the Corner, Heaven Can Wait, Cluny Brown, That Uncertain Feeling, A Royal Scandal, and That Lady in Ermine.
Powell and Pressburger: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Red Shoes, A Canterbury Tale, I Know Where I'm Going!, A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus, Contraband, 49th Parallel, One of Our Aircraft Is Missing,The Small Back Room,and An Airman's Letter to His Mother.
Michael Curtiz: Casablanca, Mildred Pierce, The Sea Wolf, Yankee Doodle Dandy, This Is the Army, Night and Day, Romance on the High Seas, Santa Fe Trail, Virginia City, The Sea Hawk, Captains of the Clouds, Dive Bomber, Life with Father, Mission to Moscow, Janie, Passage to Marseille, Roughly Speaking, The Unsuspected, My Dream Is Yours, Flamingo Road, and The Lady Takes a Sailor.
John M. Stahl: Leave Her to Heaven, The Foxes of Harrow, The Eve of St. Mark, Our Wife, Immortal Sergeant, Holy Matrimony, The Keys of the Kingdom, The Walls of Jericho, Father Was a Fullback, and Oh, You Beautiful Doll.
Billy Wilder: The Major and the Minor, The Lost Weekend, Double Indemnity, Five Graves to Cairo, Death Mills, The Emperor Waltz, and A Foreign Affair.
Nicholas Ray: They Live by Night, A Woman's Secret, and Knock on Any Door.
Elia Kazan: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Pinky, Boomerang, The Sea of Grass, and Gentleman's Agreement.
Frank Capra: It’s a Wonderful Life, Arsenic and Old Lace, State of the Union, and Meet John Doe.
Carol Reed: The Third Man, Odd Man Out, The Fallen Idol, The Stars Look Down, Girl in the News, A Letter from Home, Kipps, The Young Mr. Pitt, Night Train to Munich, The New Lot, and The Way Ahead.
David Lean: In Which We Serve, This Happy Breed, Brief Encounter, Blithe Spirit, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, and The Passionate Friends.
Mervyn LeRoy: Waterloo Bridge, Random Harvest, Little Women, East Side, West Side, Without Reservations, Any Number Can Play, The House I Live In, Madame Curie, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Blossoms in the Dust, Johnny Eager, Escape, and Homecoming.
Vincente Minnelli: Meet Me in St. Louis, I Dood It, Cabin in the Sky, Yolanda and the Thief, The Clock, Undercurrent, Ziegfeld Follies, The Pirate, Madame Bovary, and Till the Clouds Roll By.
Charles Walters: Ziegfeld Follies, Easter Parade, Good News, and The Barkleys of Broadway.
Leo McCarey: The Bells of St. Mary's and Once Upon a Honeymoon.
Jean Renoir: The Woman on the Beach, The Southerner, The Diary of a Chambermaid, Swamp Water, and This Land is Mine.
Anthony Mann: Moonlight in Havana, Sing Your Way Home, My Best Gal, Nobody's Darling, Dr. Broadway, Strangers in the Night, Bamboo Blonde, Raw Deal, T-Men, Desperate, Railroaded!, Border Incident, Reign of Terror, Two O'Clock Courage, and Strange Impersonation.
King Vidor: The Fountainhead, On Our Merry Way, Duel in the Sun, An American Romance, Comrade X, Northwest Passage, H. M. Pulham, Esq., and Beyond the Forest.
Robert Rossen: All The King’s Men, Johnny O'Clock, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, A Child Is Born, Edge of Darkness, Out of the Fog, Blues in the Night, A Walk in the Sun, The Undercover Man, Desert Fury, and Body and Soul.
Fred Zinnemann: The Search, Kid Glove Killer, Eyes in the Night, The Clock, Act of Violence, The Seventh Cross, Little Mister Jim, and My Brother Talks to Horses.
Robert Wise: Criminal Court, The Curse of the Cat People, Mademoiselle Fifi, The Body Snatcher, Born to Kill, The Set-Up, A Game of Death, Blood on the Moon, and Mystery in Mexico.
Akira Kurosawa: Sanshiro Sugata, Sanshiro Sugata Part II, The Most Beautiful, One Wonderful Sunday, Drunken Angel, The Quiet Duel, Stray Dog, The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail, and No Regrets for Our Youth.
Otto Preminger: Laura, Fallen Angel, Daisy Kenyon, Forever Amber, Whirl Pool, The Fan, Margin for Error, In the Meantime, Darling, and Centennial Summer.
Jules Dassin: Thieves' Highway, A Letter for Evie, Brute Force, Two Smart People, The Naked City, Young Ideas, The Canterville Ghost, Nazi Agent, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Affairs of Martha, and Reunion in France.
Charlie Chaplin: The Great Dictator, and Monsieur Verdoux.
George Stevens: The More the Merrier, The Talk of the Town, Penny Serenade, Woman of the Year, Vigil in the Night, On Our Merry Way, The Nazi Plan, and I Remember Mama.
Yasujirô Ozu: Late Spring, Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family, A Hen in the Wind, There Was a Father, and Record of a Tenement Gentleman.
Fritz Lang: Secret Beyond the Door, The Woman in the Window, Scarlet Street, Cloak and Dagger, Man Hunt, Ministry of Fear, Hangmen Also Die!, Western Union, Moon Tide, and The Return of Frank James.
Raoul Walsh: High Sierra, White Heat, Colorado Territory, Fighter Squadron, Silver River, Pursued, The Man I Love, Cheyenne, Uncertain Glory, Objective, Burma!, Manpower, Desperate Journey, Northern Pursuit, The Strawberry Blonde, They Died with Their Boots On, Gentleman Jim, Dark Command, and They Drive by Night.
Vincent Sherman: Nora Prentiss, Mr. Skeffington, Adventures of Don Juan, The Unfaithful, The Hard Way, Old Acquaintance, The Hasty Heart, In our Time, Pillow to Post, Janie Gets Married, Saturday's Children, The Man Who Talked Too Much, Underground, Flight from Destiny, Across the Pacific, and All Through the Night.
Anatole Litvak: The Snake Pit, City for Conquest, The Battle of Russia, Why We Fight, Sorry, Wrong Number, This Above All, The Long Night, All This, and Heaven Too, and Castle on the Hudson.
Max Ophüls: Caught, The Reckless Moment, The Exile, Letter from an Unknown Woman, Vendetta, and Sarajevo.
Charles Vidor: Gilda, Cover Girl, Over 21, The Loves of Carmen, The Tuttles of Tahiti, The Desperadoes, Together Again, A Song to Remember, The Man from Colorado, New York Town, Ladies in Retirement, My Son, My Son!, and The Lady in Question.
