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/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 47d939f2-81d1-04be-3c64-d0f9fcca9bf5 | What is there in the garage? | [
"a car"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | a63e0654-84ec-135a-f79b-2433d24bf97a | What do they put the ground up pills in? | [
"the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | c8a22dc0-925a-b192-c42d-3684d081c3bd | Who comes to assess William's property? | [
"a solicitor working for Mr. Hazell"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | a635975a-a0c3-6dc1-c433-3f09c7784aa1 | Who is Mr. Snoddy | [
"Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 6af88615-1f3a-c280-d5d3-1ac9cdef0680 | What does Danny do as an act of kindness? | [
"Releases the pheasants"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 91fa155e-f95e-9757-def7-d6ab1fb65d6d | Who breaks their ankle? | [
"William"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 2a20289d-33ef-bc70-5441-65a6dc14bbd5 | Who hunts pheasants? | [
"Hazell and his guests."
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 318f0e4a-f543-67d7-cdcf-190214161fc8 | Who threatens to have Danny and William arrested for poaching and trespassing? | [
"Hazell"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 4932a6a0-7f19-623f-2323-d24130f4ed15 | Who deliberately falsifies a report in order to claim that William is innocent | [
"Enoch Samways"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 9e79f4fe-736c-b725-bcc8-7c6fc3f37a30 | Who catches Danny sleeping in class the enxt day? | [
"Captain Lancaster"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | b0372429-8131-6540-2c09-ca443cbee4f9 | Who is Enoch Samways? | [
"Police man"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | f3e78fb1-2b9b-74cc-b889-35b4db444d5b | How many gamekeepers were talking to the person in the deep hole? | [
"Two"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | bf28be88-6f3a-d55a-5424-82e870d9b22a | Who owns the pheasants? | [
"Hazell"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 71fc3e04-02b6-e303-15e7-88f18a307c2b | What kind of vehicle had William been repairing? | [
"A car."
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 80772551-97c3-99d4-1029-e4f302977744 | What is the name of William's son? | [
"Danny. Hazell"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 7a3f3b31-dd7f-dd1b-42ff-906233e0d72d | How do guests feel about Hazell? | [
"Angry and frustrated"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | b1063021-951e-c386-f369-1c84b09422e8 | Why does William go out at night? | [
"To poach pheasants for food"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | ba953e7e-ea4d-baef-4acd-2c44ba91c9eb | What does Danny's plan fill the garage with? | [
"pheasants"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 55375f67-4770-ae54-1197-608a2ae1692e | Who gave William sleeping pills? | [
"Doc Spencer"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 35787ea5-1a9b-9fab-d2fe-0110506da84f | What is the rank of Enoch Samways? | [
"Sergeant"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 16237f66-f9e0-cb24-813a-dc021d346473 | Is Danny captured by the police? | [
"no"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 5930293e-93c3-0bc7-81c6-8450e7167446 | What does William bring back home. | [
"work on an old Austin Seven mini-car"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 8eb3d9b9-60d8-ffd1-6160-28fc8dca52b0 | What car does Danny drive to the forest? | [
"Austin Seven"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 97a8e212-e43f-8fbd-1cbb-1d6f598c7bf0 | Why does Hazel loose the respect of his shooting party? | [] | true |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | e476fdf3-54bd-fae9-f591-726c4943c7c5 | What does Danny drive? | [
"a car"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | f1327772-5e04-ec7d-8eda-3df9c845ac29 | What two things does Captain Lancaster detest? | [
"it's not specifically mentioned."
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | de843273-f702-b90e-1338-5dc681a07221 | What does Hazell threaten to have Danny and Wiliam arrested for? | [
"for stealing the birds"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 793f7a97-09e2-3294-d6a6-240f100f35b1 | With what does William use to lure the pheasants? | [
"wandering around his property"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 4f7ed14b-df53-0a46-cbe4-23a592dea64f | Where is William going at the beginning of the story? | [
"nowhere, he is working on a car"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 74d2e14e-4a85-3950-e0c1-a2b16ad0563a | What does William use to lure the game pheasants? | [
"raisins"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 5381300c-01b1-d054-1045-8a747647c06b | Why does Captain Lancaster make Danny run laps around the playground after school as a punishment? | [
"He didn't stay after school."
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 68f84554-46e4-5692-5f80-33fd0b7826fa | Where does businessman Victor Hazell live? | [
"his estate"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 25fa0077-4a17-08da-38ba-0571a6e72e03 | What does Captain Lancaster detest? | [
"It's not specifically mentioned, he seems to dislike a lot of things."
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 18032645-3bbc-8e33-b04c-d7f2f7eba881 | Who come from the local council to assess William's property? | [
"ministry inspectors"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 822e0feb-c5c3-169b-8ab7-ec2e60bc2afa | What is not permitted at the school? | [
"being tardy"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | a6f63805-4903-2b3b-63f3-15c22ddeecb2 | What does Hazell announce? | [
"He intends to destroy the farmlands and build a new township."
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 04845e38-8861-ad32-221c-38261a61f297 | What was Danny caught doing in class? | [
"Sleeping"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 9235664a-66bf-31a3-0b32-baeb13e4df02 | Why do the police pursue Danny? | [
"Because he passes a police car on patrol"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | e4339783-ece7-ef13-a3db-400e07775f74 | What drink is Mr. Snoddy fond of? | [
"gin"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | d79987f5-cdec-d6fe-44ba-83ee52e02ac3 | Where does Victor Hazell live? | [
"rural England"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 64eaa656-93a4-bf10-4553-b50d65253775 | Who made a plan with Danny? | [
"DANNY"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | f5a498d8-32e9-b727-cb4a-9f38efce62a7 | Where does William Smith live? | [
"wild birds"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 19269536-f5ff-8878-4dfc-0a851dc70d58 | How old is Danny? | [
"nine year"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 20d1cf9a-824c-efa3-b99c-c290cd1d91c7 | What does Danny do with the pheasants at the end? | [
"Free them."
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 9284e4a0-fd5e-3fec-0c29-6dcb579e5aa1 | Who is Captain Lancaster? | [
"A NEW SCHOOL TEACHER"
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/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 5a075cef-85ae-4e38-bc69-5ec482745494 | What does danny do with the pheasans? | [] | true |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | fe64450d-2ce4-89dd-c161-91f96b52e453 | Who is in the hole in the ground? | [
"Rabbetts"
] | false |
/m/0fyth4 | It is 1955, somewhere in rural England. Wealthy Victor Hazell owns a vast estate, and drives his expensive car proudly around it to survey his domain. He drives past several signs that show he has acquired much of his property recently, by buying out surrounding smallholdings. There are hundreds of prime pheasants wandering around his property, and as he drives along his two gamekeepers, Rabbetts and Springer, wish him a good morning. However, he does not acknowledge their presence, throws his cigar out the window and drives on proudly, much to their disgust.Hazell's good mood is ruined when he stops on a hillside and spots, in the distance, the garage and filling station owned by William Smith and his nine-year-old son, Danny. Hazell gets out of his car and peers at the structure through a set of field glasses, watching Danny fill the tank of a customer's car. In high bad humor, he returns to his own car and proceeds down the hill towards the filling station.In the garage, William and Danny have just finished repairing a car another customer left behind. Danny asks permission to drive it out of the garage, and William lets him do so. Hazell's car comes barreling down the hill at the same time as Danny is backing the car out of the garage, and both he and Hazell are forced to slam brakes to avoid a collision. William praises Danny for his quick thinking and Hazell, putting on a friendly tone, does the same. He then asks William if he'd be willing to sell his land - the Smiths own six acres of field and the garage, filling station, and an old caravan which serves as their home - but William tells him he already explained to the solicitor from Hazell's estate he was not interested.Hazell explains to William that his land is smack in the middle of the rest of his estate, and is preventing him from achieving his goal of having one of the biggest and best pheasant shoots in that part of England. He offers him 2,000 pounds, then 2,500, but William remains unmoved. Hazell frustratedly demands why the obviously poor Smiths refuse to sell their land, and are willing to give up a small fortune that could give Danny a better future. William calmly tells Hazell that that they are happy where they are and have no intention of selling. Hazell warns them not to get in his way, then storms out of the station.That night, in the caravan, Danny interrupts his father's nightly bedtime story to ask him about Victor Hazell. William, a former veteran, tells Danny that Hazell is a war profiteer and a crook, and that because of his power and wealth he is likely to make trouble for them. However, he cheerfully insists that he and Danny together can stand up to him, which comforts Danny. The next morning is the first day of school, so they go to bed to get up early.The next morning, William walks Danny to school. In the village they pass and greet several friends - the postman, Mr. Wheeler (the grocer), Mrs. Clipstone (the vicar's wife), and Enoch Samways (the village policeman). At school, William hands Danny a repair bill to give to Mr. Snoddy, the school's Scottish headmaster, and they part ways. Reverend Clipstone leads the students and teachers in a hymn and prayers, and Mr. Snoddy introduces a new teacher he has appointed to teach the fourth grade class, Captain Lancaster.After assembly, Danny goes to Mr. Snoddy's office to leave the letter on his desk. He thought Mr. Snoddy was not there, but discovers him quietly sneaking a nip of gin. Mr. Snoddy is a lenient and gentle man, and does not berate him. He shrugs it off, and tells him its a sort of open secret that he drinks a lot, but asks that he not go publicizing it. Danny agrees, and goes back to his classroom. Captain Lancaster gives him no chance to explain why he was late, but demands his last name and in rather military fashion publicly berates and belittles him for not only being late but trying to quietly enter the class unnoticed, as he deems that sneaking. He says he will not punish any students this first day of term, but, after embarrassing Danny, informs the entire class that from now on he will tolerate no breach of conduct or rules in his class, with punctuality, order, and strict discipline being the absolute necessity for every student.Danny returns home to find ministry inspectors on their property seeing if they are mixing fuel grades, which while a common practice is illegal. Of course, the Smiths are not doing this, and the men are forced to leave empty-handed. William tells Danny the men were obviously sent by Victor Hazell, because they weren't due for their regular inspection for some time. He also tells the men, who play innocent, that he knows it's a put-up job. He tells Danny he suspects they won't be the last. The men call Mr. Hazell and tell him of their failure, but Hazell tells them he wanted William and Danny to know it was a put-up job so they would realize his power. He then makes a call to a different ministry to call in a favor, though it is not disclosed what.That night, Danny wakes up in the dark to discover William is not in the caravan. He goes to see if he's working late in the garage, but he is not there. He searches the property in vain, then waits on the porch of the caravan for William to return. William comes back about 11 PM and is astonished to see Danny is awake, as he has never woken in the middle of the night before. He explains that he went up to Hazell's woods some miles down the road to see if he could get back at him by poaching a pheasant, which shocks Danny.William apologizes for leaving without telling Danny where he was going, and goes on to explain that when he was a boy, his father poached most of their food because they couldn't get it any other way. In fact it was how most of the poor people in the village survived, and no one made much of a fuss about it because ownership of game animals is determined by where the animal happens to be at the time as long as it is alive, so prosecution is difficult. However, the gamekeepers still took a potshot at the odd poacher now and then if they saw them, so that added a spice of danger to it, and it became considered almost a sport. William also explains that he considers the rearing and shooting of masses of tame birds just for fun "organized slaughter" and that it defies nature; this is yet another reason that he and others don't consider poaching, as it is a hunter stalking prey and quite in line with nature, a full-on crime. He tells Danny his late father (named Horace in the book but never mentioned by name in the film) was considered an expert poacher and studied it as if it were an art or science. He learned that pheasants love raisins, which was considered a great discovery at the time.In the morning, William goes on to demonstrate to Danny his father's other discovery of how to catch pheasants quietly without a keeper being alerted by noises. They own a small flock of chickens, and he uses them as an example, digging a hole in the ground and leaving a paper cone full of raisins in it. They hide and watch as a chicken eats the raisins and gets the paper cone stuck on her head. Once her eyes are covered, she does not move. Danny and William stroke her and pick her up but she stays quite still as long as the paper is over her eyes. William explains it's the same with pheasants, and lets the confused chicken go free.A car comes into the station and William assumes its business as the engine sounds rough. However, it is an inspector from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Miss Hunter, who has been told that William is an unfit father and has come to investigate the complaint. William is quite cooperative and kindly offers to show her around - as she and her assistant start the inspection, he whispers to Danny to fix the engine. Danny gets out a toolkit and proceeds to take the inner workings of the car apart.William shows her the caravan, the outhouse that is their bathroom, the tin washtub they use to bathe in, and the rest of the property. While the caravan is tidy and there is nothing that is strictly against code, Miss Hunter is aghast at their primitive conditions and demands if William thinks it is right to raise a child this way. William insists that there is nothing wrong, and Miss Hunter attacks from another angle, demanding to know why their records show Danny did not enter school until he was 7 years old, for the law requires children be in school at 5. William reveals he knows the law quite well, and that it also says that if alternate tuition from a qualified instructor is available during the child's early years, the age limit is no longer in effect. He also reveals that before the war he was a full-time schoolteacher. Miss Hunter is caught off-guard, but then insists Danny would have benefited from social interaction and that William is still in the wrong.As she leaves to make her report, she discovers Danny has taken her engine apart. She is furious and threatens to prosecute, until Danny begins rattling off what all is wrong with her engine and that he can fix it if she will just wait a moment. Miss Hunter and her assistant are stunned, and go inside the caravan with William to wait. William then tells them he's sorry he ordered Danny to fix the car without permission but that he was trying to prove the point that Danny is not a truant and is in fact an extremely intelligent child and a prodigy when it comes to mechanical work. He also explains the reason he was late in sending Danny to school was that, as his wife died when Danny was four months old, it took him a while to reconcile himself to being alone without Danny there as Danny is all he had. Miss Hunter, finally convinced William is not a poor parent, returns to her repaired car and assures the Smiths they need fear no further inspections. She and her assistant leave.Danny and William get back to their original discussion as they work on an old Austin Seven mini-car left by a customer. William explains last night was the first time since Danny's mother died that he had been out poaching on his own, as he wanted to wait until Danny was old enough to be left alone for a couple hours. Danny tells him he won't mind if he goes out again, so long as he has prior warning of when he's planning to leave and come back. William promises he will do this.The head of the Ministry calls Victor Hazell to report the failure of the attempt. Hazell is frustrated, but tells his friend he'll still honor this favor that was done for him. He also refuses to give up trying to run the Smiths off their land.The next morning, Danny and William are en route to school when they spot a rabbit caught in a snare Hazell's gamekeepers had left for vermin. He and Danny release the rabbit, but the delay causes Danny to be late for school. William tells Danny to tell Captain Lancaster that he will take the blame. However, upon arrival to school, Danny is derisively told by his teacher it was "kind of him to grace them with his presence at last." Danny starts to deliver William's message but Captain Lancaster shuts him up before he gets a full sentence out and tells him no excuse would be acceptable, and punishes him to write "I will not be late for Captain Lancaster's Class" 1,000 times along with the rest of his homework. Danny returns home and tells what happened. William is disgusted by Captain Lancaster's apparent desire to make Danny the class example, and Danny reluctantly sets out to write his lines.That night, William leaves to go see if he can catch a pheasant this time, as he was unsuccessful last time. Danny is still hard at work with his lines, but he promises William he'll get to bed on time and not wait up for him. William tells Danny he'll be home by 9 and sets out.Danny wakes in the wee hours of the morning to discover William has not returned. Knowing that this means something awful has happened, he immediately dresses, gets in the Austin Seven, and drives it up the road to Hazell's woods. He passes a police car on patrol, and they turn around and give chase. However, before they catch up to him he has turned off the main road, and they drive on into the night without ever seeing him again.Danny starts into the woods to search for William, but hears Rabbetts and Springer. The two gamekeepers are grumbling about staying out all night patrolling traps Hazell has set for poachers, when he pays them so