Edgar G. Ulmer: Detour, Isle of Forgotten Sins, Girls in Chains, Tomorrow We Live, Club Havana, The Strange Woman, My Son, the Hero, Jive Junction, Strange Illusion, Bluebeard, Her Sister's Secret, The Pirates of Capri, Ruthless, The Wife of Monte Cristo, and Carnegie Hall.
Maya Daren: At Land, Meshes of the Afternoon, A Study for Choreography for Camera, Ritual in Transfigured Time, and Meditation on Violence.
Victor Fleming: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Joan of Arc, Adventure, A Guy Named Joe, and Tortilla Flat.
Joseph L. Mankiewicz: A Letter to Three Wives, Escape, House of Strangers, The Late George Apley, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Dragonwyck, and Somewhere in the Night.
Robert Bresson: Angels of Sin and Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne.
Luis Buñuel: Gran Casino and The Great Madcap.
Fei Mu: Spring in a Small Town, Confucius, The Beauty, A Wedding in the Dream, The Magnificent Country, Songs of Ancient China, and The Little Cowheard.
Kenji Mizoguchi: The 47 Ronin, A Woman of Osaka, Flame of My Love, The Love of the Actress Sumako, Victory Song, Utamaro and His Five Women, Women of the Night, Victory of Women, The Famous Sword Bijomaru, Three Generations of Danjuro, The Life of an Actor, and Miyamoto Musashi.
Douglas Sirk: Lured, Sleep, My Love, Hitler's Madman, Summer Storm, A Scandal in Paris, Shockproof, and Slightly French.
René Clément: The Battle of the Rails, The Damned, Mr. Orchid, and The Walls of Malapaga.
Robert Hamer: Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Spider and the Fly, It Always Rains on Sunday, San Demetrio London, and Pink String and Sealing Wax.
Robert Siodmak: Criss Cross, Cry of The City, Dark Mirror, Phantom Lady, The Killers, The Spiral Staircase, Christmas Holiday, The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry, Time Out of Mind, Son of Dracula, The Suspect, The Night Before the Divorce, Someone to Remember, Cobra Woman, The File on Thelma Jordon, The Great Sinner, West Point Widow, My Heart Belongs to Daddy, and Fly-by-Night.
Humphrey Jennings: Spring Offensive, Welfare of the Workers, London Can Take It!, A Diary for Timothy, This Is England, Words for Battle, Fires Were Started, Listen to Britain, The Silent Village, The True Story of Lili Marlene, The Eighty Days, Myra Hess, A Defeated People, The Cumberland Story, and The Dim Little Island.
William Dieterle: Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet, Kismet, This Love of Ours, Syncopation, The Searching Wind, Rope of Sand, Portrait of Jennie, The Accused, I'll Be Seeing You, A Dispatch from Reuters, The Devil and Daniel Webster, Tennessee Johnson, and Love Letters.
Edmund Goulding: The Razor's Edge, Nightmare Alley, The Shocking Miss Pilgrim, Everybody Does It, Claudia, Of Human Bondage, Flight from Folly, Forever and a Day, Old Acquaintance, The Constant Nymph, The Great Lie, and Til We Meet Again.
Luchino Visconti: Ossessione and La Terra Trema.
Ernest B. Schoedsack: Dr. Cyclops and Mighty Joe Young.
Roy Del Ruth: It Happened on 5th Avenue, Red Light, The Babe Ruth Story, The Chocolate Soldier, Topper Returns, He Married His Wife, Du Barry Was a Lady, and Ziegfeld Follies.
Rene Clair: And Then There Were None, I Married a Witch, Man About Town,It Happened Tomorrow, The Flame of New Orleans, and Forever and a Day.
John Cromwell: Victory, Abe Lincoln in Illinois, So Ends Our Night, Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake, Anna and the King of Siam, Dead Reckoning, The Enchanted Cottage, Since You Went Away, and Night Song.
Richard Fleischer: Trapped, Make Mine Laughs, The Clay Pigeon, Follow Me Quietly, Banjo, Design for Death, So This Is New York, Bodyguard, and Child of Divorce.
Norman Z. McLeod: Jackass Mail, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Panama Hattie, The Paleface, and Little Men.
Dorothy Arzner: Dance, Girl, Dance and First Comes Courage.
George Sidney: Pilot No. 5, Holiday in Mexico, Ziegfeld Follies, Thousands Cheer, Anchors Aweigh, The Harvey Girls, Bathing Beauty, The Three Musketeers, Cass Timberlane, and The Red Danube.

Best run in terms of anything
William Wyler: The Westerner, The Heiress, The Little Foxes, The Letter, The Best Years of Our Lives, Mrs. Miniver, Memphis Belle, and Thunderbolt.
Orson Welles: Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, The Lady from Shanghai, Macbeth, Journey into Fear,The Stranger, Black Magic, and Follow the Boys.
John Huston: The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Key Largo, We Were Strangers, In This Our Life, Across the Pacific, and Let There Be Light.
Howard Hawks: Red River, I Was a Male War Bride,A Song Is Born, To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Sergeant York, His Girl Friday, Air Force, and Ball of Fire.
Alfred Hitchcock: Notorious, Rebecca, Shadow of a Doubt, Spellbound, Rope, Suspicion, Under Capricorn, Foreign Correspondent, Saboteur, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Lifeboat, and The Paradine Case.
Preston Sturges: The Palm Beach Story, Sullivan's Travels, Unfaithfully Yours, The Great Moment, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek,I Married a Witch, Christmas in July, The Lady Eve, and The Great McGinty.
George Cukor: The Philadelphia Story, Gaslight, Adam's Rib, Susan and God, Her Cardboard Lover, Keeper of the Flame, Edward, My Son, A Double Life, I'll Be Seeing You, and Desire Me.
John Ford: The Grapes of Wrath, The Long Voyage Home, Tobacco Road, How Green Was My Valley, 3 Godfathers, December 7th: The Movie, My Darling Clementine, They Were Expendable, We Sail at Midnight, Fort Apache, Torpedo Squadron ,The Battle of Midway, How to Operate Behind Enemy Lines, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and The Fugitive.
Jacques Tourneur: Cat People, I Walked With a Zombie, Out of the Past, Canyon Passage, The Leopard Man, Phantom Raiders, Days of Glory, Easy Living, Experiment Perilous, and Berlin Express.