badly. They then triumphantly shout about having caught a poacher when they look in one of the traps, and hurry off to tell Hazell. Springer is hesitant to go at first, but Rabbetts insists that if the man has been caught in the trap this long he can't get out now, so they leave together. As soon as they are gone, Danny discovers that the trap is a sheer-sided pit about 12 to 14 feet deep, like a tiger trap. William is inside it, and he hid his face from the keepers but he suspects they know who he is. His ankle is broken so he has no hope of climbing out, until Danny tells him he drove the Austin and that there is a tow rope in it. He runs to fetch it.Rabbetts and Springer arrive at the house, where Hazell is holding a fancy party. He takes a gun and joins them, hurrying back through the woods to find the pit. By now, Danny has helped William out of the hole, and they are hobbling as fast as they can back to the car. By the time Hazell and the keepers arrive at the pit, they discover that William is gone. They set off in pursuit when they hear the engine of the Austin, but it is already roaring away by the time they reach the road. Rabbetts informs Hazell that he's almost certain the poacher was William Smith, and Hazell agrees with him that it must be. He promises both keepers 100 pounds apiece if they shoot William the next time he tries to poach a pheasant, because he needs him gone.The next morning, Doctor Spencer - an old friend of Williams and fellow poacher - comes to inspect his broken ankle. He is horrified by the thought of someone digging tiger traps to catch people because someone could get killed that way, and reveals he has a deep dislike of the land-grabbing Hazell as William and Danny. Sergeant Samways pedals up on his bike and informs William that Hazell has ordered him to question the Smiths because he thinks they were on his land poaching. Hazell also volunteered that William may have broken his leg while in the woods. This worries Danny and William; however, Samways surprises them by not allowing William to make any sort of statement and showing them that he is writing down in his notebook that William said he was home and broke his ankle falling down the caravan's front steps. The ambulance arrives, and Spencer and Samways help get William into it.William comes home later that evening with his leg in a cast and a cane to walk with, and Danny comes out to meet the ambulance. It is pouring down rain, so William and Doc Spencer try to hurry inside to keep themselves and Danny from getting too wet. However, Hazell and the two keepers arrive and stop them. He informs William he knows most of the village is in on this together and warns him that if he comes on his land again he will get shot. Doc Spencer tries to tell Hazell off, but Hazell shuts him up and demands William give him an answer. William coolly tells Hazell that at the moment HE is the trespasser here and that he has one minute to get off his land. Hazell is impressed in spite of himself by William's boldness and leaves, telling his keepers that he's certain William's desire for revenge will make him try again and that they had better be ready to shoot him when he does.Doc Spencer stays for tea, and he and William both agree something must be done about Hazell. William promises he'll think of something. Doc Spencer leaves William some sleeping pills for the pain, and heads off back to his own house, thanking Danny for making the tea for him.The next day during class, Danny's friend Sid Morgan thinks Danny is nodding off, and tries to get his attention by whispering his name. Lancaster catches him in the act, and demands he and Danny both come up front. He tells them they were cheating and will both be punished. Danny insists they were doing nothing of the kind, but Lancaster stubbornly says that anyone whispering to each other during class is cheating as far as he is concerned and pulls out a cane with which he plans to beat both him and Sid. He makes Danny hold out his left hand and strikes him with the cane. He is about to deliver a second blow when Headmaster Snoddy, alerted by the gasps of the other children, comes into the classroom and tells Lancaster he must see him in his office at once.In his office, Headmaster Snoddy tells an arrogant and unrepentant Captain Lancaster that corporal punishment is against the policy of the school, and that Lancaster should know this as it was part of his contract. Lancaster insists he was within his rights because it was a case of academic dishonesty. Snoddy decides to investigate for himself. He calls Sid and Danny to come to him and tells the rest of the class, who have crowded round Danny to try to comfort him, to stay back. He demands the two boys to give their word of honor, and tell him the truth. Lancaster watches this proceeding with a disdainful eye. Both Sid and Danny tell the Headmaster the truth - that they did not cheat - and he allows them to rejoin their classmates. He then informs Lancaster that if he strikes a child again he will be fired on the spot. Lancaster refuses to respond to this, and Snoddy barks at him to tell him if he understood him. Reluctantly, Lancaster agrees to not use the cane, and furiously storms back to his class.Danny returns home to find William also in a bad mood. As soon as he sees the red welt on Danny's hand and hears that Captain Lancaster accused his son of cheating, he flies into a rage and announces his intention of hobbling over to Captain Lancaster's house and beating the living daylights out of him. Danny, knowing this will only make Lancaster's enmity against him worse, begs William not to, finally saying "I'll hate you if you do it" because William is past listening to anything else. Once he has William's attention, Danny insists this isn't William's battle to fight, and William hugs him and apologizes, explaining it's his frustration at being unable to teach Hazell a lesson that will get him to leave him and the rest of the village alone that has got him in such a touchy mood. The worst part is that he has the perfect plan - poach all 700 of Hazell's pheasants the night before his annual shooting party, and keep them at the filling station until after Hazell has been embarrassed in front of the high-society people he invites every year - but he has no means of carrying it out. Danny agrees such a heist would be the perfect remedy to the problem at hand, but there seems no way it can be done.That night, Danny spots the jar of sleeping pills Doc Spencer left for William, and is struck with a brilliant idea - dope all the pheasants so they won't be able to fly up to roost after the keepers go home for the night. William consults Doc Spencer and he agrees it's a great plan, and that it would make Danny take over his grandfather's place as the champion of the world at poaching. He gets them a large supply of sleeping powders, and says he will help them to collect all the drugged pheasants and get some extra help to do so. Next, William goes to Mr. Snoddy and asks for his help in carrying out the heist. Finally, he and Danny visit Wheeler's store and ask him for raisins. Mr. Wheeler knows this means they're after pheasants, so when they buy all 30 boxes he is amazed that they would try such a thing.Back at the Caravan, Danny and William begin the laborious process of crushing the pills into powder and drugging each raisin individually. They stay up all day and late into the night, until William finally tells Danny they must get some sleep - he'll close down the garage for the day and finish the last of the raisins himself in the morning.Danny runs to school the next morning and mercifully makes it on time. However, this, coupled with the fact he was up so late the night before, serves to make him utterly exhausted, and he falls asleep during class. Sid elbows him frantically, trying to wake him before he gets in trouble, but Lancaster spots this wakes him with a clapper and tells him he must stay after class. Danny tells him William has ordered him to come straight home after school, but Lancaster sharply tells him he must obey his teacher. He then punishes Danny, after the other students have left, by having him run 20 laps round the schoolyard. However, on the second lap, Danny discovers he passes out of Lancaster's line of sight whenever he goes round one particular side of the yard and takes this opportunity to use a nearby shed to climb over the wall and flee home. Lancaster, realizing after a few moments Danny has disappeared, runs in pursuit but is neither agile nor steady enough to climb over the wall and ends up tearing his trousers on a nail sticking out of the shed. Mr. Snoddy comes outside on his way home to see Lancaster, with the seat of his pants ripped, hanging onto the wall with both hands for dear life. Snoddy is clearly amused by the sight; humiliated, Lancaster screams at Snoddy that the school is a disgusting shambles and that he is resigning, to which Mr. Snoddy simply replies "Good!" and leaves Lancaster to fall off the wall.That night, just before sundown, Danny and William sneak through the woods, scattering the drugged raisins about. All goes well until Rabbetts and Springer appear. The two Smiths hide beneath some shrubbery to keep from being spotted. However, Rabbetts notices the pheasants are congregated about something and starts forward to investigate. Fearing they'll spot the raisins, William snaps a twig. The two keepers look about for the source of the noise but to no avail. In frustration, Rabbetts says he's had enough and is off home. Springer reminds him of the bounty Hazell offered them for shooting William, but Rabbetts scoffs and says William would never hobble about the woods with his leg in plaster and that he has no intention of staying up all night on the day before the big shoot, on the miserable wages Hazell pays them. Springer agrees this makes sense and they leave. Relieved, William and Danny continue to scatter the raisins.As darkness falls, the pheasants fly up into the trees to roost. However, just as Danny planned, they are too drugged to manage this and eventually flop back to the ground unconscious. William and Danny dance and celebrate, and when Doc Spencer shows up with Mr. Snoddy and the postman in tow, they have the pheasants all gathered together waiting for them. The five of them gather up the sleeping birds in sacks as gently as they can and carry them back to the workshop, laying them out on the floor to sleep off the drug. Doc Spencer wonders what they're going to do when they wake, but Danny knows exactly what he wants to do - set them free to live as wild birds. Danny and William, with Snoddy and Spencer's help, then send a fire balloon up into the sky as a prearranged signal that would let the rest of the village know they succeeded. The Clipstones, Mr. Wheeler, Sergeant Samways and all the rest of the villagers celebrate as they see the balloon fly by.The next morning, all the important people arrive at Hazell's estate for the shoot. Before Hazell arrives, they laugh about his attempts to fit in with their crowd and how he does everything wrong. But they are there because of the birds so they try to be polite when Hazell himself shows up on the scene. Springer gets a group of beaters together to drive the birds out of the woods, and Rabbetts starts setting up stands for the shooters. Hazell calls one of the guests, Sir Charles Tallon, aside. It is revealed that Tallon is a developer, and that the whole buying-land-for-the-annual-shooting-party thing is just a ruse disguising Hazell's master plan. His real intention, once he has all the land, is to develop a new township right in the villages backyard, destroying the farmland. This would have been opposed by the villagers, which is why he has kept it on the down-low. Tallon sees, on the maps and blueprints, the Smith's plot of land and says without it the development can't go forward. Hazell lies and tells him he's got the property cheap because he didn't tell William how much it was really worth to him. Tallon doesn't like these dealings, but business is business so he reluctantly makes a deal that his company will develop Hazell's new town.Everyone goes to the fields outside the woods for the first drive. Several villagers secretly watch as the beaters go crazy trying to drive pheasants that aren't there out of the woods, including Danny, William, and Doc Spencer. Hazell and his guests demand of the two gamekeepers where the birds are, but they don't know. The guests start to openly mock Hazell, and a furious Hazell orders Rabbetts to find the birds or lose what little pay he's getting.Rabbetts and Springer set off in their jeep to drive around Hazell's land, with Springer at the wheel and Rabbetts standing up looking around for pheasants. Meanwhile, Doc Spencer drives William and Danny back to the filling station, all of them still laughing over the sight they just witnessed. However, when they arrive they find the pheasants are waking up sooner than expected and are starting to run around confused, not understanding how they got in the unfamiliar place. Doc Spencer, Danny and William desperately try to keep them on the ground because if they fly up they'll be spotted, but it's no use. Several of them are seen by Rabbetts through his field glasses, and he alerts Hazell to where they are coming from.Hazell tears through the village in his car, with his gamekeepers' jeep and the cars of all the rest of his shooting party following out of curiosity as to what he's going to do. They knock Sergeant Samways off his bike in passing, and he pursues them, furiously. Several other people from the village run after them. Upon arriving at the filling station, Hazell smugly tells William he's caught him this time and that he will force him to sell his land. Samways appears and Hazell demands he arrest William for stealing the birds. However, Samways is more interested in serving a ticket to Hazell for unsafe driving, and when Hazell tries to insist, Samways says as he didn't see William in the act, the birds are on his land and that they are technically his for the moment.Tallon, hearing this, demands of William whether he still owns his property. William tells him this is the case and that he does not and never did have any intention of selling it. Tallon tells Hazell the deal is off and then informs the rest of the villagers standing round of what Hazell was planning to do, much to their horror. Humiliated and defeated, Hazell curses William and the villagers and leaves in disgrace, with Rabbetts and Springer in tow.Tallon remarks that William seems to have saved the day by refusing to give in to Hazell. William corrects him and tells him that Danny, who drove a car and saved him from the pit and instigated the whole proceeding, is the real hero here. The villagers give Danny three cheers as William triumphantly carries him on his shoulders back to the filling station and the pheasants fly free. | Danny, the Champion of the World | 192051fe-0162-49cb-aaa5-cf076742e6b6 | What is the name of the school headmaster? | [
"Mr. Snoddy"
] | false |
/m/0d61ht | A serial killer known as the "Party Crasher" (Stephen Lang) telephones the police, notifying them that he is about to murder another individual at a night club, daring them to stop him. Police converge on the night club, but the officers, including tough but cynical NYPD cop Lieutenant John Moss (James Woods), are unable to stop the gunshot killing of an innocent person. The Party Crasher flees in the ensuing chaos, and Moss is thrown off a car while trying to stop the killer. While Moss has his injuries tended to, he barks some obscene comments at media members and cameras.
In Hollywood, Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox) is a wealthy, pampered movie star who is best known as "Smoking" Joe Gunn, the title character in a series of highly popular pulp action films (similar to Indiana Jones). In order to be taken more seriously as an actor, he is vying for the leading role in the heavy cop drama Blood on the Asphalt. The producers want Mel Gibson for the role. Nick vows to "prepare" for the role by attempting to be an actual cop. After seeing Moss's outburst on TV, Nick pulls strings with NYC Mayor David Dinkins to be assigned as Moss's new partner on the force. Moss wants no part of the deal, but is forced to comply by his captain (Delroy Lindo), who just happens to be a huge Nick Lang fan. To make matters worse, looking after Nick means that Moss will have to be removed from the Party Crasher case.
Moss defies orders by continuing the investigation anyway and repeatedly trying to ditch Nick, whose constant questions and other annoying habits (such as mimicking all Moss's movements) frustrate Moss. Nick wants to know what it feels like to be a cop and is quickly thrust forward into some serious situations he is not prepared for, while Moss constantly reminds him that this is not a movie. Meanwhile, as Moss makes progress on finding the Party Crasher, he is also trying to juggle a new romance with Susan (Annabella Sciorra). The divorced Moss is unable to communicate with her or open up, and Nick offers advice to him on how to interact with women.
Moss takes Nick to a dark building to catch a perp, ordering him to stay put and giving the actor a real gun in case of an emergency. Nick, however, enters the building and shoots a man who he believes is a criminal chasing Moss. The man is revealed to be an innocent bystander, leaving Nick terrified. Moss agrees to cover up the act, and urges Nick to leave town immediately. Nick returns from the airport to the police station to confess his sins, only to see that the "dead man" is actually a fellow cop, alive and well. Moss choreographed the whole stunt to get Nick out of town.
Nick tracks Moss down to seek revenge but ends up stumbling on a confrontation between Moss and The Party Crasher, during which he saves Moss's life. It is also revealed, during the fight, that the only reason why The Party Crasher kills is because all his life he wanted to become a cop, but only believed that he'd be better than Moss. The Party Crasher is wounded, but he kills several people and escapes. After Moss is told by Susan that his unstable life as a cop will never allow them to have a relationship, he is visited by Nick. Nick predicts that The Party Crasher will follow storytelling protocol and seek out Moss's loved ones in this, the third act of their story together. Nick is right, and Susan is abducted. Moss and Nick confront The Party Crasher on a billboard, advertising Nick's latest movie Smoking Gunn II, and a brawl ensues. Susan is saved after Nick intervenes and is shot in the chest, when he takes a bullet for Moss and helps save Susan. Filled with aggression, Moss throws the Party Crasher off the rooftop to his death.
The movie cuts forward in time, revealing that Nick survived and already filmed The Good, The Badge and The Ugly. Moss, reunited with Susan, attends the movie's premiere with the rest of the department and comments that all Nick's lines were originally his. | The Hard Way | d7e38a39-cef7-b77c-c236-6e917458f308 | Does Susan think Moss' job is a safe one? | [] | true |
/m/0d61ht | A serial killer known as the "Party Crasher" (Stephen Lang) telephones the police, notifying them that he is about to murder another individual at a night club, daring them to stop him. Police converge on the night club, but the officers, including tough but cynical NYPD cop Lieutenant John Moss (James Woods), are unable to stop the gunshot killing of an innocent person. The Party Crasher flees in the ensuing chaos, and Moss is thrown off a car while trying to stop the killer. While Moss has his injuries tended to, he barks some obscene comments at media members and cameras.
In Hollywood, Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox) is a wealthy, pampered movie star who is best known as "Smoking" Joe Gunn, the title character in a series of highly popular pulp action films (similar to Indiana Jones). In order to be taken more seriously as an actor, he is vying for the leading role in the heavy cop drama Blood on the Asphalt. The producers want Mel Gibson for the role. Nick vows to "prepare" for the role by attempting to be an actual cop. After seeing Moss's outburst on TV, Nick pulls strings with NYC Mayor David Dinkins to be assigned as Moss's new partner on the force. Moss wants no part of the deal, but is forced to comply by his captain (Delroy Lindo), who just happens to be a huge Nick Lang fan. To make matters worse, looking after Nick means that Moss will have to be removed from the Party Crasher case.
Moss defies orders by continuing the investigation anyway and repeatedly trying to ditch Nick, whose constant questions and other annoying habits (such as mimicking all Moss's movements) frustrate Moss. Nick wants to know what it feels like to be a cop and is quickly thrust forward into some serious situations he is not prepared for, while Moss constantly reminds him that this is not a movie. Meanwhile, as Moss makes progress on finding the Party Crasher, he is also trying to juggle a new romance with Susan (Annabella Sciorra). The divorced Moss is unable to communicate with her or open up, and Nick offers advice to him on how to interact with women.
Moss takes Nick to a dark building to catch a perp, ordering him to stay put and giving the actor a real gun in case of an emergency. Nick, however, enters the building and shoots a man who he believes is a criminal chasing Moss. The man is revealed to be an innocent bystander, leaving Nick terrified. Moss agrees to cover up the act, and urges Nick to leave town immediately. Nick returns from the airport to the police station to confess his sins, only to see that the "dead man" is actually a fellow cop, alive and well. Moss choreographed the whole stunt to get Nick out of town.
Nick tracks Moss down to seek revenge but ends up stumbling on a confrontation between Moss and The Party Crasher, during which he saves Moss's life. It is also revealed, during the fight, that the only reason why The Party Crasher kills is because all his life he wanted to become a cop, but only believed that he'd be better than Moss. The Party Crasher is wounded, but he kills several people and escapes. After Moss is told by Susan that his unstable life as a cop will never allow them to have a relationship, he is visited by Nick. Nick predicts that The Party Crasher will follow storytelling protocol and seek out Moss's loved ones in this, the third act of their story together. Nick is right, and Susan is abducted. Moss and Nick confront The Party Crasher on a billboard, advertising Nick's latest movie Smoking Gunn II, and a brawl ensues. Susan is saved after Nick intervenes and is shot in the chest, when he takes a bullet for Moss and helps save Susan. Filled with aggression, Moss throws the Party Crasher off the rooftop to his death.
The movie cuts forward in time, revealing that Nick survived and already filmed The Good, The Badge and The Ugly. Moss, reunited with Susan, attends the movie's premiere with the rest of the department and comments that all Nick's lines were originally his. | The Hard Way | 170ba954-f29b-35bd-61af-12ebc1d53101 | Who does Nick scare with his reckless driving? | [
"Nick"
] | false |
/m/0d61ht | A serial killer known as the "Party Crasher" (Stephen Lang) telephones the police, notifying them that he is about to murder another individual at a night club, daring them to stop him. Police converge on the night club, but the officers, including tough but cynical NYPD cop Lieutenant John Moss (James Woods), are unable to stop the gunshot killing of an innocent person. The Party Crasher flees in the ensuing chaos, and Moss is thrown off a car while trying to stop the killer. While Moss has his injuries tended to, he barks some obscene comments at media members and cameras.
In Hollywood, Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox) is a wealthy, pampered movie star who is best known as "Smoking" Joe Gunn, the title character in a series of highly popular pulp action films (similar to Indiana Jones). In order to be taken more seriously as an actor, he is vying for the leading role in the heavy cop drama Blood on the Asphalt. The producers want Mel Gibson for the role. Nick vows to "prepare" for the role by attempting to be an actual cop. After seeing Moss's outburst on TV, Nick pulls strings with NYC Mayor David Dinkins to be assigned as Moss's new partner on the force. Moss wants no part of the deal, but is forced to comply by his captain (Delroy Lindo), who just happens to be a huge Nick Lang fan. To make matters worse, looking after Nick means that Moss will have to be removed from the Party Crasher case.
Moss defies orders by continuing the investigation anyway and repeatedly trying to ditch Nick, whose constant questions and other annoying habits (such as mimicking all Moss's movements) frustrate Moss. Nick wants to know what it feels like to be a cop and is quickly thrust forward into some serious situations he is not prepared for, while Moss constantly reminds him that this is not a movie. Meanwhile, as Moss makes progress on finding the Party Crasher, he is also trying to juggle a new romance with Susan (Annabella Sciorra). The divorced Moss is unable to communicate with her or open up, and Nick offers advice to him on how to interact with women.
Moss takes Nick to a dark building to catch a perp, ordering him to stay put and giving the actor a real gun in case of an emergency. Nick, however, enters the building and shoots a man who he believes is a criminal chasing Moss. The man is revealed to be an innocent bystander, leaving Nick terrified. Moss agrees to cover up the act, and urges Nick to leave town immediately. Nick returns from the airport to the police station to confess his sins, only to see that the "dead man" is actually a fellow cop, alive and well. Moss choreographed the whole stunt to get Nick out of town.
Nick tracks Moss down to seek revenge but ends up stumbling on a confrontation between Moss and The Party Crasher, during which he saves Moss's life. It is also revealed, during the fight, that the only reason why The Party Crasher kills is because all his life he wanted to become a cop, but only believed that he'd be better than Moss. The Party Crasher is wounded, but he kills several people and escapes. After Moss is told by Susan that his unstable life as a cop will never allow them to have a relationship, he is visited by Nick. Nick predicts that The Party Crasher will follow storytelling protocol and seek out Moss's loved ones in this, the third act of their story together. Nick is right, and Susan is abducted. Moss and Nick confront The Party Crasher on a billboard, advertising Nick's latest movie Smoking Gunn II, and a brawl ensues. Susan is saved after Nick intervenes and is shot in the chest, when he takes a bullet for Moss and helps save Susan. Filled with aggression, Moss throws the Party Crasher off the rooftop to his death.
The movie cuts forward in time, revealing that Nick survived and already filmed The Good, The Badge and The Ugly. Moss, reunited with Susan, attends the movie's premiere with the rest of the department and comments that all Nick's lines were originally his. | The Hard Way | 48e85afd-bc3d-accc-4cd7-d25cf3268dc4 | What is nick long's job | [
"Actor"
] | false |
/m/0d61ht | A serial killer known as the "Party Crasher" (Stephen Lang) telephones the police, notifying them that he is about to murder another individual at a night club, daring them to stop him. Police converge on the night club, but the officers, including tough but cynical NYPD cop Lieutenant John Moss (James Woods), are unable to stop the gunshot killing of an innocent person. The Party Crasher flees in the ensuing chaos, and Moss is thrown off a car while trying to stop the killer. While Moss has his injuries tended to, he barks some obscene comments at media members and cameras.
In Hollywood, Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox) is a wealthy, pampered movie star who is best known as "Smoking" Joe Gunn, the title character in a series of highly popular pulp action films (similar to Indiana Jones). In order to be taken more seriously as an actor, he is vying for the leading role in the heavy cop drama Blood on the Asphalt. The producers want Mel Gibson for the role. Nick vows to "prepare" for the role by attempting to be an actual cop. After seeing Moss's outburst on TV, Nick pulls strings with NYC Mayor David Dinkins to be assigned as Moss's new partner on the force. Moss wants no part of the deal, but is forced to comply by his captain (Delroy Lindo), who just happens to be a huge Nick Lang fan. To make matters worse, looking after Nick means that Moss will have to be removed from the Party Crasher case.
Moss defies orders by continuing the investigation anyway and repeatedly trying to ditch Nick, whose constant questions and other annoying habits (such as mimicking all Moss's movements) frustrate Moss. Nick wants to know what it feels like to be a cop and is quickly thrust forward into some serious situations he is not prepared for, while Moss constantly reminds him that this is not a movie. Meanwhile, as Moss makes progress on finding the Party Crasher, he is also trying to juggle a new romance with Susan (Annabella Sciorra). The divorced Moss is unable to communicate with her or open up, and Nick offers advice to him on how to interact with women.
Moss takes Nick to a dark building to catch a perp, ordering him to stay put and giving the actor a real gun in case of an emergency. Nick, however, enters the building and shoots a man who he believes is a criminal chasing Moss. The man is revealed to be an innocent bystander, leaving Nick terrified. Moss agrees to cover up the act, and urges Nick to leave town immediately. Nick returns from the airport to the police station to confess his sins, only to see that the "dead man" is actually a fellow cop, alive and well. Moss choreographed the whole stunt to get Nick out of town.
Nick tracks Moss down to seek revenge but ends up stumbling on a confrontation between Moss and The Party Crasher, during which he saves Moss's life. It is also revealed, during the fight, that the only reason why The Party Crasher kills is because all his life he wanted to become a cop, but only believed that he'd be better than Moss. The Party Crasher is wounded, but he kills several people and escapes. After Moss is told by Susan that his unstable life as a cop will never allow them to have a relationship, he is visited by Nick. Nick predicts that The Party Crasher will follow storytelling protocol and seek out Moss's loved ones in this, the third act of their story together. Nick is right, and Susan is abducted. Moss and Nick confront The Party Crasher on a billboard, advertising Nick's latest movie Smoking Gunn II, and a brawl ensues. Susan is saved after Nick intervenes and is shot in the chest, when he takes a bullet for Moss and helps save Susan. Filled with aggression, Moss throws the Party Crasher off the rooftop to his death.
The movie cuts forward in time, revealing that Nick survived and already filmed The Good, The Badge and The Ugly. Moss, reunited with Susan, attends the movie's premiere with the rest of the department and comments that all Nick's lines were originally his. | The Hard Way | 20bd255f-46c7-9fcb-b9c5-acbf94bea133 | What is the movie within the movie which the main character is Nick Lang? | [] | true |
/m/0d61ht | A serial killer known as the "Party Crasher" (Stephen Lang) telephones the police, notifying them that he is about to murder another individual at a night club, daring them to stop him. Police converge on the night club, but the officers, including tough but cynical NYPD cop Lieutenant John Moss (James Woods), are unable to stop the gunshot killing of an innocent person. The Party Crasher flees in the ensuing chaos, and Moss is thrown off a car while trying to stop the killer. While Moss has his injuries tended to, he barks some obscene comments at media members and cameras.
In Hollywood, Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox) is a wealthy, pampered movie star who is best known as "Smoking" Joe Gunn, the title character in a series of highly popular pulp action films (similar to Indiana Jones). In order to be taken more seriously as an actor, he is vying for the leading role in the heavy cop drama Blood on the Asphalt. The producers want Mel Gibson for the role. Nick vows to "prepare" for the role by attempting to be an actual cop. After seeing Moss's outburst on TV, Nick pulls strings with NYC Mayor David Dinkins to be assigned as Moss's new partner on the force. Moss wants no part of the deal, but is forced to comply by his captain (Delroy Lindo), who just happens to be a huge Nick Lang fan. To make matters worse, looking after Nick means that Moss will have to be removed from the Party Crasher case.
Moss defies orders by continuing the investigation anyway and repeatedly trying to ditch Nick, whose constant questions and other annoying habits (such as mimicking all Moss's movements) frustrate Moss. Nick wants to know what it feels like to be a cop and is quickly thrust forward into some serious situations he is not prepared for, while Moss constantly reminds him that this is not a movie. Meanwhile, as Moss makes progress on finding the Party Crasher, he is also trying to juggle a new romance with Susan (Annabella Sciorra). The divorced Moss is unable to communicate with her or open up, and Nick offers advice to him on how to interact with women.
Moss takes Nick to a dark building to catch a perp, ordering him to stay put and giving the actor a real gun in case of an emergency. Nick, however, enters the building and shoots a man who he believes is a criminal chasing Moss. The man is revealed to be an innocent bystander, leaving Nick terrified. Moss agrees to cover up the act, and urges Nick to leave town immediately. Nick returns from the airport to the police station to confess his sins, only to see that the "dead man" is actually a fellow cop, alive and well. Moss choreographed the whole stunt to get Nick out of town.
Nick tracks Moss down to seek revenge but ends up stumbling on a confrontation between Moss and The Party Crasher, during which he saves Moss's life. It is also revealed, during the fight, that the only reason why The Party Crasher kills is because all his life he wanted to become a cop, but only believed that he'd be better than Moss. The Party Crasher is wounded, but he kills several people and escapes. After Moss is told by Susan that his unstable life as a cop will never allow them to have a relationship, he is visited by Nick. Nick predicts that The Party Crasher will follow storytelling protocol and seek out Moss's loved ones in this, the third act of their story together. Nick is right, and Susan is abducted. Moss and Nick confront The Party Crasher on a billboard, advertising Nick's latest movie Smoking Gunn II, and a brawl ensues. Susan is saved after Nick intervenes and is shot in the chest, when he takes a bullet for Moss and helps save Susan. Filled with aggression, Moss throws the Party Crasher off the rooftop to his death.
The movie cuts forward in time, revealing that Nick survived and already filmed The Good, The Badge and The Ugly. Moss, reunited with Susan, attends the movie's premiere with the rest of the department and comments that all Nick's lines were originally his. | The Hard Way | e139dafe-7e78-0aca-3e0d-b98aa89fa470 | what movie was playing in the theater | [
"The good, the badge, and the ugly"
] | false |
/m/0d61ht | A serial killer known as the "Party Crasher" (Stephen Lang) telephones the police, notifying them that he is about to murder another individual at a night club, daring them to stop him. Police converge on the night club, but the officers, including tough but cynical NYPD cop Lieutenant John Moss (James Woods), are unable to stop the gunshot killing of an innocent person. The Party Crasher flees in the ensuing chaos, and Moss is thrown off a car while trying to stop the killer. While Moss has his injuries tended to, he barks some obscene comments at media members and cameras.
In Hollywood, Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox) is a wealthy, pampered movie star who is best known as "Smoking" Joe Gunn, the title character in a series of highly popular pulp action films (similar to Indiana Jones). In order to be taken more seriously as an actor, he is vying for the leading role in the heavy cop drama Blood on the Asphalt. The producers want Mel Gibson for the role. Nick vows to "prepare" for the role by attempting to be an actual cop. After seeing Moss's outburst on TV, Nick pulls strings with NYC Mayor David Dinkins to be assigned as Moss's new partner on the force. Moss wants no part of the deal, but is forced to comply by his captain (Delroy Lindo), who just happens to be a huge Nick Lang fan. To make matters worse, looking after Nick means that Moss will have to be removed from the Party Crasher case.
Moss defies orders by continuing the investigation anyway and repeatedly trying to ditch Nick, whose constant questions and other annoying habits (such as mimicking all Moss's movements) frustrate Moss. Nick wants to know what it feels like to be a cop and is quickly thrust forward into some serious situations he is not prepared for, while Moss constantly reminds him that this is not a movie. Meanwhile, as Moss makes progress on finding the Party Crasher, he is also trying to juggle a new romance with Susan (Annabella Sciorra). The divorced Moss is unable to communicate with her or open up, and Nick offers advice to him on how to interact with women.
Moss takes Nick to a dark building to catch a perp, ordering him to stay put and giving the actor a real gun in case of an emergency. Nick, however, enters the building and shoots a man who he believes is a criminal chasing Moss. The man is revealed to be an innocent bystander, leaving Nick terrified. Moss agrees to cover up the act, and urges Nick to leave town immediately. Nick returns from the airport to the police station to confess his sins, only to see that the "dead man" is actually a fellow cop, alive and well. Moss choreographed the whole stunt to get Nick out of town.