Vittorio De Sica: Shoeshine, Bicycle Thieves, Heart and Soul, The Children Are Watching Us, The Gates of Heaven, A Garibaldian in the Convent, Teresa Venerdì, Maddalena, Zero for Conduct, and Red Roses.
Roberto Rossellini: Rome, Open City, Paisan, Germany, Year Zero, L'Amore, The White Ship, A Pilot Returns, and The Man with a Cross.
Ernst Lubitsch: To Be or Not to Be, The Shop Around the Corner, Heaven Can Wait, Cluny Brown, That Uncertain Feeling, A Royal Scandal, and That Lady in Ermine.
Powell and Pressburger: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Red Shoes, A Canterbury Tale, I Know Where I'm Going!, A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus, Contraband, 49th Parallel, One of Our Aircraft Is Missing, The Small Back Room, and An Airman's Letter to His Mother.
Michael Curtiz: Casablanca, Mildred Pierce, The Sea Wolf, Yankee Doodle Dandy, This Is the Army, Night and Day, Romance on the High Seas, Santa Fe Trail, Virginia City, The Sea Hawk, Captains of the Clouds, Dive Bomber, Life with Father, Mission to Moscow, Janie, Passage to Marseille, Roughly Speaking, The Unsuspected, My Dream Is Yours, Flamingo Road, and The Lady Takes a Sailor.
John M. Stahl: Leave Her to Heaven, The Foxes of Harrow, The Eve of St. Mark, Our Wife, Immortal Sergeant, Holy Matrimony, The Keys of the Kingdom, The Walls of Jericho, Father Was a Fullback, and Oh, You Beautiful Doll.
Billy Wilder: The Major and the Minor, The Lost Weekend, Double Indemnity, Five Graves to Cairo, Death Mills, The Emperor Waltz, and A Foreign Affair.
Nicholas Ray: They Live by Night, A Roseanna McCoy, Woman's Secret, and Knock on Any Door.
Elia Kazan: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Pinky, Boomerang, The Sea of Grass, and Gentleman's Agreement.
Frank Capra: It’s a Wonderful Life, Arsenic and Old Lace, State of the Union, and Meet John Doe.
Carol Reed: The Third Man, Odd Man Out, The Fallen Idol, The Stars Look Down, Girl in the News, A Letter from Home, Kipps, The Young Mr. Pitt, Night Train to Munich, The New Lot, and The Way Ahead.
David Lean: In Which We Serve, This Happy Breed, Brief Encounter, Blithe Spirit, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, and The Passionate Friends.
Mervyn LeRoy: Waterloo Bridge, Random Harvest, Little Women, East Side, West Side, Without Reservations, Any Number Can Play, The House I Live In, Madame Curie, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Blossoms in the Dust, Johnny Eager, Escape, and Homecoming.
Vincente Minnelli: Meet Me in St. Louis, I Dood It, Cabin in the Sky, Yolanda and the Thief, The Clock, Undercurrent, Ziegfeld Follies, The Pirate, Madame Bovary, and Till the Clouds Roll By.
Charles Walters: Ziegfeld Follies, Easter Parade, Good News, and The Barkleys of Broadway.
Leo McCarey: The Bells of St. Mary's and Once Upon a Honeymoon.
Jean Renoir: The Woman on the Beach, The Southerner, The Diary of a Chambermaid, Swamp Water, and This Land is Mine.
Anthony Mann: Moonlight in Havana, Sing Your Way Home, My Best Gal, Nobody's Darling, Dr. Broadway, Strangers in the Night, Bamboo Blonde, Raw Deal, T-Men, Desperate, Railroaded!, Border Incident, Reign of Terror, Two O'Clock Courage, and Strange Impersonation.
King Vidor: The Fountainhead, On Our Merry Way, Duel in the Sun, An American Romance, Comrade X, Northwest Passage, H. M. Pulham, Esq., and Beyond the Forest.
Robert Rossen: All The King’s Men, Johnny O'Clock, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, A Child Is Born, Edge of Darkness, Out of the Fog, Blues in the Night, A Walk in the Sun, The Undercover Man, Desert Fury, and Body and Soul.
Fred Zinnemann: The Search, Kid Glove Killer, Eyes in the Night, The Clock, Act of Violence, The Seventh Cross, Little Mister Jim, and My Brother Talks to Horses.
Robert Wise: Criminal Court, The Curse of the Cat People, Mademoiselle Fifi, The Body Snatcher, Born to Kill, The Set-Up, A Game of Death, Blood on the Moon, and Mystery in Mexico.
Akira Kurosawa: Sanshiro Sugata, Sanshiro Sugata Part II, The Most Beautiful, One Wonderful Sunday, Drunken Angel, The Quiet Duel, Stray Dog, The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail, and No Regrets for Our Youth.
Otto Preminger: Laura, Fallen Angel, Daisy Kenyon, Forever Amber, Whirl Pool, The Fan, Margin for Error, In the Meantime, Darling, and Centennial Summer.
Jules Dassin: Thieves' Highway, A Letter for Evie, Brute Force, Two Smart People, The Naked City, Young Ideas, The Canterville Ghost, Nazi Agent, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Affairs of Martha, and Reunion in France.
Charlie Chaplin: The Great Dictator, and Monsieur Verdoux. George Stevens: The More the Merrier, The Talk of the Town, Penny Serenade, Woman of the Year, Vigil in the Night, On Our Merry Way, The Nazi Plan, and I Remember Mama.
Yasujirô Ozu: Late Spring, Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family, A Hen in the Wind, There Was a Father, and Record of a Tenement Gentleman.
Fritz Lang: Secret Beyond the Door, The Woman in the Window, Scarlet Street, Cloak and Dagger, Man Hunt, Ministry of Fear, Hangmen Also Die!, Western Union, Moon Tide, and The Return of Frank James.
Raoul Walsh: High Sierra, White Heat, Colorado Territory, Fighter Squadron, Silver River, Pursued, The Man I Love, Cheyenne, Uncertain Glory, Objective, Burma!, Manpower, Desperate Journey, Northern Pursuit, The Strawberry Blonde, They Died with Their Boots On, Gentleman Jim, Dark Command, and They Drive by Night.
Vincent Sherman: Nora Prentiss, Mr. Skeffington, Adventures of Don Juan, The Unfaithful, The Hard Way, Old Acquaintance, The Hasty Heart, In our Time, Pillow to Post, Janie Gets Married, Saturday's Children, The Man Who Talked Too Much, Underground, Flight from Destiny, Across the Pacific, and All Through the Night.
Anatole Litvak: The Snake Pit, City for Conquest, The Battle of Russia, Why We Fight, Sorry, Wrong Number, This Above All, The Long Night, All This, and Heaven Too, and Castle on the Hudson.