Nick tracks Moss down to seek revenge but ends up stumbling on a confrontation between Moss and The Party Crasher, during which he saves Moss's life. It is also revealed, during the fight, that the only reason why The Party Crasher kills is because all his life he wanted to become a cop, but only believed that he'd be better than Moss. The Party Crasher is wounded, but he kills several people and escapes. After Moss is told by Susan that his unstable life as a cop will never allow them to have a relationship, he is visited by Nick. Nick predicts that The Party Crasher will follow storytelling protocol and seek out Moss's loved ones in this, the third act of their story together. Nick is right, and Susan is abducted. Moss and Nick confront The Party Crasher on a billboard, advertising Nick's latest movie Smoking Gunn II, and a brawl ensues. Susan is saved after Nick intervenes and is shot in the chest, when he takes a bullet for Moss and helps save Susan. Filled with aggression, Moss throws the Party Crasher off the rooftop to his death.
The movie cuts forward in time, revealing that Nick survived and already filmed The Good, The Badge and The Ugly. Moss, reunited with Susan, attends the movie's premiere with the rest of the department and comments that all Nick's lines were originally his. | The Hard Way | 3724d939-93ab-aaae-1111-f896447350b7 | Where do Moss and Nick go to rescue Susan? | [] | true |
/m/0d61ht | A serial killer known as the "Party Crasher" (Stephen Lang) telephones the police, notifying them that he is about to murder another individual at a night club, daring them to stop him. Police converge on the night club, but the officers, including tough but cynical NYPD cop Lieutenant John Moss (James Woods), are unable to stop the gunshot killing of an innocent person. The Party Crasher flees in the ensuing chaos, and Moss is thrown off a car while trying to stop the killer. While Moss has his injuries tended to, he barks some obscene comments at media members and cameras.
In Hollywood, Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox) is a wealthy, pampered movie star who is best known as "Smoking" Joe Gunn, the title character in a series of highly popular pulp action films (similar to Indiana Jones). In order to be taken more seriously as an actor, he is vying for the leading role in the heavy cop drama Blood on the Asphalt. The producers want Mel Gibson for the role. Nick vows to "prepare" for the role by attempting to be an actual cop. After seeing Moss's outburst on TV, Nick pulls strings with NYC Mayor David Dinkins to be assigned as Moss's new partner on the force. Moss wants no part of the deal, but is forced to comply by his captain (Delroy Lindo), who just happens to be a huge Nick Lang fan. To make matters worse, looking after Nick means that Moss will have to be removed from the Party Crasher case.
Moss defies orders by continuing the investigation anyway and repeatedly trying to ditch Nick, whose constant questions and other annoying habits (such as mimicking all Moss's movements) frustrate Moss. Nick wants to know what it feels like to be a cop and is quickly thrust forward into some serious situations he is not prepared for, while Moss constantly reminds him that this is not a movie. Meanwhile, as Moss makes progress on finding the Party Crasher, he is also trying to juggle a new romance with Susan (Annabella Sciorra). The divorced Moss is unable to communicate with her or open up, and Nick offers advice to him on how to interact with women.
Moss takes Nick to a dark building to catch a perp, ordering him to stay put and giving the actor a real gun in case of an emergency. Nick, however, enters the building and shoots a man who he believes is a criminal chasing Moss. The man is revealed to be an innocent bystander, leaving Nick terrified. Moss agrees to cover up the act, and urges Nick to leave town immediately. Nick returns from the airport to the police station to confess his sins, only to see that the "dead man" is actually a fellow cop, alive and well. Moss choreographed the whole stunt to get Nick out of town.
Nick tracks Moss down to seek revenge but ends up stumbling on a confrontation between Moss and The Party Crasher, during which he saves Moss's life. It is also revealed, during the fight, that the only reason why The Party Crasher kills is because all his life he wanted to become a cop, but only believed that he'd be better than Moss. The Party Crasher is wounded, but he kills several people and escapes. After Moss is told by Susan that his unstable life as a cop will never allow them to have a relationship, he is visited by Nick. Nick predicts that The Party Crasher will follow storytelling protocol and seek out Moss's loved ones in this, the third act of their story together. Nick is right, and Susan is abducted. Moss and Nick confront The Party Crasher on a billboard, advertising Nick's latest movie Smoking Gunn II, and a brawl ensues. Susan is saved after Nick intervenes and is shot in the chest, when he takes a bullet for Moss and helps save Susan. Filled with aggression, Moss throws the Party Crasher off the rooftop to his death.
The movie cuts forward in time, revealing that Nick survived and already filmed The Good, The Badge and The Ugly. Moss, reunited with Susan, attends the movie's premiere with the rest of the department and comments that all Nick's lines were originally his. | The Hard Way | feee532d-ec6e-c8ad-a8a8-633233f26c62 | Who set up nick with fake shooting? | [
"Moss"
] | false |
/m/0d61ht | A serial killer known as the "Party Crasher" (Stephen Lang) telephones the police, notifying them that he is about to murder another individual at a night club, daring them to stop him. Police converge on the night club, but the officers, including tough but cynical NYPD cop Lieutenant John Moss (James Woods), are unable to stop the gunshot killing of an innocent person. The Party Crasher flees in the ensuing chaos, and Moss is thrown off a car while trying to stop the killer. While Moss has his injuries tended to, he barks some obscene comments at media members and cameras.
In Hollywood, Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox) is a wealthy, pampered movie star who is best known as "Smoking" Joe Gunn, the title character in a series of highly popular pulp action films (similar to Indiana Jones). In order to be taken more seriously as an actor, he is vying for the leading role in the heavy cop drama Blood on the Asphalt. The producers want Mel Gibson for the role. Nick vows to "prepare" for the role by attempting to be an actual cop. After seeing Moss's outburst on TV, Nick pulls strings with NYC Mayor David Dinkins to be assigned as Moss's new partner on the force. Moss wants no part of the deal, but is forced to comply by his captain (Delroy Lindo), who just happens to be a huge Nick Lang fan. To make matters worse, looking after Nick means that Moss will have to be removed from the Party Crasher case.
Moss defies orders by continuing the investigation anyway and repeatedly trying to ditch Nick, whose constant questions and other annoying habits (such as mimicking all Moss's movements) frustrate Moss. Nick wants to know what it feels like to be a cop and is quickly thrust forward into some serious situations he is not prepared for, while Moss constantly reminds him that this is not a movie. Meanwhile, as Moss makes progress on finding the Party Crasher, he is also trying to juggle a new romance with Susan (Annabella Sciorra). The divorced Moss is unable to communicate with her or open up, and Nick offers advice to him on how to interact with women.
Moss takes Nick to a dark building to catch a perp, ordering him to stay put and giving the actor a real gun in case of an emergency. Nick, however, enters the building and shoots a man who he believes is a criminal chasing Moss. The man is revealed to be an innocent bystander, leaving Nick terrified. Moss agrees to cover up the act, and urges Nick to leave town immediately. Nick returns from the airport to the police station to confess his sins, only to see that the "dead man" is actually a fellow cop, alive and well. Moss choreographed the whole stunt to get Nick out of town.
Nick tracks Moss down to seek revenge but ends up stumbling on a confrontation between Moss and The Party Crasher, during which he saves Moss's life. It is also revealed, during the fight, that the only reason why The Party Crasher kills is because all his life he wanted to become a cop, but only believed that he'd be better than Moss. The Party Crasher is wounded, but he kills several people and escapes. After Moss is told by Susan that his unstable life as a cop will never allow them to have a relationship, he is visited by Nick. Nick predicts that The Party Crasher will follow storytelling protocol and seek out Moss's loved ones in this, the third act of their story together. Nick is right, and Susan is abducted. Moss and Nick confront The Party Crasher on a billboard, advertising Nick's latest movie Smoking Gunn II, and a brawl ensues. Susan is saved after Nick intervenes and is shot in the chest, when he takes a bullet for Moss and helps save Susan. Filled with aggression, Moss throws the Party Crasher off the rooftop to his death.
The movie cuts forward in time, revealing that Nick survived and already filmed The Good, The Badge and The Ugly. Moss, reunited with Susan, attends the movie's premiere with the rest of the department and comments that all Nick's lines were originally his. | The Hard Way | e7087537-fd85-d1de-bc49-b39f9f26f3c9 | What gang doe detectiv moss contact? | [] | true |
/m/0d61ht | A serial killer known as the "Party Crasher" (Stephen Lang) telephones the police, notifying them that he is about to murder another individual at a night club, daring them to stop him. Police converge on the night club, but the officers, including tough but cynical NYPD cop Lieutenant John Moss (James Woods), are unable to stop the gunshot killing of an innocent person. The Party Crasher flees in the ensuing chaos, and Moss is thrown off a car while trying to stop the killer. While Moss has his injuries tended to, he barks some obscene comments at media members and cameras.
In Hollywood, Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox) is a wealthy, pampered movie star who is best known as "Smoking" Joe Gunn, the title character in a series of highly popular pulp action films (similar to Indiana Jones). In order to be taken more seriously as an actor, he is vying for the leading role in the heavy cop drama Blood on the Asphalt. The producers want Mel Gibson for the role. Nick vows to "prepare" for the role by attempting to be an actual cop. After seeing Moss's outburst on TV, Nick pulls strings with NYC Mayor David Dinkins to be assigned as Moss's new partner on the force. Moss wants no part of the deal, but is forced to comply by his captain (Delroy Lindo), who just happens to be a huge Nick Lang fan. To make matters worse, looking after Nick means that Moss will have to be removed from the Party Crasher case.
Moss defies orders by continuing the investigation anyway and repeatedly trying to ditch Nick, whose constant questions and other annoying habits (such as mimicking all Moss's movements) frustrate Moss. Nick wants to know what it feels like to be a cop and is quickly thrust forward into some serious situations he is not prepared for, while Moss constantly reminds him that this is not a movie. Meanwhile, as Moss makes progress on finding the Party Crasher, he is also trying to juggle a new romance with Susan (Annabella Sciorra). The divorced Moss is unable to communicate with her or open up, and Nick offers advice to him on how to interact with women.
Moss takes Nick to a dark building to catch a perp, ordering him to stay put and giving the actor a real gun in case of an emergency. Nick, however, enters the building and shoots a man who he believes is a criminal chasing Moss. The man is revealed to be an innocent bystander, leaving Nick terrified. Moss agrees to cover up the act, and urges Nick to leave town immediately. Nick returns from the airport to the police station to confess his sins, only to see that the "dead man" is actually a fellow cop, alive and well. Moss choreographed the whole stunt to get Nick out of town.
Nick tracks Moss down to seek revenge but ends up stumbling on a confrontation between Moss and The Party Crasher, during which he saves Moss's life. It is also revealed, during the fight, that the only reason why The Party Crasher kills is because all his life he wanted to become a cop, but only believed that he'd be better than Moss. The Party Crasher is wounded, but he kills several people and escapes. After Moss is told by Susan that his unstable life as a cop will never allow them to have a relationship, he is visited by Nick. Nick predicts that The Party Crasher will follow storytelling protocol and seek out Moss's loved ones in this, the third act of their story together. Nick is right, and Susan is abducted. Moss and Nick confront The Party Crasher on a billboard, advertising Nick's latest movie Smoking Gunn II, and a brawl ensues. Susan is saved after Nick intervenes and is shot in the chest, when he takes a bullet for Moss and helps save Susan. Filled with aggression, Moss throws the Party Crasher off the rooftop to his death.
The movie cuts forward in time, revealing that Nick survived and already filmed The Good, The Badge and The Ugly. Moss, reunited with Susan, attends the movie's premiere with the rest of the department and comments that all Nick's lines were originally his. | The Hard Way | 0f0604f6-ba92-1bfe-1ea3-089a31087edd | What does Nick save Susan from? | [
"the party crasher"
] | false |
/m/0d61ht | A serial killer known as the "Party Crasher" (Stephen Lang) telephones the police, notifying them that he is about to murder another individual at a night club, daring them to stop him. Police converge on the night club, but the officers, including tough but cynical NYPD cop Lieutenant John Moss (James Woods), are unable to stop the gunshot killing of an innocent person. The Party Crasher flees in the ensuing chaos, and Moss is thrown off a car while trying to stop the killer. While Moss has his injuries tended to, he barks some obscene comments at media members and cameras.
In Hollywood, Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox) is a wealthy, pampered movie star who is best known as "Smoking" Joe Gunn, the title character in a series of highly popular pulp action films (similar to Indiana Jones). In order to be taken more seriously as an actor, he is vying for the leading role in the heavy cop drama Blood on the Asphalt. The producers want Mel Gibson for the role. Nick vows to "prepare" for the role by attempting to be an actual cop. After seeing Moss's outburst on TV, Nick pulls strings with NYC Mayor David Dinkins to be assigned as Moss's new partner on the force. Moss wants no part of the deal, but is forced to comply by his captain (Delroy Lindo), who just happens to be a huge Nick Lang fan. To make matters worse, looking after Nick means that Moss will have to be removed from the Party Crasher case.
Moss defies orders by continuing the investigation anyway and repeatedly trying to ditch Nick, whose constant questions and other annoying habits (such as mimicking all Moss's movements) frustrate Moss. Nick wants to know what it feels like to be a cop and is quickly thrust forward into some serious situations he is not prepared for, while Moss constantly reminds him that this is not a movie. Meanwhile, as Moss makes progress on finding the Party Crasher, he is also trying to juggle a new romance with Susan (Annabella Sciorra). The divorced Moss is unable to communicate with her or open up, and Nick offers advice to him on how to interact with women.
Moss takes Nick to a dark building to catch a perp, ordering him to stay put and giving the actor a real gun in case of an emergency. Nick, however, enters the building and shoots a man who he believes is a criminal chasing Moss. The man is revealed to be an innocent bystander, leaving Nick terrified. Moss agrees to cover up the act, and urges Nick to leave town immediately. Nick returns from the airport to the police station to confess his sins, only to see that the "dead man" is actually a fellow cop, alive and well. Moss choreographed the whole stunt to get Nick out of town.
Nick tracks Moss down to seek revenge but ends up stumbling on a confrontation between Moss and The Party Crasher, during which he saves Moss's life. It is also revealed, during the fight, that the only reason why The Party Crasher kills is because all his life he wanted to become a cop, but only believed that he'd be better than Moss. The Party Crasher is wounded, but he kills several people and escapes. After Moss is told by Susan that his unstable life as a cop will never allow them to have a relationship, he is visited by Nick. Nick predicts that The Party Crasher will follow storytelling protocol and seek out Moss's loved ones in this, the third act of their story together. Nick is right, and Susan is abducted. Moss and Nick confront The Party Crasher on a billboard, advertising Nick's latest movie Smoking Gunn II, and a brawl ensues. Susan is saved after Nick intervenes and is shot in the chest, when he takes a bullet for Moss and helps save Susan. Filled with aggression, Moss throws the Party Crasher off the rooftop to his death.
The movie cuts forward in time, revealing that Nick survived and already filmed The Good, The Badge and The Ugly. Moss, reunited with Susan, attends the movie's premiere with the rest of the department and comments that all Nick's lines were originally his. | The Hard Way | 682e35d8-b25b-451e-9b9c-47b223de1603 | How does Moss kill the Party Crasher? | [
"thrown off the rooftop"
] | false |
/m/0d61ht | A serial killer known as the "Party Crasher" (Stephen Lang) telephones the police, notifying them that he is about to murder another individual at a night club, daring them to stop him. Police converge on the night club, but the officers, including tough but cynical NYPD cop Lieutenant John Moss (James Woods), are unable to stop the gunshot killing of an innocent person. The Party Crasher flees in the ensuing chaos, and Moss is thrown off a car while trying to stop the killer. While Moss has his injuries tended to, he barks some obscene comments at media members and cameras.
In Hollywood, Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox) is a wealthy, pampered movie star who is best known as "Smoking" Joe Gunn, the title character in a series of highly popular pulp action films (similar to Indiana Jones). In order to be taken more seriously as an actor, he is vying for the leading role in the heavy cop drama Blood on the Asphalt. The producers want Mel Gibson for the role. Nick vows to "prepare" for the role by attempting to be an actual cop. After seeing Moss's outburst on TV, Nick pulls strings with NYC Mayor David Dinkins to be assigned as Moss's new partner on the force. Moss wants no part of the deal, but is forced to comply by his captain (Delroy Lindo), who just happens to be a huge Nick Lang fan. To make matters worse, looking after Nick means that Moss will have to be removed from the Party Crasher case.