Max Ophüls: Caught, The Reckless Moment, The Exile, Letter from an Unknown Woman, Vendetta, and Sarajevo.
Charles Vidor: Gilda, Cover Girl, Over 21, The Loves of Carmen, The Tuttles of Tahiti, The Desperadoes, Together Again, A Song to Remember, The Man from Colorado, New York Town, Ladies in Retirement, My Son, My Son!, and The Lady in Question.
Edgar G. Ulmer: Detour, Isle of Forgotten Sins, Girls in Chains, Tomorrow We Live, Club Havana, The Strange Woman, My Son, the Hero, Jive Junction, Strange Illusion, Bluebeard, Her Sister's Secret, The Pirates of Capri, Ruthless, The Wife of Monte Cristo, and Carnegie Hall.
Victor Fleming: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Joan of Arc, Adventure, A Guy Named Joe, and Tortilla Flat.
Joseph L. Mankiewicz: A Letter to Three Wives, Escape, House of Strangers, The Late George Apley, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Dragonwyck, and Somewhere in the Night.
Robert Bresson: Angels of Sin and Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne.
Luis Buñuel: Gran Casino and The Great Madcap.
Fei Mu: Spring in a Small Town, Confucius, The Beauty, A Wedding in the Dream, The Magnificent Country, Songs of Ancient China, and The Little Cowheard.
Kenji Mizoguchi: The 47 Ronin, A Woman of Osaka, Flame of My Love, The Love of the Actress Sumako, Victory Song, Utamaro and His Five Women, Women of the Night, Victory of Women, The Famous Sword Bijomaru, Three Generations of Danjuro, The Life of an Actor, and Miyamoto Musashi.
Douglas Sirk: Lured, Sleep, My Love, Hitler's Madman, Summer Storm, A Scandal in Paris, Shockproof, and Slightly French.
René Clément: The Battle of the Rails, The Damned, Mr. Orchid, and The Walls of Malapaga.
Robert Hamer: Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Spider and the Fly, It Always Rains on Sunday, San Demetrio London, and Pink String and Sealing Wax.
Robert Siodmak: Criss Cross, Cry of The City, Dark Mirror, Phantom Lady, The Killers, The Spiral Staircase, Christmas Holiday, The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry, Time Out of Mind, Son of Dracula, The Suspect, The Night Before the Divorce, Someone to Remember, Cobra Woman, The File on Thelma Jordon, The Great Sinner, West Point Widow, My Heart Belongs to Daddy, and Fly-by-Night.
Humphrey Jennings: Spring Offensive, Welfare of the Workers, London Can Take It!, A Diary for Timothy, This Is England, Words for Battle, Fires Were Started, Listen to Britain, The Silent Village, The True Story of Lili Marlene, The Eighty Days, Myra Hess, A Defeated People, The Cumberland Story, and The Dim Little Island.
William Dieterle: Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet, Kismet, This Love of Ours, Syncopation, The Searching Wind, Rope of Sand, Portrait of Jennie, The Accused, I'll Be Seeing You, A Dispatch from Reuters, The Devil and Daniel Webster, Tennessee Johnson, and Love Letters.
Edmund Goulding: The Razor's Edge, Nightmare Alley, The Shocking Miss Pilgrim, Everybody Does It, Claudia, Of Human Bondage, Flight from Folly, Forever and a Day, Old Acquaintance, The Constant Nymph, The Great Lie, and Til We Meet Again.
Luchino Visconti: Ossessione and La Terra Trema.
Ernest B. Schoedsack: Dr. Cyclops and Mighty Joe Young.
Roy Del Ruth: It Happened on 5th Avenue, Red Light, The Babe Ruth Story, The Chocolate Soldier, Topper Returns, He Married His Wife, Du Barry Was a Lady, and Ziegfeld Follies.
Rene Clair: And Then There Were None, I Married a Witch, Man About Town,It Happened Tomorrow, The Flame of New Orleans, and Forever and a Day.
John Cromwell: Victory, Abe Lincoln in Illinois, So Ends Our Night, Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake, Anna and the King of Siam, Dead Reckoning, The Enchanted Cottage, Since You Went Away, and Night Song.
Richard Fleischer: Trapped, Make Mine Laughs, The Clay Pigeon, Follow Me Quietly, Banjo, Design for Death, So This Is New York, Bodyguard, and Child of Divorce.
Norman Z. McLeod: Jackass Mail, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Panama Hattie, The Paleface, and Little Men.
Dorothy Arzner: Dance, Girl, Dance and First Comes Courage.
George Sidney: Pilot No. 5, Holiday in Mexico, Ziegfeld Follies, Thousands Cheer, Anchors Aweigh, The Harvey Girls, Bathing Beauty, The Three Musketeers, Cass Timberlane, and The Red Danube.

Below is a rundown of letters J-L of Epstein's contacts. Last year, I wrote about letters A-C. You can check that out here (https://www.reddit.com/conspiracy/comments/cpis3n/a_brief_rundown_of_the_first_ten_pages_of_jeffrey/).
I also wrote about letters D-F on July 5, 2020. You can check that out here (https://www.reddit.com/conspiracy/comments/hlrba8/a_notsobrief_rundown_of_letters_df_in_jeffrey/).
I posted letters G-I on July 13, 2020. You can check that out here (https://www.reddit.com/conspiracy/comments/hqko0y/a_notsobrief_rundown_of_letters_gi_in_jeffrey/). There are some misspelled names. Epstein entered their names like this.
I have bolded some of the more interesting connections and information, but there could be much more that I overlooked. I hope something here strikes an interest in someone and maybe we can get more investigations out of this. Please, if you know anything more about any of these people than what is presented here, post below. I am working off of the unredacted black book found here: https://www.coreysdigs.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Jeffrey-Epsteins-Little-Black-Book-unredacted.pdf
J-L
Jackson, Michael (Samuel Gen): Yes, this is a reference to MJ the singer. However, the numbers listed are not MJ’s. They belong to Samuel Gen, a lawyer for a financial advisor (Jerry Seinfeld’s brother-in-law) who worked for MJ for a while. This one was a reach for Epstein.
Jacobson, Julian: Likely a reference to a Managing Director at several London-based investment firms.
Jagger, Mick: World-famous lead singer of the Rolling Stones. Has been seen in photographs with Ghislaine Maxwell. Actress Rae Dawn Chong claims she slept with Jagger when she was 15 years old.
Jagger, Hatti: Former fashion director for Vogue, Harper’s, and Tatler. Also works as a celebrity stylist and at fashion shows.
jake: Not enough info.
Jameel, Mohammed: Saudi Arabian businessman. CEO of Abdul Latif Jameel, a collective of family-owned businesses that specialize in transportation, investing, and real estate. Royal pervert Prince Andrew infamously partied on Jameel’s yacht during the 2011 London riots (source: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/prince-andrew-frolicks-on-yacht-with-mystery-147496).
James, Susie: Founder and owner of 123 Send Ltd, a company that provides payment terminals.
Janklow, Linda: Literary agent and wife of Mort Janklow, the primary owner of Janklow & Nesbit Associates, the largest literary agency in the world. Attended a party hosted by Sony Pictures with Epstein, although they are not pictured together (source: https://www.patrickmcmullan.com/search/?event=5b3ef4fb9f92906676446c21). In 2007, Ghislaine Maxwell threw an exclusive party (80 carefully selected guests) at her NYC townhouse to celebrate the opening of a new shop by designer Allegra Hicks (granddaughter-in-law of Earl Mountbatten, who you can read more about in my G-I Epstein thread under India Hicks’s name). One of the eighty guests was Julie Landlow, daughter of Linda and Mort.
Jarecki, Nancy & Andrew: Andrew is a filmmaker, co-founder of Moviefone, and was a producer on Catfish, the documentary that launched the popular MTV show. Andrew’s family was reportedly friends with Jeffrey Epstein. There is an EXCELLENT thread on the connections between the Jarecki family (especially Andrew and Nick’s father, Henry) and Epstein here (source: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1200044576947556352.html). Quick summary: Henry was born in Nazi Germany; flew on the Lolita Express; is an expert in psychotropic drugs; owns two islands in the British Virgin Islands; founded the first youth center in the British Virgin Islands; lived 2 miles from Epstein in NYC; owns and donates to many sketchy foundations, schools, and organizations; has donated at least $1 million to leftist organizations). Andrew’s wife Nancy created bettybeauty, a company that specializes in hair dye for your nether regions (not kidding).
Jarecki, Nick: The movie director brother of Andrew and son of Henry Jarecki (see link under Andrew & Nancy Jarecki for more info). Reportedly dated Courtney Love (also in Epstein’s ‘Black Book’) in 2015. Photographed with Ghislaine Maxwell at a Gucci party (source: https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ghislaine-maxwell-and-nick-jarecki-attend-gucci-hosts-a-news-photo/591605562).
Jason (canada): Not enough info. Could be artist Jason Wasserman based out of Canada. The second number listed traces back to Station 16 Gallery in Montreal.
Javier: Javier Banon is former Co-head of Merchant Banking at Lehman Brothers and current Founding Partner of Trilantic Europe.
Jeffries, Tim: Ownedirector of Hamiltons Gallery in London. Best known for dating models Elle Macpherson, Claudia Schiffer, Kylie Minogue and Sophie Dahl (also in Epstein’s ‘Black Book’). Jefferies has attended fundraisers for ARK Academy and the NSPCC. He truly cares about children.
Johnson, Richard & Nadine: Nadine is a millionaire public relations guru. Nadine is a good friend of Ghislaine Maxwell’s. Some clients of Nadine Johnson include spirit cooking extraordinaire Marina Abramovic and hotelier Andre Balazs, good friend of Ghislaine. Richard is one of the most well-known gossip columnists and was the editor of Page Six for twenty-five years. There is a great thread detailing the Johnsons’ ties to the Clintons, Balazs, and others here (source: https://threader.app/thread/1162148078981394432). Basically, Richard Johnson is friendly with the Clintons and, as Page Six Editor, purposely did not report or downplayed stories on the Clintons and Nadine’s clients. He also took bribes. Considering Nadine is a good friend of Ghislaine, it would not be a stretch to assume that Richard could have buried stories on Maxwell and Epstein. I could spend 10 pages on the shady connections these two have.
Johnson, Lucy: Not enough info.
Jones, Ann & Mick: Mick is the guitarist of Foreigner, an immensely popular rock band in the ‘70s and ‘80s. His wife, Ann, is a jewelry designer, and friend of Ghislaine. Ann Jones was photographed at a party with Ghislaine and Donald Trump in 1997 (source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/85818/epstein-madam-ghislaine-maxwell-milked-billionaire-dad-and-threw-lavish-parties-with-beautiful-women/)
Josephson, Barry & Jackie: Barry is a producer and the former President of Production for Columbia Pictures. Jackie is his ex-wife and also a producer.
Karella, Kalliope: Wife of Prince Pierre d’Arenberg. Kalliope is a good friend of Ghislaine Maxwell.
Kastner, Ron: No info found.
Katz, Anton & Robin Plant: Anton is CEO and co-founder of Talos Trading, which specializes in cryptocurrency. Anton and Robin are friends of and have been photographed with Ghislaine (source: https://www.patrickmcmullan.com/search/?person=5b3ef50c9f929066764df255).
Katzeneilenbogen, Mark: Long-time investment banker who used to be based out of South Africa.
Keeling, Sarah: There is a Sarah Keeling in London who is a former British government official with 20 years of experience in national security and intelligence experience, however, the phone number listed has a 410 area code, which leads back to eastern Maryland. Inconclusive.
Kegan, Rory: A nightclub designer and creator. Co-founder of the exclusive, celebrity-filled London nightclub, Chinawhite. Prince Andrew (source: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9818190/prince-andrew-pictures-cast-doubt-epstein-sex-slave/) and Prince Albert of Monaco are regulars. Chelsea Clinton has been there, as well (source: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/bright-night-for-china-white-6299739.html). Other patrons include: Prince Andrew, Kate Middleton, George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio, and more.
Keidan, Amanda: Owner of Keidan Jewelry.
Keidan, Jon: An entertainment executive-turned-venture capitalist. As an entertainment exec, Keidan worked with John Legend, Dave Matthews Band, and Nappy Roots. Keidan serves on the Council of Foreign Relations, a powerful group that some believe determines foreign policy. Former and current members include former presidents, current and former politicians, business magnates, and celebrities (https://www.cfr.org/membership/roster).
Keller, Georgie: Interior designer.
Kellette Frayse, Caroline: Fashion editor at Vogue and Tatler (both magazines constantly come up in Epstein’s contacts). Former girlfriend of Imran Khan, whose name has come up frequently. Passed away in 2014. Her husband, Jean-Marc Fraysse, is a French investment banker.