Moss defies orders by continuing the investigation anyway and repeatedly trying to ditch Nick, whose constant questions and other annoying habits (such as mimicking all Moss's movements) frustrate Moss. Nick wants to know what it feels like to be a cop and is quickly thrust forward into some serious situations he is not prepared for, while Moss constantly reminds him that this is not a movie. Meanwhile, as Moss makes progress on finding the Party Crasher, he is also trying to juggle a new romance with Susan (Annabella Sciorra). The divorced Moss is unable to communicate with her or open up, and Nick offers advice to him on how to interact with women.
Moss takes Nick to a dark building to catch a perp, ordering him to stay put and giving the actor a real gun in case of an emergency. Nick, however, enters the building and shoots a man who he believes is a criminal chasing Moss. The man is revealed to be an innocent bystander, leaving Nick terrified. Moss agrees to cover up the act, and urges Nick to leave town immediately. Nick returns from the airport to the police station to confess his sins, only to see that the "dead man" is actually a fellow cop, alive and well. Moss choreographed the whole stunt to get Nick out of town.
Nick tracks Moss down to seek revenge but ends up stumbling on a confrontation between Moss and The Party Crasher, during which he saves Moss's life. It is also revealed, during the fight, that the only reason why The Party Crasher kills is because all his life he wanted to become a cop, but only believed that he'd be better than Moss. The Party Crasher is wounded, but he kills several people and escapes. After Moss is told by Susan that his unstable life as a cop will never allow them to have a relationship, he is visited by Nick. Nick predicts that The Party Crasher will follow storytelling protocol and seek out Moss's loved ones in this, the third act of their story together. Nick is right, and Susan is abducted. Moss and Nick confront The Party Crasher on a billboard, advertising Nick's latest movie Smoking Gunn II, and a brawl ensues. Susan is saved after Nick intervenes and is shot in the chest, when he takes a bullet for Moss and helps save Susan. Filled with aggression, Moss throws the Party Crasher off the rooftop to his death.
The movie cuts forward in time, revealing that Nick survived and already filmed The Good, The Badge and The Ugly. Moss, reunited with Susan, attends the movie's premiere with the rest of the department and comments that all Nick's lines were originally his. | The Hard Way | 931c1b17-7f58-83aa-dd17-0ba2aea23ef3 | Who does nick long pull strings with | [
"Mayor David Dinkins"
] | false |
/m/0d61ht | A serial killer known as the "Party Crasher" (Stephen Lang) telephones the police, notifying them that he is about to murder another individual at a night club, daring them to stop him. Police converge on the night club, but the officers, including tough but cynical NYPD cop Lieutenant John Moss (James Woods), are unable to stop the gunshot killing of an innocent person. The Party Crasher flees in the ensuing chaos, and Moss is thrown off a car while trying to stop the killer. While Moss has his injuries tended to, he barks some obscene comments at media members and cameras.
In Hollywood, Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox) is a wealthy, pampered movie star who is best known as "Smoking" Joe Gunn, the title character in a series of highly popular pulp action films (similar to Indiana Jones). In order to be taken more seriously as an actor, he is vying for the leading role in the heavy cop drama Blood on the Asphalt. The producers want Mel Gibson for the role. Nick vows to "prepare" for the role by attempting to be an actual cop. After seeing Moss's outburst on TV, Nick pulls strings with NYC Mayor David Dinkins to be assigned as Moss's new partner on the force. Moss wants no part of the deal, but is forced to comply by his captain (Delroy Lindo), who just happens to be a huge Nick Lang fan. To make matters worse, looking after Nick means that Moss will have to be removed from the Party Crasher case.
Moss defies orders by continuing the investigation anyway and repeatedly trying to ditch Nick, whose constant questions and other annoying habits (such as mimicking all Moss's movements) frustrate Moss. Nick wants to know what it feels like to be a cop and is quickly thrust forward into some serious situations he is not prepared for, while Moss constantly reminds him that this is not a movie. Meanwhile, as Moss makes progress on finding the Party Crasher, he is also trying to juggle a new romance with Susan (Annabella Sciorra). The divorced Moss is unable to communicate with her or open up, and Nick offers advice to him on how to interact with women.
Moss takes Nick to a dark building to catch a perp, ordering him to stay put and giving the actor a real gun in case of an emergency. Nick, however, enters the building and shoots a man who he believes is a criminal chasing Moss. The man is revealed to be an innocent bystander, leaving Nick terrified. Moss agrees to cover up the act, and urges Nick to leave town immediately. Nick returns from the airport to the police station to confess his sins, only to see that the "dead man" is actually a fellow cop, alive and well. Moss choreographed the whole stunt to get Nick out of town.
Nick tracks Moss down to seek revenge but ends up stumbling on a confrontation between Moss and The Party Crasher, during which he saves Moss's life. It is also revealed, during the fight, that the only reason why The Party Crasher kills is because all his life he wanted to become a cop, but only believed that he'd be better than Moss. The Party Crasher is wounded, but he kills several people and escapes. After Moss is told by Susan that his unstable life as a cop will never allow them to have a relationship, he is visited by Nick. Nick predicts that The Party Crasher will follow storytelling protocol and seek out Moss's loved ones in this, the third act of their story together. Nick is right, and Susan is abducted. Moss and Nick confront The Party Crasher on a billboard, advertising Nick's latest movie Smoking Gunn II, and a brawl ensues. Susan is saved after Nick intervenes and is shot in the chest, when he takes a bullet for Moss and helps save Susan. Filled with aggression, Moss throws the Party Crasher off the rooftop to his death.
The movie cuts forward in time, revealing that Nick survived and already filmed The Good, The Badge and The Ugly. Moss, reunited with Susan, attends the movie's premiere with the rest of the department and comments that all Nick's lines were originally his. | The Hard Way | 2176d039-4480-7874-91f9-485e15df0d98 | Name of the serial killer they are chasing | [
"the party crasher"
] | false |
/m/0d61ht | A serial killer known as the "Party Crasher" (Stephen Lang) telephones the police, notifying them that he is about to murder another individual at a night club, daring them to stop him. Police converge on the night club, but the officers, including tough but cynical NYPD cop Lieutenant John Moss (James Woods), are unable to stop the gunshot killing of an innocent person. The Party Crasher flees in the ensuing chaos, and Moss is thrown off a car while trying to stop the killer. While Moss has his injuries tended to, he barks some obscene comments at media members and cameras.
In Hollywood, Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox) is a wealthy, pampered movie star who is best known as "Smoking" Joe Gunn, the title character in a series of highly popular pulp action films (similar to Indiana Jones). In order to be taken more seriously as an actor, he is vying for the leading role in the heavy cop drama Blood on the Asphalt. The producers want Mel Gibson for the role. Nick vows to "prepare" for the role by attempting to be an actual cop. After seeing Moss's outburst on TV, Nick pulls strings with NYC Mayor David Dinkins to be assigned as Moss's new partner on the force. Moss wants no part of the deal, but is forced to comply by his captain (Delroy Lindo), who just happens to be a huge Nick Lang fan. To make matters worse, looking after Nick means that Moss will have to be removed from the Party Crasher case.
Moss defies orders by continuing the investigation anyway and repeatedly trying to ditch Nick, whose constant questions and other annoying habits (such as mimicking all Moss's movements) frustrate Moss. Nick wants to know what it feels like to be a cop and is quickly thrust forward into some serious situations he is not prepared for, while Moss constantly reminds him that this is not a movie. Meanwhile, as Moss makes progress on finding the Party Crasher, he is also trying to juggle a new romance with Susan (Annabella Sciorra). The divorced Moss is unable to communicate with her or open up, and Nick offers advice to him on how to interact with women.
Moss takes Nick to a dark building to catch a perp, ordering him to stay put and giving the actor a real gun in case of an emergency. Nick, however, enters the building and shoots a man who he believes is a criminal chasing Moss. The man is revealed to be an innocent bystander, leaving Nick terrified. Moss agrees to cover up the act, and urges Nick to leave town immediately. Nick returns from the airport to the police station to confess his sins, only to see that the "dead man" is actually a fellow cop, alive and well. Moss choreographed the whole stunt to get Nick out of town.
Nick tracks Moss down to seek revenge but ends up stumbling on a confrontation between Moss and The Party Crasher, during which he saves Moss's life. It is also revealed, during the fight, that the only reason why The Party Crasher kills is because all his life he wanted to become a cop, but only believed that he'd be better than Moss. The Party Crasher is wounded, but he kills several people and escapes. After Moss is told by Susan that his unstable life as a cop will never allow them to have a relationship, he is visited by Nick. Nick predicts that The Party Crasher will follow storytelling protocol and seek out Moss's loved ones in this, the third act of their story together. Nick is right, and Susan is abducted. Moss and Nick confront The Party Crasher on a billboard, advertising Nick's latest movie Smoking Gunn II, and a brawl ensues. Susan is saved after Nick intervenes and is shot in the chest, when he takes a bullet for Moss and helps save Susan. Filled with aggression, Moss throws the Party Crasher off the rooftop to his death.
The movie cuts forward in time, revealing that Nick survived and already filmed The Good, The Badge and The Ugly. Moss, reunited with Susan, attends the movie's premiere with the rest of the department and comments that all Nick's lines were originally his. | The Hard Way | 513c41e5-2833-f31d-0fee-55aaeed49757 | How does Nick scare the Party Crasher? | [] | true |
/m/0d61ht | A serial killer known as the "Party Crasher" (Stephen Lang) telephones the police, notifying them that he is about to murder another individual at a night club, daring them to stop him. Police converge on the night club, but the officers, including tough but cynical NYPD cop Lieutenant John Moss (James Woods), are unable to stop the gunshot killing of an innocent person. The Party Crasher flees in the ensuing chaos, and Moss is thrown off a car while trying to stop the killer. While Moss has his injuries tended to, he barks some obscene comments at media members and cameras.
In Hollywood, Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox) is a wealthy, pampered movie star who is best known as "Smoking" Joe Gunn, the title character in a series of highly popular pulp action films (similar to Indiana Jones). In order to be taken more seriously as an actor, he is vying for the leading role in the heavy cop drama Blood on the Asphalt. The producers want Mel Gibson for the role. Nick vows to "prepare" for the role by attempting to be an actual cop. After seeing Moss's outburst on TV, Nick pulls strings with NYC Mayor David Dinkins to be assigned as Moss's new partner on the force. Moss wants no part of the deal, but is forced to comply by his captain (Delroy Lindo), who just happens to be a huge Nick Lang fan. To make matters worse, looking after Nick means that Moss will have to be removed from the Party Crasher case.
Moss defies orders by continuing the investigation anyway and repeatedly trying to ditch Nick, whose constant questions and other annoying habits (such as mimicking all Moss's movements) frustrate Moss. Nick wants to know what it feels like to be a cop and is quickly thrust forward into some serious situations he is not prepared for, while Moss constantly reminds him that this is not a movie. Meanwhile, as Moss makes progress on finding the Party Crasher, he is also trying to juggle a new romance with Susan (Annabella Sciorra). The divorced Moss is unable to communicate with her or open up, and Nick offers advice to him on how to interact with women.
Moss takes Nick to a dark building to catch a perp, ordering him to stay put and giving the actor a real gun in case of an emergency. Nick, however, enters the building and shoots a man who he believes is a criminal chasing Moss. The man is revealed to be an innocent bystander, leaving Nick terrified. Moss agrees to cover up the act, and urges Nick to leave town immediately. Nick returns from the airport to the police station to confess his sins, only to see that the "dead man" is actually a fellow cop, alive and well. Moss choreographed the whole stunt to get Nick out of town.
Nick tracks Moss down to seek revenge but ends up stumbling on a confrontation between Moss and The Party Crasher, during which he saves Moss's life. It is also revealed, during the fight, that the only reason why The Party Crasher kills is because all his life he wanted to become a cop, but only believed that he'd be better than Moss. The Party Crasher is wounded, but he kills several people and escapes. After Moss is told by Susan that his unstable life as a cop will never allow them to have a relationship, he is visited by Nick. Nick predicts that The Party Crasher will follow storytelling protocol and seek out Moss's loved ones in this, the third act of their story together. Nick is right, and Susan is abducted. Moss and Nick confront The Party Crasher on a billboard, advertising Nick's latest movie Smoking Gunn II, and a brawl ensues. Susan is saved after Nick intervenes and is shot in the chest, when he takes a bullet for Moss and helps save Susan. Filled with aggression, Moss throws the Party Crasher off the rooftop to his death.
The movie cuts forward in time, revealing that Nick survived and already filmed The Good, The Badge and The Ugly. Moss, reunited with Susan, attends the movie's premiere with the rest of the department and comments that all Nick's lines were originally his. | The Hard Way | 1a760879-fa58-a163-7300-2049b5533bc8 | Who was the, "Dead Romeos?" | [] | true |
/m/0d61ht | A serial killer known as the "Party Crasher" (Stephen Lang) telephones the police, notifying them that he is about to murder another individual at a night club, daring them to stop him. Police converge on the night club, but the officers, including tough but cynical NYPD cop Lieutenant John Moss (James Woods), are unable to stop the gunshot killing of an innocent person. The Party Crasher flees in the ensuing chaos, and Moss is thrown off a car while trying to stop the killer. While Moss has his injuries tended to, he barks some obscene comments at media members and cameras.
In Hollywood, Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox) is a wealthy, pampered movie star who is best known as "Smoking" Joe Gunn, the title character in a series of highly popular pulp action films (similar to Indiana Jones). In order to be taken more seriously as an actor, he is vying for the leading role in the heavy cop drama Blood on the Asphalt. The producers want Mel Gibson for the role. Nick vows to "prepare" for the role by attempting to be an actual cop. After seeing Moss's outburst on TV, Nick pulls strings with NYC Mayor David Dinkins to be assigned as Moss's new partner on the force. Moss wants no part of the deal, but is forced to comply by his captain (Delroy Lindo), who just happens to be a huge Nick Lang fan. To make matters worse, looking after Nick means that Moss will have to be removed from the Party Crasher case.
Moss defies orders by continuing the investigation anyway and repeatedly trying to ditch Nick, whose constant questions and other annoying habits (such as mimicking all Moss's movements) frustrate Moss. Nick wants to know what it feels like to be a cop and is quickly thrust forward into some serious situations he is not prepared for, while Moss constantly reminds him that this is not a movie. Meanwhile, as Moss makes progress on finding the Party Crasher, he is also trying to juggle a new romance with Susan (Annabella Sciorra). The divorced Moss is unable to communicate with her or open up, and Nick offers advice to him on how to interact with women.
Moss takes Nick to a dark building to catch a perp, ordering him to stay put and giving the actor a real gun in case of an emergency. Nick, however, enters the building and shoots a man who he believes is a criminal chasing Moss. The man is revealed to be an innocent bystander, leaving Nick terrified. Moss agrees to cover up the act, and urges Nick to leave town immediately. Nick returns from the airport to the police station to confess his sins, only to see that the "dead man" is actually a fellow cop, alive and well. Moss choreographed the whole stunt to get Nick out of town.
Nick tracks Moss down to seek revenge but ends up stumbling on a confrontation between Moss and The Party Crasher, during which he saves Moss's life. It is also revealed, during the fight, that the only reason why The Party Crasher kills is because all his life he wanted to become a cop, but only believed that he'd be better than Moss. The Party Crasher is wounded, but he kills several people and escapes. After Moss is told by Susan that his unstable life as a cop will never allow them to have a relationship, he is visited by Nick. Nick predicts that The Party Crasher will follow storytelling protocol and seek out Moss's loved ones in this, the third act of their story together. Nick is right, and Susan is abducted. Moss and Nick confront The Party Crasher on a billboard, advertising Nick's latest movie Smoking Gunn II, and a brawl ensues. Susan is saved after Nick intervenes and is shot in the chest, when he takes a bullet for Moss and helps save Susan. Filled with aggression, Moss throws the Party Crasher off the rooftop to his death.
The movie cuts forward in time, revealing that Nick survived and already filmed The Good, The Badge and The Ugly. Moss, reunited with Susan, attends the movie's premiere with the rest of the department and comments that all Nick's lines were originally his. | The Hard Way | 3d54b678-8cda-3132-c92a-d0f207dc498e | What is the nickname of the killer? | [] | true |
/m/0d61ht | A serial killer known as the "Party Crasher" (Stephen Lang) telephones the police, notifying them that he is about to murder another individual at a night club, daring them to stop him. Police converge on the night club, but the officers, including tough but cynical NYPD cop Lieutenant John Moss (James Woods), are unable to stop the gunshot killing of an innocent person. The Party Crasher flees in the ensuing chaos, and Moss is thrown off a car while trying to stop the killer. While Moss has his injuries tended to, he barks some obscene comments at media members and cameras.
In Hollywood, Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox) is a wealthy, pampered movie star who is best known as "Smoking" Joe Gunn, the title character in a series of highly popular pulp action films (similar to Indiana Jones). In order to be taken more seriously as an actor, he is vying for the leading role in the heavy cop drama Blood on the Asphalt. The producers want Mel Gibson for the role. Nick vows to "prepare" for the role by attempting to be an actual cop. After seeing Moss's outburst on TV, Nick pulls strings with NYC Mayor David Dinkins to be assigned as Moss's new partner on the force. Moss wants no part of the deal, but is forced to comply by his captain (Delroy Lindo), who just happens to be a huge Nick Lang fan. To make matters worse, looking after Nick means that Moss will have to be removed from the Party Crasher case.
Moss defies orders by continuing the investigation anyway and repeatedly trying to ditch Nick, whose constant questions and other annoying habits (such as mimicking all Moss's movements) frustrate Moss. Nick wants to know what it feels like to be a cop and is quickly thrust forward into some serious situations he is not prepared for, while Moss constantly reminds him that this is not a movie. Meanwhile, as Moss makes progress on finding the Party Crasher, he is also trying to juggle a new romance with Susan (Annabella Sciorra). The divorced Moss is unable to communicate with her or open up, and Nick offers advice to him on how to interact with women.
Moss takes Nick to a dark building to catch a perp, ordering him to stay put and giving the actor a real gun in case of an emergency. Nick, however, enters the building and shoots a man who he believes is a criminal chasing Moss. The man is revealed to be an innocent bystander, leaving Nick terrified. Moss agrees to cover up the act, and urges Nick to leave town immediately. Nick returns from the airport to the police station to confess his sins, only to see that the "dead man" is actually a fellow cop, alive and well. Moss choreographed the whole stunt to get Nick out of town.
Nick tracks Moss down to seek revenge but ends up stumbling on a confrontation between Moss and The Party Crasher, during which he saves Moss's life. It is also revealed, during the fight, that the only reason why The Party Crasher kills is because all his life he wanted to become a cop, but only believed that he'd be better than Moss. The Party Crasher is wounded, but he kills several people and escapes. After Moss is told by Susan that his unstable life as a cop will never allow them to have a relationship, he is visited by Nick. Nick predicts that The Party Crasher will follow storytelling protocol and seek out Moss's loved ones in this, the third act of their story together. Nick is right, and Susan is abducted. Moss and Nick confront The Party Crasher on a billboard, advertising Nick's latest movie Smoking Gunn II, and a brawl ensues. Susan is saved after Nick intervenes and is shot in the chest, when he takes a bullet for Moss and helps save Susan. Filled with aggression, Moss throws the Party Crasher off the rooftop to his death.
The movie cuts forward in time, revealing that Nick survived and already filmed The Good, The Badge and The Ugly. Moss, reunited with Susan, attends the movie's premiere with the rest of the department and comments that all Nick's lines were originally his. | The Hard Way | c101826d-201e-49c2-214b-b17c620d3649 | Who did Nick really shoot with a gun? | [] | true |
/m/0d61ht | A serial killer known as the "Party Crasher" (Stephen Lang) telephones the police, notifying them that he is about to murder another individual at a night club, daring them to stop him. Police converge on the night club, but the officers, including tough but cynical NYPD cop Lieutenant John Moss (James Woods), are unable to stop the gunshot killing of an innocent person. The Party Crasher flees in the ensuing chaos, and Moss is thrown off a car while trying to stop the killer. While Moss has his injuries tended to, he barks some obscene comments at media members and cameras.
In Hollywood, Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox) is a wealthy, pampered movie star who is best known as "Smoking" Joe Gunn, the title character in a series of highly popular pulp action films (similar to Indiana Jones). In order to be taken more seriously as an actor, he is vying for the leading role in the heavy cop drama Blood on the Asphalt. The producers want Mel Gibson for the role. Nick vows to "prepare" for the role by attempting to be an actual cop. After seeing Moss's outburst on TV, Nick pulls strings with NYC Mayor David Dinkins to be assigned as Moss's new partner on the force. Moss wants no part of the deal, but is forced to comply by his captain (Delroy Lindo), who just happens to be a huge Nick Lang fan. To make matters worse, looking after Nick means that Moss will have to be removed from the Party Crasher case.
Moss defies orders by continuing the investigation anyway and repeatedly trying to ditch Nick, whose constant questions and other annoying habits (such as mimicking all Moss's movements) frustrate Moss. Nick wants to know what it feels like to be a cop and is quickly thrust forward into some serious situations he is not prepared for, while Moss constantly reminds him that this is not a movie. Meanwhile, as Moss makes progress on finding the Party Crasher, he is also trying to juggle a new romance with Susan (Annabella Sciorra). The divorced Moss is unable to communicate with her or open up, and Nick offers advice to him on how to interact with women.
Moss takes Nick to a dark building to catch a perp, ordering him to stay put and giving the actor a real gun in case of an emergency. Nick, however, enters the building and shoots a man who he believes is a criminal chasing Moss. The man is revealed to be an innocent bystander, leaving Nick terrified. Moss agrees to cover up the act, and urges Nick to leave town immediately. Nick returns from the airport to the police station to confess his sins, only to see that the "dead man" is actually a fellow cop, alive and well. Moss choreographed the whole stunt to get Nick out of town.
Nick tracks Moss down to seek revenge but ends up stumbling on a confrontation between Moss and The Party Crasher, during which he saves Moss's life. It is also revealed, during the fight, that the only reason why The Party Crasher kills is because all his life he wanted to become a cop, but only believed that he'd be better than Moss. The Party Crasher is wounded, but he kills several people and escapes. After Moss is told by Susan that his unstable life as a cop will never allow them to have a relationship, he is visited by Nick. Nick predicts that The Party Crasher will follow storytelling protocol and seek out Moss's loved ones in this, the third act of their story together. Nick is right, and Susan is abducted. Moss and Nick confront The Party Crasher on a billboard, advertising Nick's latest movie Smoking Gunn II, and a brawl ensues. Susan is saved after Nick intervenes and is shot in the chest, when he takes a bullet for Moss and helps save Susan. Filled with aggression, Moss throws the Party Crasher off the rooftop to his death.
The movie cuts forward in time, revealing that Nick survived and already filmed The Good, The Badge and The Ugly. Moss, reunited with Susan, attends the movie's premiere with the rest of the department and comments that all Nick's lines were originally his. | The Hard Way | 554b9f68-e401-8332-92c7-17694ffb5b49 | Why is Moss not happy with Nick's movie? | [] | true |
/m/0d61ht | A serial killer known as the "Party Crasher" (Stephen Lang) telephones the police, notifying them that he is about to murder another individual at a night club, daring them to stop him. Police converge on the night club, but the officers, including tough but cynical NYPD cop Lieutenant John Moss (James Woods), are unable to stop the gunshot killing of an innocent person. The Party Crasher flees in the ensuing chaos, and Moss is thrown off a car while trying to stop the killer. While Moss has his injuries tended to, he barks some obscene comments at media members and cameras.
In Hollywood, Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox) is a wealthy, pampered movie star who is best known as "Smoking" Joe Gunn, the title character in a series of highly popular pulp action films (similar to Indiana Jones). In order to be taken more seriously as an actor, he is vying for the leading role in the heavy cop drama Blood on the Asphalt. The producers want Mel Gibson for the role. Nick vows to "prepare" for the role by attempting to be an actual cop. After seeing Moss's outburst on TV, Nick pulls strings with NYC Mayor David Dinkins to be assigned as Moss's new partner on the force. Moss wants no part of the deal, but is forced to comply by his captain (Delroy Lindo), who just happens to be a huge Nick Lang fan. To make matters worse, looking after Nick means that Moss will have to be removed from the Party Crasher case.
Moss defies orders by continuing the investigation anyway and repeatedly trying to ditch Nick, whose constant questions and other annoying habits (such as mimicking all Moss's movements) frustrate Moss. Nick wants to know what it feels like to be a cop and is quickly thrust forward into some serious situations he is not prepared for, while Moss constantly reminds him that this is not a movie. Meanwhile, as Moss makes progress on finding the Party Crasher, he is also trying to juggle a new romance with Susan (Annabella Sciorra). The divorced Moss is unable to communicate with her or open up, and Nick offers advice to him on how to interact with women.
Moss takes Nick to a dark building to catch a perp, ordering him to stay put and giving the actor a real gun in case of an emergency. Nick, however, enters the building and shoots a man who he believes is a criminal chasing Moss. The man is revealed to be an innocent bystander, leaving Nick terrified. Moss agrees to cover up the act, and urges Nick to leave town immediately. Nick returns from the airport to the police station to confess his sins, only to see that the "dead man" is actually a fellow cop, alive and well. Moss choreographed the whole stunt to get Nick out of town.
Nick tracks Moss down to seek revenge but ends up stumbling on a confrontation between Moss and The Party Crasher, during which he saves Moss's life. It is also revealed, during the fight, that the only reason why The Party Crasher kills is because all his life he wanted to become a cop, but only believed that he'd be better than Moss. The Party Crasher is wounded, but he kills several people and escapes. After Moss is told by Susan that his unstable life as a cop will never allow them to have a relationship, he is visited by Nick. Nick predicts that The Party Crasher will follow storytelling protocol and seek out Moss's loved ones in this, the third act of their story together. Nick is right, and Susan is abducted. Moss and Nick confront The Party Crasher on a billboard, advertising Nick's latest movie Smoking Gunn II, and a brawl ensues. Susan is saved after Nick intervenes and is shot in the chest, when he takes a bullet for Moss and helps save Susan. Filled with aggression, Moss throws the Party Crasher off the rooftop to his death.
The movie cuts forward in time, revealing that Nick survived and already filmed The Good, The Badge and The Ugly. Moss, reunited with Susan, attends the movie's premiere with the rest of the department and comments that all Nick's lines were originally his. | The Hard Way | 2d18eec9-5cc9-a5ac-8272-e9f2d418d481 | Who arrives at Moss's apartment? | [] | true |
/m/0d61ht | A serial killer known as the "Party Crasher" (Stephen Lang) telephones the police, notifying them that he is about to murder another individual at a night club, daring them to stop him. Police converge on the night club, but the officers, including tough but cynical NYPD cop Lieutenant John Moss (James Woods), are unable to stop the gunshot killing of an innocent person. The Party Crasher flees in the ensuing chaos, and Moss is thrown off a car while trying to stop the killer. While Moss has his injuries tended to, he barks some obscene comments at media members and cameras.
In Hollywood, Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox) is a wealthy, pampered movie star who is best known as "Smoking" Joe Gunn, the title character in a series of highly popular pulp action films (similar to Indiana Jones). In order to be taken more seriously as an actor, he is vying for the leading role in the heavy cop drama Blood on the Asphalt. The producers want Mel Gibson for the role. Nick vows to "prepare" for the role by attempting to be an actual cop. After seeing Moss's outburst on TV, Nick pulls strings with NYC Mayor David Dinkins to be assigned as Moss's new partner on the force. Moss wants no part of the deal, but is forced to comply by his captain (Delroy Lindo), who just happens to be a huge Nick Lang fan. To make matters worse, looking after Nick means that Moss will have to be removed from the Party Crasher case.
Moss defies orders by continuing the investigation anyway and repeatedly trying to ditch Nick, whose constant questions and other annoying habits (such as mimicking all Moss's movements) frustrate Moss. Nick wants to know what it feels like to be a cop and is quickly thrust forward into some serious situations he is not prepared for, while Moss constantly reminds him that this is not a movie. Meanwhile, as Moss makes progress on finding the Party Crasher, he is also trying to juggle a new romance with Susan (Annabella Sciorra). The divorced Moss is unable to communicate with her or open up, and Nick offers advice to him on how to interact with women.
Moss takes Nick to a dark building to catch a perp, ordering him to stay put and giving the actor a real gun in case of an emergency. Nick, however, enters the building and shoots a man who he believes is a criminal chasing Moss. The man is revealed to be an innocent bystander, leaving Nick terrified. Moss agrees to cover up the act, and urges Nick to leave town immediately. Nick returns from the airport to the police station to confess his sins, only to see that the "dead man" is actually a fellow cop, alive and well. Moss choreographed the whole stunt to get Nick out of town.
Nick tracks Moss down to seek revenge but ends up stumbling on a confrontation between Moss and The Party Crasher, during which he saves Moss's life. It is also revealed, during the fight, that the only reason why The Party Crasher kills is because all his life he wanted to become a cop, but only believed that he'd be better than Moss. The Party Crasher is wounded, but he kills several people and escapes. After Moss is told by Susan that his unstable life as a cop will never allow them to have a relationship, he is visited by Nick. Nick predicts that The Party Crasher will follow storytelling protocol and seek out Moss's loved ones in this, the third act of their story together. Nick is right, and Susan is abducted. Moss and Nick confront The Party Crasher on a billboard, advertising Nick's latest movie Smoking Gunn II, and a brawl ensues. Susan is saved after Nick intervenes and is shot in the chest, when he takes a bullet for Moss and helps save Susan. Filled with aggression, Moss throws the Party Crasher off the rooftop to his death.