Kelmenson, Leo-Arthur & Gayl: Leo was an advertising and marketing guru who has been credited with saving Chrysler. Friend and advisor to Lee Iacocca, former President of Chrysler. He worked as Special Project Officer for the U.S. Department of State under President John F. Kennedy and AG Robert F. Kennedy. He had tons of connections. His former maid accused him of sexual harassment in 2010 (source: https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/maid-harassment-suit-claims-ad-exec-leo-arthur-kelmenson-madman-pervy-mad-men-wannabe-article-1.156915). Kelmenson died less than two months after the story came out.
Kennedy Cuomo, Andrew & Kerry: Andrew is the current governor of New York. It’s no secret that Cuomo is willing to look the other way on sexual deviancy as long as he receives a payoff. Cuomo halted a probe into the handling of Harvey Weinstein’s case in New York after receiving $25,000 from Weinstein’s law firm (source: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bjbqg4/andrew-cuomo-received-dollar25000-donation-from-harvey-weinsteins-law-firm). Andrew’s brother, CNN Host Chris Cuomo famously told viewers “not to get caught up in the intrigue of who Epstein’s friends are” (source: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/07/11/cnn_cuomo_lets_not_get_caught_up_in_the_intrigue_of_who_was_friends_with_jeffrey_epstein.html). Perhaps, he was covering for his brother. Kerry Kennedy is Cuomo’s ex-wife of fifteen years, the daughter of RFK, and a close friend of Ghislaine Maxwell. Supposedly, Kennedy provided Ghislaine with informal illegal advice (source: https://www.splicetoday.com/politics-and-media/the-nth-word-and-m-theory).
Kennedy Jr. Ted: Son of Ted Kennedy and nephew of JFK and RFK. Ted Jr. dabbled in politics and currently works as a lawyer. His father, Ted, was a notorious sexual abuser (allegedly).
Kennedy, Bobby & Mary: Bobby is the son of RFK and nephew of JFK. Bobby is a known drug abuser and philanderer. Bobby kept a sex journal detailing his conquests while he was married (source: https://nypost.com/2013/09/08/rfk-jr-s-sex-diary-of-adultery/). His ex-wife, Mary, committed “suicide” two years after their divorce. Before committing suicide, Mary told a friend that she “feared for her life” and Bobby told her that she “would be better off dead” (source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3231043/How-serial-cheater-Bobby-Kennedy-Jr-strutted-family-home-exposing-private-parts-demanded-m-nage-trois-wife-Mary-went-public-Cheryl-Hines-telling-Mary-things-easier-killed-herself.html).
Kennedy, Ethel: Widow of RFK Sr. and mother of eleven, including Bobby Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, and Joseph Kennedy II.
Kennedy, Jo: Joseph Kennedy II is the son of RFK Sr. and Ethel. Served in the House of Representatives from 1987-1999. In 1973, Joseph was convicted of negligent driving after paralyzing a young woman. He was fined $100.
Kennedy, Senator Edward: Brother of JFK and RFK, Ted Kennedy served as U.S. Senator of Massachusetts for 47 years. Besides politics, Ted is best known for the Chappaquiddick incident in which a young female speechwriter for RFK drowned to death when he lost control of his vehicle while driving across a bridge. He was charged with leaving the scene of an incident and given a two month suspended sentence. Ted was also notorious for his extramarital affairs. Senator Kennedy once hosted a party at his house attended by Bill Clinton and Lynn Forester de Rothschild. Rothschild wrote a letter to Clinton afterwards in which she mentions that they spoke about Epstein (source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7283825/Jeffrey-Epstein-injured-jail-cell-following-possible-suicide-assault.html). It is unclear what was said or what Rothschild’s connection could possibly be.
Kersner, Sol: South African accountant and hotel and casino magnate who died of cancer in 2020. Kerzner was a close friend of Donald Trump. They even worked together to create The Palm, a man-made island off the coast of Dubai (source: https://www.ft.com/content/46393280-d9f9-11da-b7de-0000779e2340). Kerzner was also close friends with Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York (https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/sarah-ferguson-the-duchess-of-york-sol-kerzner-chairman-and-news-photo/83768272), Naomi Campbell (https://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/news-photo/naomi-campbell-and-sol-kerzner-pose-backstage-during-the-news-photo/82869744), and Bill Clinton (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8144647/As-Sol-Kerzner-dies-aged-84-RICHARD-KAY-looks-riotously-louche-life.html). Kerzner was very good friends with Nelson Mandela and built his casino resorts with Gerard Inzerillo, who you can read about in my G-I ‘Black Book’ thread.
Khayat, Antoine, Jana, & George: Jana is an heiress and businesswoman. Jana is the niece of Galen Weston, a close friend of Prince Charles. George is her brother and CEO of Associated British Foods. Jana’s husband, Antoine, is a former banker and currently runs their vineyard.
Kidd, Jemma: Kidd is a British makeup artist, fashion model, and aristocrat. Married to Arthur Wellesley, Earl of Mornington, the son of the Duke and Duchess of Wellington, making her a Countess. Kidd is an interesting figure with elite connections. From 2005-2012, Ghislaine Maxwell served as Director of Jemma Kidd Make-Up Limited, a U.K. makeup company, which was founded by Kidd. Not only did Ghislaine serve as Director, but she was also a shareholder, along with the Rothschild family (source: https://nationalpost.com/news/world/in-hiding-for-years-epstein-accomplice-ghislaine-maxwell-spotted-in-l-a-burger-shop). If you click around the PDFs on this website (https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/05340072/filing-history), you can see everything. The 16 JUN 2006 PDF on page 3 shows you a list of Officers and shareholders of the company. Jemma Kidd has also attended charity events for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) (https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-beckham-nspcc-party-jemma-kidd-106882170.html). Her sister, Jodie, is also a huge supportefundraiser of the NSPCC, as well as the Help a London Child and Monsoon Accessorize Trust charities, both of which help out disadvantaged children (source: https://www.looktothestars.org/celebrity/jodie-kidd).
King, Abby: No info found.
Kirwin Taylor, Charlie & Helen: Charles is an investment banker. He was former CEO of Credit Suisse in Switzerland, an investment firm which shows up a few times through Epstein’s contacts. His wife, Helen, is a journalist.
Kirwin Taylor, Peter: British financier. Was a member of the Pilgrims Society (https://isgp-studies.com/pilgrims-society-membership-list), a group that has included the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, and other elites amongst its ranks.