The movie cuts forward in time, revealing that Nick survived and already filmed The Good, The Badge and The Ugly. Moss, reunited with Susan, attends the movie's premiere with the rest of the department and comments that all Nick's lines were originally his. | The Hard Way | 9989edc0-5333-fe84-ec68-7ad741030748 | What character trait did Nick have to take on? | [] | true |
/m/07cbtf | It is 1794 in the Austrian Duchy of Styria. Following the death of his sister, Baron Joachim von Hartog [Douglas Wilmer] vows to destroy the vampire Karnstein family. He succeeds in staking every Karnstein except for one, Mircalla Karnstein (1522-1546).Now, it is several years later. General Speilsdorf [Peter Cushing] is throwing a birthday party for his niece Laura [Pippa Steele]. All the young people have been invited including Laura's friend Emma Morton [Madeline Smith], Laura's boyfriend Carl Ebhardt [Jon Finch], a Countess [Dawn Adams] who has just moved into a nearby castle, and the Countessa's daughter Marcilla [Ingrid Pitt]. Suddenly, the Countess is called away due to the death of a friend, but Marcilla stays on as a guest of the Spielsdorfs. Marcilla and Laura become good friends, so good that Laura stops seeing even her boyfriend. Soon, Laura begins having nightmares of a large cat strangling her. Laura grows paler and weaker, and the doctor diagnoses anemia. It is not until Laura dies and the doctor listens for her heartbeat that two puncture wounds are found on her breast. And Marcilla has disappeared.One day, while out riding, Emma and her father come upon a disabled coach bearing a Countess and her niece Carmilla [Ingrid Pitt in a dual role], on their way to tend to the Countessa's dying brother. Emma and her father invite Carmilla to remain as a guest. Carmilla and Emma quickly become fast friends. Soon, Emma begins growing paler and weaker and having nightmares about a big cat with enormous eyes. When the doctor is summoned, he places garlic flowers around the room and a cross on Emma's neck. When Carmilla attempts to visit Emma, she is thwarted by the cross and the garlic. Emma's father is summoned home from Vienna. On the way, he meets up with General Spielsdorf, Baron Hartog, and Laura's ex-boyfriend Carl. Hartog tells them about his encounter with the Karnstein family. He leads them to Karnstein castle where he points out a painting of Mircalla Karnstein. "Marcilla!" says General Spielsdorf. "Carmilla!" says Morton.Meanwhile, Carmilla has convinced the staff to remove the garlic and cross from Emma's bedroom. She attempts to escape with Emma but is stopped by Carl holding the crosslike-hilt of his sword and chanting "Aparte Satana!" Back at Karnstein castle, Spielsdorf, Hartog and Morton see the vampiress return to her grave. They stake her and cut off her head. "Let us pray that Styria is rid of this evil forever," says Morton. [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.] | The Vampire Lovers | 006098af-f426-0d6b-297d-b0fe712722d6 | Who is Baron Hartog? | [
"A vampire killer"
] | false |
/m/07cbtf | It is 1794 in the Austrian Duchy of Styria. Following the death of his sister, Baron Joachim von Hartog [Douglas Wilmer] vows to destroy the vampire Karnstein family. He succeeds in staking every Karnstein except for one, Mircalla Karnstein (1522-1546).Now, it is several years later. General Speilsdorf [Peter Cushing] is throwing a birthday party for his niece Laura [Pippa Steele]. All the young people have been invited including Laura's friend Emma Morton [Madeline Smith], Laura's boyfriend Carl Ebhardt [Jon Finch], a Countess [Dawn Adams] who has just moved into a nearby castle, and the Countessa's daughter Marcilla [Ingrid Pitt]. Suddenly, the Countess is called away due to the death of a friend, but Marcilla stays on as a guest of the Spielsdorfs. Marcilla and Laura become good friends, so good that Laura stops seeing even her boyfriend. Soon, Laura begins having nightmares of a large cat strangling her. Laura grows paler and weaker, and the doctor diagnoses anemia. It is not until Laura dies and the doctor listens for her heartbeat that two puncture wounds are found on her breast. And Marcilla has disappeared.One day, while out riding, Emma and her father come upon a disabled coach bearing a Countess and her niece Carmilla [Ingrid Pitt in a dual role], on their way to tend to the Countessa's dying brother. Emma and her father invite Carmilla to remain as a guest. Carmilla and Emma quickly become fast friends. Soon, Emma begins growing paler and weaker and having nightmares about a big cat with enormous eyes. When the doctor is summoned, he places garlic flowers around the room and a cross on Emma's neck. When Carmilla attempts to visit Emma, she is thwarted by the cross and the garlic. Emma's father is summoned home from Vienna. On the way, he meets up with General Spielsdorf, Baron Hartog, and Laura's ex-boyfriend Carl. Hartog tells them about his encounter with the Karnstein family. He leads them to Karnstein castle where he points out a painting of Mircalla Karnstein. "Marcilla!" says General Spielsdorf. "Carmilla!" says Morton.Meanwhile, Carmilla has convinced the staff to remove the garlic and cross from Emma's bedroom. She attempts to escape with Emma but is stopped by Carl holding the crosslike-hilt of his sword and chanting "Aparte Satana!" Back at Karnstein castle, Spielsdorf, Hartog and Morton see the vampiress return to her grave. They stake her and cut off her head. "Let us pray that Styria is rid of this evil forever," says Morton. [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.] | The Vampire Lovers | 92094404-bfd6-5953-7924-f26841bccbb1 | Who rescues Emma? | [
"Carmilla attempts to rescue Emma, but is stopped by Carl"
] | false |
/m/07cbtf | It is 1794 in the Austrian Duchy of Styria. Following the death of his sister, Baron Joachim von Hartog [Douglas Wilmer] vows to destroy the vampire Karnstein family. He succeeds in staking every Karnstein except for one, Mircalla Karnstein (1522-1546).Now, it is several years later. General Speilsdorf [Peter Cushing] is throwing a birthday party for his niece Laura [Pippa Steele]. All the young people have been invited including Laura's friend Emma Morton [Madeline Smith], Laura's boyfriend Carl Ebhardt [Jon Finch], a Countess [Dawn Adams] who has just moved into a nearby castle, and the Countessa's daughter Marcilla [Ingrid Pitt]. Suddenly, the Countess is called away due to the death of a friend, but Marcilla stays on as a guest of the Spielsdorfs. Marcilla and Laura become good friends, so good that Laura stops seeing even her boyfriend. Soon, Laura begins having nightmares of a large cat strangling her. Laura grows paler and weaker, and the doctor diagnoses anemia. It is not until Laura dies and the doctor listens for her heartbeat that two puncture wounds are found on her breast. And Marcilla has disappeared.One day, while out riding, Emma and her father come upon a disabled coach bearing a Countess and her niece Carmilla [Ingrid Pitt in a dual role], on their way to tend to the Countessa's dying brother. Emma and her father invite Carmilla to remain as a guest. Carmilla and Emma quickly become fast friends. Soon, Emma begins growing paler and weaker and having nightmares about a big cat with enormous eyes. When the doctor is summoned, he places garlic flowers around the room and a cross on Emma's neck. When Carmilla attempts to visit Emma, she is thwarted by the cross and the garlic. Emma's father is summoned home from Vienna. On the way, he meets up with General Spielsdorf, Baron Hartog, and Laura's ex-boyfriend Carl. Hartog tells them about his encounter with the Karnstein family. He leads them to Karnstein castle where he points out a painting of Mircalla Karnstein. "Marcilla!" says General Spielsdorf. "Carmilla!" says Morton.Meanwhile, Carmilla has convinced the staff to remove the garlic and cross from Emma's bedroom. She attempts to escape with Emma but is stopped by Carl holding the crosslike-hilt of his sword and chanting "Aparte Satana!" Back at Karnstein castle, Spielsdorf, Hartog and Morton see the vampiress return to her grave. They stake her and cut off her head. "Let us pray that Styria is rid of this evil forever," says Morton. [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.] | The Vampire Lovers | 9ed3b83e-6d80-c1b8-d5d0-8a0a312ab529 | What is Marcilla's alias? | [] | true |
/m/07cbtf | It is 1794 in the Austrian Duchy of Styria. Following the death of his sister, Baron Joachim von Hartog [Douglas Wilmer] vows to destroy the vampire Karnstein family. He succeeds in staking every Karnstein except for one, Mircalla Karnstein (1522-1546).Now, it is several years later. General Speilsdorf [Peter Cushing] is throwing a birthday party for his niece Laura [Pippa Steele]. All the young people have been invited including Laura's friend Emma Morton [Madeline Smith], Laura's boyfriend Carl Ebhardt [Jon Finch], a Countess [Dawn Adams] who has just moved into a nearby castle, and the Countessa's daughter Marcilla [Ingrid Pitt]. Suddenly, the Countess is called away due to the death of a friend, but Marcilla stays on as a guest of the Spielsdorfs. Marcilla and Laura become good friends, so good that Laura stops seeing even her boyfriend. Soon, Laura begins having nightmares of a large cat strangling her. Laura grows paler and weaker, and the doctor diagnoses anemia. It is not until Laura dies and the doctor listens for her heartbeat that two puncture wounds are found on her breast. And Marcilla has disappeared.One day, while out riding, Emma and her father come upon a disabled coach bearing a Countess and her niece Carmilla [Ingrid Pitt in a dual role], on their way to tend to the Countessa's dying brother. Emma and her father invite Carmilla to remain as a guest. Carmilla and Emma quickly become fast friends. Soon, Emma begins growing paler and weaker and having nightmares about a big cat with enormous eyes. When the doctor is summoned, he places garlic flowers around the room and a cross on Emma's neck. When Carmilla attempts to visit Emma, she is thwarted by the cross and the garlic. Emma's father is summoned home from Vienna. On the way, he meets up with General Spielsdorf, Baron Hartog, and Laura's ex-boyfriend Carl. Hartog tells them about his encounter with the Karnstein family. He leads them to Karnstein castle where he points out a painting of Mircalla Karnstein. "Marcilla!" says General Spielsdorf. "Carmilla!" says Morton.Meanwhile, Carmilla has convinced the staff to remove the garlic and cross from Emma's bedroom. She attempts to escape with Emma but is stopped by Carl holding the crosslike-hilt of his sword and chanting "Aparte Satana!" Back at Karnstein castle, Spielsdorf, Hartog and Morton see the vampiress return to her grave. They stake her and cut off her head. "Let us pray that Styria is rid of this evil forever," says Morton. [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.] | The Vampire Lovers | f1a5524f-3b31-9e5f-fc21-aa87c284ab24 | What was Laura suffering from? | [
"Anemia"
] | false |
/m/07cbtf | It is 1794 in the Austrian Duchy of Styria. Following the death of his sister, Baron Joachim von Hartog [Douglas Wilmer] vows to destroy the vampire Karnstein family. He succeeds in staking every Karnstein except for one, Mircalla Karnstein (1522-1546).Now, it is several years later. General Speilsdorf [Peter Cushing] is throwing a birthday party for his niece Laura [Pippa Steele]. All the young people have been invited including Laura's friend Emma Morton [Madeline Smith], Laura's boyfriend Carl Ebhardt [Jon Finch], a Countess [Dawn Adams] who has just moved into a nearby castle, and the Countessa's daughter Marcilla [Ingrid Pitt]. Suddenly, the Countess is called away due to the death of a friend, but Marcilla stays on as a guest of the Spielsdorfs. Marcilla and Laura become good friends, so good that Laura stops seeing even her boyfriend. Soon, Laura begins having nightmares of a large cat strangling her. Laura grows paler and weaker, and the doctor diagnoses anemia. It is not until Laura dies and the doctor listens for her heartbeat that two puncture wounds are found on her breast. And Marcilla has disappeared.One day, while out riding, Emma and her father come upon a disabled coach bearing a Countess and her niece Carmilla [Ingrid Pitt in a dual role], on their way to tend to the Countessa's dying brother. Emma and her father invite Carmilla to remain as a guest. Carmilla and Emma quickly become fast friends. Soon, Emma begins growing paler and weaker and having nightmares about a big cat with enormous eyes. When the doctor is summoned, he places garlic flowers around the room and a cross on Emma's neck. When Carmilla attempts to visit Emma, she is thwarted by the cross and the garlic. Emma's father is summoned home from Vienna. On the way, he meets up with General Spielsdorf, Baron Hartog, and Laura's ex-boyfriend Carl. Hartog tells them about his encounter with the Karnstein family. He leads them to Karnstein castle where he points out a painting of Mircalla Karnstein. "Marcilla!" says General Spielsdorf. "Carmilla!" says Morton.Meanwhile, Carmilla has convinced the staff to remove the garlic and cross from Emma's bedroom. She attempts to escape with Emma but is stopped by Carl holding the crosslike-hilt of his sword and chanting "Aparte Satana!" Back at Karnstein castle, Spielsdorf, Hartog and Morton see the vampiress return to her grave. They stake her and cut off her head. "Let us pray that Styria is rid of this evil forever," says Morton. [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.] | The Vampire Lovers | 24e2780b-0028-dedb-e33e-82eb7eafd8b9 | Who does Carmilla take prisoner? | [] | true |
/m/0fk60h | This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (August 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Edna Buxton (Illeana Douglas) is a steel heiress from Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, who wants to be a singer and enters a talent contest. The story begins with a conversation between herself and her mother (Christina Pickles) with regard to what she will sing and what she will wear. At her mother's insistence, she reluctantly makes a plan to sing "You'll Never Walk Alone." Edna is even less thrilled about her mother's choice of wardrobe, calling it uncomfortable. Her mother responds with a cutting remark, "Perhaps it's not the dress. Perhaps it's you who doesn't fit, dear."
Backstage at the contest, she meets a blues singer named Doris Shelley (Jennifer Leigh Warren). Doris advises Edna to follow her heart, and the two women trade dresses. Clad in Dorisâs sleek black dress, Edna sings "Hey There" instead. Despite the fact that she wins the contest, she loses the respect of her mother, who has since left the theater in humiliation.
An excited Denise decides to use her grand prize winnings to record a demo. The studio producer (Richard Schiff) tactfully delivers the painful truth to Edna that not only are girl singers not getting signed, the record companies are trying to get rid of the ones currently on their rosters. When she tells him that she wrote the song, he is impressed enough to direct her to Joel Milner (John Turturro) who takes her under his wing, renames her "Denise Waverly" and invents a blue-collar persona for her. Milner reworks her song for a male doo-wop group, the Stylettes, as male solo artists are groups are far more marketable. The song becomes a hit.
Denise moves to New York and becomes a songwriter in the Brill Building. At a party, she meets the arrogant songwriter Howard Caszatt (Eric Stoltz), and despite an awkward initial meeting they become romantically involved. She also reunites with Doris, who is not only singing at the party that night, but apologizes for keeping Deniseâs expensive dress after all that time. She insists it was because she wasnât sure how or where to return it. Meanwhile, Denise offers to and writes a song specifically for Doris and her two girlfriends. She persuades a reluctant Milner to audition the group. Milner likes the group and the song Denise has written, and renames the group The Luminaries.
At Howard's insistence he and Denise begin writing together; partly out of respect for her talent, but primarily because she's had greater mainstream and commercial success. His songs had been deemed "too controversial" and had been repeatedly banned from radio airplay. She overhears an argument between Sha-Sha (Kathy Barbour)âs niece Annie (Tracy Vilar) and her boyfriend. It turns out the young teen is pregnant. Denise and Howard pen the song âUnwanted Numberâ based on the girlâs struggle. Although it's banned, it attracts the attention of prominent and influential disc jockey John Murray (Bruce Davison) who, despite the negative attention of the song, credits Denise with sparking the craze for girl groups.
Denise then suggests that she and Howard should write a wedding-themed song for the Luminaries. Howard says he doesn't believe in marriage, but when Denise reveals that she is pregnant with Howard's child, they are married and have a daughter.
Life is idyllic for Denise with a family and successful songwriting career. Milner then recruits the beautiful English songwriter Cheryl Steed, who immediately catches Howardâs eye, and ultimately Deniseâs disdain. Cheryl immediately diffuses the flirtation by informing the couple that she already has a songwriting partnerâher husband Matthew (Chris Isaak).
Joel tasks Denise and Cheryl with collaboration on a song for the ingénue singer Kelly Porter (Bridget Fonda). The women protest but, nevertheless, bond over the realization that the young songstress is in a closeted lesbian relationship. Their song âMy Secret Loveâ is the hit that is born out of this situation.
Denise arrives home unexpectedly and finds Howard in bed with another woman; not long afterward, she learns that she is pregnant with Howard's second baby; Cheryl convinces her to see an obstetrician, who safely performs an illegal abortion.
Denise throws herself into her work and becomes highly successful. Having broken up with Howard, she has a brief but unhappy affair with the married John Murray, which ends when he moves with his family to Chicago.
Denise is despondent over the end of her affair with Murray. As a means of cheering her up, he finally offers to send her to the studio to sing for herself. As added incentive, he offers the production assistance of California wunderkind Jay Phillips to produce her single. Sheâs initially hesitant, saying she finds the whole "surf and turf" sound laughable. She writes and sings "God Give Me Strength," and is delighted by Jay's skillful orchestral arrangement. Her record, however, bombs. Between the loss suffered by her foundering single and the advent of the British invasion. Milner's fortunes are depleted. Denise blames herself for making the song too personal and bankrupting Joel. He tells her she did more for him than she realized and that it was time for then both to move on.
Denise and Jay become a couple and resettle in California Things seem fine for a while; Annie has stayed on to help take care of Deniseâs daughter Luna, and the child becomes like a sister to Annieâs son. Jay is affectionate and showers love on both children, but is reclusive and a user of recreational drugs like marijuana and peyote. He disapproves of Denise writing songs for television-sheâs since joined forces with the newly divorced Cheryl who is writing Los Angeles for a Bubblegum pop TV show called Where the Action Is. He insists that it's beneath her and hopes that she'll fail.