Kissinger, Dr. Henry A: Former U.S. Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under Nixon. Kissinger has long been accused of committing war crimes (ex: carpet bombing Cambodia, installing fascist governments in Chile and Argentina, genocide, extending our stay in Vietnam, etc) yet somehow managed to win a Nobel Peace Prize in 1973. Kissinger once said, “Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy.” Kissinger served with Epstein on the Trilateral Commission. Kissinger has also been a member of the Bilderberg Group, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Aspen Institute, and Bohemian Grove. Long thought to be an advocate for a globalist New World Order, Kissinger is a scumbag of the highest order. His connections with Gates, the Clintons, Bush Sr. and Jr., the Rockefellers, and the Rothschilds are well-documented. If anyone here has ever done any research regarding the NWO, you have undoubtedly seen Kissinger’s name several times.
Klee, Rupert & Charlotte de: Rupert is a Director with Oakridge Group, a property development and investment company. His wife, Charlotte, is the producer of the religious plays at Wintershall.
Klesch, Johnathan: Former Director of Klesch Trading, which specializes in industrial commodities. It has offices in Russia, Malta, Surrey, and in London, down the block from Buckingham Palace.
Koch, David: Co-founder of Koch Industries, a diversified manufacturing conglomerate. Koch Industries has stolen oil from Indian reservations, committed hundreds of polluting, labor, and workplace safety violations. When he ran on the Libertarian ticket as the vice presidential nominee in 1980, Koch aimed to abolish Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare benefits, and minimum wage. Koch and Epstein were friends. Epstein even attended a party at Koch’s Southampton home (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7270735/Jeffrey-Epstein-Trumps-closest-advisers-Wilbur-Ross-Rudy-Giuliani-Steve-Mnunchin.html). Koch has also been photographed with Ghislaine Maxwell (https://www.reddit.com/KochWatch/comments/dcjth3/david_koch_ghislaine_maxwell_getty_images/). Thankfully, Koch died last year.
Kohl, Astrid: A businesswoman involved in pharmaceuticals. Married to Prince Alexander of Liechtenstein. Daughter-in-law of Prince Philipp of Liechtenstein. Niece of former German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl.
Kotic, Boby: CEO of Activision Blizzard, a video game holding company. Used to run several electronic companies. From 2003-2008, he was a director at Yahoo! In 2012, he became a non-executive director of Coca-Cola.
Kotze, Alex Von: British businessman involved in the tech industry.
Kravetz, Anna: Not much info found. Has a degree in finance from Wharton School and used to live on Park Avenue in NYC.
Krooth, Caryn: A successful real estate agent based out of Los Angeles
Kudrow, Alistar: No info found.
Lal, Dalamal: Director of Akron Corp. & Akron (Nig.) Ltd., a food and beverage import company based out of Nigeria.
Lalaunis, Demetra: Daughter of Ilias Lalaounis, a pioneer in Greek jewelry and a world renowned goldsmith.
Lambert, Christopher: Well-known actor.
Lambert, David: Former partner, managing director, and VP at Goldman Sachs.
Lambert, Edward: Lampert is a billionaire hedge fund manager and former CEO of Sears. Lampert graduated from Yale University in 1984 where he was a member of Skull and Bones. Rumored pedophile David Geffen gave Lampert $200 million to invest in 1992, when Lampert was just 29 years old. Lampert made Geffen $1 billion.
Lambos Duff & John: Karen “Duff” Duffy is an actress, model, and TV personality. She has had memorable roles as the love interest in “Blank Check” and as JP Shay in “Dumb and Dumber.” Duffy has battled with sarcoidosis, a deadly central nervous system disease, since the mid-’90s. She credits Harvey Weinstein with saving her life (https://nypost.com/2000/10/03/coping-with-class-this-model-patient-suffers-in-style/). John is a former banker with Morgan Stanley and current President of GCA-US, an investment banking company.
Lang, Caroline: An art expert and Chairman at Sotheby’s Switzerland.
Lange, Dieter: Former Partner at WilliamHare, an international law firm with offices in London, Berlin, the U.S., Beijing, and Brussels. Passed away in 2010.
Larsen Janet: The only one I can find is a Business Psychologist based out of London.
Laurie, Jonathan: Founder and CEO of Cheyne Capital Management, an alternate investment fund firm.
Lavlada, Laura D.B. de: Laura Diez Barroso is a Mexican businesswoman. She sold her stock in Televisa for $726 million in 1993. Since then, she has been the head of several other companies.
Lawford Christopher & Jean: Christopher was an actor and relative of the Kennedys. His uncles were JFK, RFK, and Ted Kennedy. Many of his relatives appear in Epstein’s ‘Black Book’. His first wife, Jeannie, was an ad-sales associate for New York Magazine.
Lawton Paul: Two British businessmen with the same name come up. Both have extensive resumes. Could be either one.
Lazar, Christopher & Marie: Christophe seems to be a realtor in Paris, but I am not completely sure.
Le Bon, Simon & Jasmine: Simon is the lead singer of Duran Duran. His wife, Yasmin, is/was a fashion model. Yasmin is represented by Models1 in London. Models1 also represents Epstein and Ghislaine’s friend, Naomi Campbell. Le Bon has been accused of sexual assault in the past (https://www.freep.com/story/news/2018/07/12/simon-le-bons-accuser-sex-assault-claim-speaks-out-awful/777106002/).
Le Fur, Jean-Yves: French businessman and magazine creator. He was once Princess Stephanie of Monaco’s ex-fiance. More notably, Le Fur was the one who discovered supermodel Karen Mulder (his girlfriend at the time) on the floor after she attempted suciide. Mulder blew the lid off the rampant rape and sexual abuse that she and her modeling colleagues had suffered at the hands of businessmen, royalty, celebrities, and government officials. She was even the protege of Epstein collaborator (allegedly), Jean Luc Brunel (https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article238351108.html).
Le Marg Willie: No info found.
Lea, Piers: CEO of Learning Technologies Group, a workplace digital learning company.
Leeds, Jeffrey: Co-founder and Managing Partner of Leeds Equity. One of Leeds Equity’s partner companies is Endeavor Schools, which runs private preschools, primary schools, and secondary schools in Florida and 11 other states (https://www.leedsequity.com/news/articles/leeds-equity-partners-completes-investment-in-endeavor-schools). They are also partners with Fusion Educational Group (now Fusion Academy), which runs a chain of private secondary schools (https://www.leedsequity.com/news/articles/leeds-equity-partners-completes-investment-in-fusion-education-group). Former teacher Kris White, now the head of Fusion Academy in Palo Alto, allegedly told a student that he was in love with her and wrote her a note saying he was “obsessed” with her. (https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/07/12/teachers-named-in-presentation-high-sex-investigation-kept-working-as-bay-area-educators-for-years/). This story was just published on July 12, 2020. Hypothetically, if one wanted to procure underage children, it would certainly help if the head of the school was on board and possibly a pedophile himself. According to this former teacher at Fusion Academy, “many students struggle with learning differences, behavioral issues, and/or addictions” (https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Fusion-Academy-RVW21260629.htm). In other words, the downtrodden and vulnerable. Fusion Academy refers to itself as a non-traditional school that focuses on individual students. Seems like a great opportunity. Leeds was also good friends with Epstein (https://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/n_7912/) and has close ties to Colin Powell and Rudy Giuliani (https://nypost.com/2016/09/14/colin-powell-wont-vote-for-her-because-of-bill-clinton/).
Lefcourt, Jerry: Famous lawyer who defended Epstein in 2007. That same year, Epstein donated $250,000 to the Washington-based Foundation for Criminal Justice, where Lefcourt was a board member.
Lester, Dominick: Founder and owner of MortgageFlex Systems, a mortgage lending company.
Levine, Phillip: Ex-Miami Beach mayor and close friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton. He claims that he doesn’t know how Epstein got his contact information… all 13 phone numbers, including those of his driver and housekeepers (https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/ex-miami-beach-mayor-philip-levine-listed-13-times-in-jeffrey-epsteins-black-book-11242116)!
Liman, Doug: Popular Hollywood director and producer. He directed Swingers, The Bourne Identity, and a couple of Tom Cruise movies.
Lindeman-Barnet, Sloan & Roger: Sloan has been a New York Times bestseller and an on-air and print reporter for NBC, ABC, and Reuters. Sloan and Roger also sit on the board of the Spence School in New York City, a private K-12 all-girls school (https://www.spenceschool.org/2017---news-detail?pk=999120). Her husband, Roger, is the founder of beauty.com and Chairman and CEO of Shaklee, a highly successful nutrition company. Donald Trump, Melania Trump, and Ghislaine Maxwell all attended the publication party for Sloan’s book in 2008 (https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ghislaine-maxwell-anton-katz-and-robin-katz-attend-sloan-news-photo/619921016 ; https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/donald-trump-melania-trump-sloan-barnett-and-roger-barnett-news-photo/619921180).Other guests included Steve Mnuchin, Epstein and Maxwell chum Carol Mack, and a bunch of others also featured in Epstein’s ‘Black Book’ (Colin Cowie, Anton and Robin Katz, and Vittorio Assaf).
Lindemann, Adam & Elizabeth: Adam is a billionaire investor and art gallery owner. Brother of Sloan (mentioned just above). Elizabeth is his ex-wife. She is often photographed with many other people mentioned in Epstein’s ‘Black Book.’
Lindemann, George(Sr.) & Freida: Now-deceased billionaire father of Sloan and Adam. George was the CEO and Chairman of Southern Union, a pipeline company and served as Vice President of the Metropolitan Opera Association of NYC. His wife, Frayda, is the President and CEO of the Metropolitan Opera.
Lindsay, Alex & Jaclyn: Alex is a war documentary maker who rents out his loft at the address Epstein has listed (https://www.independent.co.uk/property/house-and-home/property/spheres-of-influence-72014.html).
Lindsey, Ludovic: Racecar driver.
Lindsley, Blake: Actress who was in two movies directed by Doug Liman (also in Epstein’s book) - “Swingers” and “Getting In.”
Linley, David: Princess Margaret’s son, Queen Elizabeth II’s nephew, and first cousin of Prince Charles and Prince Andrew. Linley is a furniture maker and the 2nd Earl of Snowdon. He used to be the Chairman of Christie’s auction house in the UK.
Liogos, Babis: No info found, but one of the numbers traces back to Thylan Associates, a real estate and investment firm.
Lister, Paul: Likely the director of legal services and company secretary for Associated British Foods, or it could be a conservationist. Not sure which.
Livanos, Arriette: I believe this Arietta Livanos, wife of Greek shipping magnate, Stavros Livanos. Arietta passed away in 1986.
Lo Cascio, Robert: Founder and CEO of LivePerson, a tech company that develops conversational commerce. LoCascio was photographed with Ghislaine at an after party in 2012 (https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ghislaine-maxwell-and-robert-locascio-attend-osklen-spring-news-photo/1169681572).
Loeb, Alex: Alexandra is the daughter of John Loeb, former U.S. Ambassador to Denmark under Reagan and former Delegate to the United Nations. John Loeb was also a special advisor to Nelson Rockefeller. Alexandra is also a descendant of the Lehman family (Lehman Brothers). Alexandra graduated from Spence Day School for Girls (mentioned earlier under Sloan and Roger Lindemann-Barnett).
Lonsdale, Richard: British investment banker.
Lorenzoti, Eva Vivre: Founder of luxury online retailer, Vivre.com and is a TV spokesperson/personality. Good friend of Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell and a couple of Rockefellers were guests at her house for a dinner party in 2010 (https://hauteliving.com/2010/11/doris-world-eva-lorenzottis-dinner-party/105102/).
Lorimer, John & Lottie: John works as a private investor and as a realtor. His wife, Lottie, is an interior designer.
Louthan Guy J: Prolific British film producer and former boyfriend of actress Liz Hurley (also in Epstein’s book).
Love, Courtney: Famous drug addict, musician, and actress who likely killed her husband, Kurt Cobain. Courtney famously claimed that Prince Andrew showed up to her house late one night in 2000 looking for sex. She has since retracted this claim. The entries under Love’s name all say ‘Dana’ next to them. This is Courtney’s ex-boyfriend, Dana Giacchetto. Giacchetto was considered to be the “stockbroker to the stars” and was friends with JFK Jr, Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, and many others. He ripped his clients off of millions. Even more telling, Giacchetto was involved in a sex abuse case against X-Men director Bryan Singer (https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/news/leonardo-dicaprios-convicted-ex-money-manager-denies-bryan-050000120.html). He died in 2016 after he partied too hard and overdosed (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dana-giacchetto-dead-stockbroker-stars-902383).
Lowell, Ivana: Guinness heiress who wrote about Harvey Weinstein’s sexual abuse while she worked at Miramax in her book back in 2010 (https://www.irishcentral.com/culture/entertainment/guinness-heiress-spoke-out-about-predator-harvey-weinstein-7-years-ago). She also dated Harvey’s younger brother, Bob.
Loyd Mark: No info found.
Lucas, Colin: The godfather of Boris Johnson, England’s current Prime Minister. Lucas is a British historian and university administrator. Served as Vice Chancellor of Oxford University from 1997-2004.