Jay's behavior becomes more erratic-He becomes increasingly paranoid. His songwriting becomes too avant garde and his band mates distance themselves from him. He takes the children on an outing, and comes home, having completely forgotten them. When the police bring them home safely, Jay realizes what heâs done and drifts into a deep depression causing him to become even more isolated. The depression seemingly abates after a visit from his friend "Jonesy", who reminds him of the things that are important in his life, including his "groovy new old lady", Denise.
Thinking that the worst is over, Denise invites Jay to join her and Cheryl at the Whiskey a Go-Go to hear Doris (who embarked on a solo career in LA when The Luminaries broke up) and her new boyfriend sing. Jay begs off, saying he's got a song idea he wants to explore. He promises a night of lovemaking when she returns. While the women celebrate, Jay is revealed to be still in the throes of his depression; having put on a brave face for Denise's benefit. He walks into the ocean, taking his own life. Denise is further distraught to discover that Jay's fans blame her for not stopping his death.
Numbed by Jay's death, Denise retires with her family to a hippie commune in Northern California and tries to make sense of everything that has happened.
Joel Milner visits Denise at the commune and takes her and the children to dinner. That night, he criticizes how far down she's allowed her grieving to take her and that it's destroying her and her talent. Denise angrily lashes out, and she tells Milner that he'd be nothing without her success. He agrees, and the more he agrees with the angrier she becomes. She strikes him then collapses in tears, grieving for Jay. Milner consoles her and the two are reconciled.
With Joel's help and Jay's spiritual guidance from beyond, Denise is able to put the pieces of her life together to create what will become the platinum-selling work Grace of My Heart. As she lays down the piano track for the song, her life is recounted in pictures; leading to the moment when her own mother receives a copy of her album in the mail with a handwritten note. Seemingly proud of her daughter's success, she smiles. Denise finally finds her fit after all. | Grace of My Heart | 2cbb9d79-b7b0-9a44-855a-dc941ecc1a4d | What did Edna rename herself to? | [
"Denise Waverly"
] | false |
/m/0fk60h | This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (August 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Edna Buxton (Illeana Douglas) is a steel heiress from Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, who wants to be a singer and enters a talent contest. The story begins with a conversation between herself and her mother (Christina Pickles) with regard to what she will sing and what she will wear. At her mother's insistence, she reluctantly makes a plan to sing "You'll Never Walk Alone." Edna is even less thrilled about her mother's choice of wardrobe, calling it uncomfortable. Her mother responds with a cutting remark, "Perhaps it's not the dress. Perhaps it's you who doesn't fit, dear."
Backstage at the contest, she meets a blues singer named Doris Shelley (Jennifer Leigh Warren). Doris advises Edna to follow her heart, and the two women trade dresses. Clad in Dorisâs sleek black dress, Edna sings "Hey There" instead. Despite the fact that she wins the contest, she loses the respect of her mother, who has since left the theater in humiliation.
An excited Denise decides to use her grand prize winnings to record a demo. The studio producer (Richard Schiff) tactfully delivers the painful truth to Edna that not only are girl singers not getting signed, the record companies are trying to get rid of the ones currently on their rosters. When she tells him that she wrote the song, he is impressed enough to direct her to Joel Milner (John Turturro) who takes her under his wing, renames her "Denise Waverly" and invents a blue-collar persona for her. Milner reworks her song for a male doo-wop group, the Stylettes, as male solo artists are groups are far more marketable. The song becomes a hit.
Denise moves to New York and becomes a songwriter in the Brill Building. At a party, she meets the arrogant songwriter Howard Caszatt (Eric Stoltz), and despite an awkward initial meeting they become romantically involved. She also reunites with Doris, who is not only singing at the party that night, but apologizes for keeping Deniseâs expensive dress after all that time. She insists it was because she wasnât sure how or where to return it. Meanwhile, Denise offers to and writes a song specifically for Doris and her two girlfriends. She persuades a reluctant Milner to audition the group. Milner likes the group and the song Denise has written, and renames the group The Luminaries.
At Howard's insistence he and Denise begin writing together; partly out of respect for her talent, but primarily because she's had greater mainstream and commercial success. His songs had been deemed "too controversial" and had been repeatedly banned from radio airplay. She overhears an argument between Sha-Sha (Kathy Barbour)âs niece Annie (Tracy Vilar) and her boyfriend. It turns out the young teen is pregnant. Denise and Howard pen the song âUnwanted Numberâ based on the girlâs struggle. Although it's banned, it attracts the attention of prominent and influential disc jockey John Murray (Bruce Davison) who, despite the negative attention of the song, credits Denise with sparking the craze for girl groups.
Denise then suggests that she and Howard should write a wedding-themed song for the Luminaries. Howard says he doesn't believe in marriage, but when Denise reveals that she is pregnant with Howard's child, they are married and have a daughter.
Life is idyllic for Denise with a family and successful songwriting career. Milner then recruits the beautiful English songwriter Cheryl Steed, who immediately catches Howardâs eye, and ultimately Deniseâs disdain. Cheryl immediately diffuses the flirtation by informing the couple that she already has a songwriting partnerâher husband Matthew (Chris Isaak).
Joel tasks Denise and Cheryl with collaboration on a song for the ingénue singer Kelly Porter (Bridget Fonda). The women protest but, nevertheless, bond over the realization that the young songstress is in a closeted lesbian relationship. Their song âMy Secret Loveâ is the hit that is born out of this situation.
Denise arrives home unexpectedly and finds Howard in bed with another woman; not long afterward, she learns that she is pregnant with Howard's second baby; Cheryl convinces her to see an obstetrician, who safely performs an illegal abortion.
Denise throws herself into her work and becomes highly successful. Having broken up with Howard, she has a brief but unhappy affair with the married John Murray, which ends when he moves with his family to Chicago.
Denise is despondent over the end of her affair with Murray. As a means of cheering her up, he finally offers to send her to the studio to sing for herself. As added incentive, he offers the production assistance of California wunderkind Jay Phillips to produce her single. Sheâs initially hesitant, saying she finds the whole "surf and turf" sound laughable. She writes and sings "God Give Me Strength," and is delighted by Jay's skillful orchestral arrangement. Her record, however, bombs. Between the loss suffered by her foundering single and the advent of the British invasion. Milner's fortunes are depleted. Denise blames herself for making the song too personal and bankrupting Joel. He tells her she did more for him than she realized and that it was time for then both to move on.
Denise and Jay become a couple and resettle in California Things seem fine for a while; Annie has stayed on to help take care of Deniseâs daughter Luna, and the child becomes like a sister to Annieâs son. Jay is affectionate and showers love on both children, but is reclusive and a user of recreational drugs like marijuana and peyote. He disapproves of Denise writing songs for television-sheâs since joined forces with the newly divorced Cheryl who is writing Los Angeles for a Bubblegum pop TV show called Where the Action Is. He insists that it's beneath her and hopes that she'll fail.
Jay's behavior becomes more erratic-He becomes increasingly paranoid. His songwriting becomes too avant garde and his band mates distance themselves from him. He takes the children on an outing, and comes home, having completely forgotten them. When the police bring them home safely, Jay realizes what heâs done and drifts into a deep depression causing him to become even more isolated. The depression seemingly abates after a visit from his friend "Jonesy", who reminds him of the things that are important in his life, including his "groovy new old lady", Denise.
Thinking that the worst is over, Denise invites Jay to join her and Cheryl at the Whiskey a Go-Go to hear Doris (who embarked on a solo career in LA when The Luminaries broke up) and her new boyfriend sing. Jay begs off, saying he's got a song idea he wants to explore. He promises a night of lovemaking when she returns. While the women celebrate, Jay is revealed to be still in the throes of his depression; having put on a brave face for Denise's benefit. He walks into the ocean, taking his own life. Denise is further distraught to discover that Jay's fans blame her for not stopping his death.
Numbed by Jay's death, Denise retires with her family to a hippie commune in Northern California and tries to make sense of everything that has happened.
Joel Milner visits Denise at the commune and takes her and the children to dinner. That night, he criticizes how far down she's allowed her grieving to take her and that it's destroying her and her talent. Denise angrily lashes out, and she tells Milner that he'd be nothing without her success. He agrees, and the more he agrees with the angrier she becomes. She strikes him then collapses in tears, grieving for Jay. Milner consoles her and the two are reconciled.
With Joel's help and Jay's spiritual guidance from beyond, Denise is able to put the pieces of her life together to create what will become the platinum-selling work Grace of My Heart. As she lays down the piano track for the song, her life is recounted in pictures; leading to the moment when her own mother receives a copy of her album in the mail with a handwritten note. Seemingly proud of her daughter's success, she smiles. Denise finally finds her fit after all. | Grace of My Heart | ce8dd0af-007c-3fb7-d03e-da8fdc6fec3b | What is the name of the show that Denise and Cheryl wrote songs for? | [
"Where the action is"
] | false |
/m/0fk60h | This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (August 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Edna Buxton (Illeana Douglas) is a steel heiress from Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, who wants to be a singer and enters a talent contest. The story begins with a conversation between herself and her mother (Christina Pickles) with regard to what she will sing and what she will wear. At her mother's insistence, she reluctantly makes a plan to sing "You'll Never Walk Alone." Edna is even less thrilled about her mother's choice of wardrobe, calling it uncomfortable. Her mother responds with a cutting remark, "Perhaps it's not the dress. Perhaps it's you who doesn't fit, dear."
Backstage at the contest, she meets a blues singer named Doris Shelley (Jennifer Leigh Warren). Doris advises Edna to follow her heart, and the two women trade dresses. Clad in Dorisâs sleek black dress, Edna sings "Hey There" instead. Despite the fact that she wins the contest, she loses the respect of her mother, who has since left the theater in humiliation.
An excited Denise decides to use her grand prize winnings to record a demo. The studio producer (Richard Schiff) tactfully delivers the painful truth to Edna that not only are girl singers not getting signed, the record companies are trying to get rid of the ones currently on their rosters. When she tells him that she wrote the song, he is impressed enough to direct her to Joel Milner (John Turturro) who takes her under his wing, renames her "Denise Waverly" and invents a blue-collar persona for her. Milner reworks her song for a male doo-wop group, the Stylettes, as male solo artists are groups are far more marketable. The song becomes a hit.
Denise moves to New York and becomes a songwriter in the Brill Building. At a party, she meets the arrogant songwriter Howard Caszatt (Eric Stoltz), and despite an awkward initial meeting they become romantically involved. She also reunites with Doris, who is not only singing at the party that night, but apologizes for keeping Deniseâs expensive dress after all that time. She insists it was because she wasnât sure how or where to return it. Meanwhile, Denise offers to and writes a song specifically for Doris and her two girlfriends. She persuades a reluctant Milner to audition the group. Milner likes the group and the song Denise has written, and renames the group The Luminaries.
At Howard's insistence he and Denise begin writing together; partly out of respect for her talent, but primarily because she's had greater mainstream and commercial success. His songs had been deemed "too controversial" and had been repeatedly banned from radio airplay. She overhears an argument between Sha-Sha (Kathy Barbour)âs niece Annie (Tracy Vilar) and her boyfriend. It turns out the young teen is pregnant. Denise and Howard pen the song âUnwanted Numberâ based on the girlâs struggle. Although it's banned, it attracts the attention of prominent and influential disc jockey John Murray (Bruce Davison) who, despite the negative attention of the song, credits Denise with sparking the craze for girl groups.
Denise then suggests that she and Howard should write a wedding-themed song for the Luminaries. Howard says he doesn't believe in marriage, but when Denise reveals that she is pregnant with Howard's child, they are married and have a daughter.
Life is idyllic for Denise with a family and successful songwriting career. Milner then recruits the beautiful English songwriter Cheryl Steed, who immediately catches Howardâs eye, and ultimately Deniseâs disdain. Cheryl immediately diffuses the flirtation by informing the couple that she already has a songwriting partnerâher husband Matthew (Chris Isaak).
Joel tasks Denise and Cheryl with collaboration on a song for the ingénue singer Kelly Porter (Bridget Fonda). The women protest but, nevertheless, bond over the realization that the young songstress is in a closeted lesbian relationship. Their song âMy Secret Loveâ is the hit that is born out of this situation.
Denise arrives home unexpectedly and finds Howard in bed with another woman; not long afterward, she learns that she is pregnant with Howard's second baby; Cheryl convinces her to see an obstetrician, who safely performs an illegal abortion.
Denise throws herself into her work and becomes highly successful. Having broken up with Howard, she has a brief but unhappy affair with the married John Murray, which ends when he moves with his family to Chicago.
Denise is despondent over the end of her affair with Murray. As a means of cheering her up, he finally offers to send her to the studio to sing for herself. As added incentive, he offers the production assistance of California wunderkind Jay Phillips to produce her single. Sheâs initially hesitant, saying she finds the whole "surf and turf" sound laughable. She writes and sings "God Give Me Strength," and is delighted by Jay's skillful orchestral arrangement. Her record, however, bombs. Between the loss suffered by her foundering single and the advent of the British invasion. Milner's fortunes are depleted. Denise blames herself for making the song too personal and bankrupting Joel. He tells her she did more for him than she realized and that it was time for then both to move on.
Denise and Jay become a couple and resettle in California Things seem fine for a while; Annie has stayed on to help take care of Deniseâs daughter Luna, and the child becomes like a sister to Annieâs son. Jay is affectionate and showers love on both children, but is reclusive and a user of recreational drugs like marijuana and peyote. He disapproves of Denise writing songs for television-sheâs since joined forces with the newly divorced Cheryl who is writing Los Angeles for a Bubblegum pop TV show called Where the Action Is. He insists that it's beneath her and hopes that she'll fail.
Jay's behavior becomes more erratic-He becomes increasingly paranoid. His songwriting becomes too avant garde and his band mates distance themselves from him. He takes the children on an outing, and comes home, having completely forgotten them. When the police bring them home safely, Jay realizes what heâs done and drifts into a deep depression causing him to become even more isolated. The depression seemingly abates after a visit from his friend "Jonesy", who reminds him of the things that are important in his life, including his "groovy new old lady", Denise.
Thinking that the worst is over, Denise invites Jay to join her and Cheryl at the Whiskey a Go-Go to hear Doris (who embarked on a solo career in LA when The Luminaries broke up) and her new boyfriend sing. Jay begs off, saying he's got a song idea he wants to explore. He promises a night of lovemaking when she returns. While the women celebrate, Jay is revealed to be still in the throes of his depression; having put on a brave face for Denise's benefit. He walks into the ocean, taking his own life. Denise is further distraught to discover that Jay's fans blame her for not stopping his death.
Numbed by Jay's death, Denise retires with her family to a hippie commune in Northern California and tries to make sense of everything that has happened.
Joel Milner visits Denise at the commune and takes her and the children to dinner. That night, he criticizes how far down she's allowed her grieving to take her and that it's destroying her and her talent. Denise angrily lashes out, and she tells Milner that he'd be nothing without her success. He agrees, and the more he agrees with the angrier she becomes. She strikes him then collapses in tears, grieving for Jay. Milner consoles her and the two are reconciled.
With Joel's help and Jay's spiritual guidance from beyond, Denise is able to put the pieces of her life together to create what will become the platinum-selling work Grace of My Heart. As she lays down the piano track for the song, her life is recounted in pictures; leading to the moment when her own mother receives a copy of her album in the mail with a handwritten note. Seemingly proud of her daughter's success, she smiles. Denise finally finds her fit after all. | Grace of My Heart | 8489ade6-d9bc-56ee-8f9c-8d55f0981294 | Where is Edna Buxton living in the movie? | [
"Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia"
] | false |
/m/0fk60h | This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (August 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Edna Buxton (Illeana Douglas) is a steel heiress from Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, who wants to be a singer and enters a talent contest. The story begins with a conversation between herself and her mother (Christina Pickles) with regard to what she will sing and what she will wear. At her mother's insistence, she reluctantly makes a plan to sing "You'll Never Walk Alone." Edna is even less thrilled about her mother's choice of wardrobe, calling it uncomfortable. Her mother responds with a cutting remark, "Perhaps it's not the dress. Perhaps it's you who doesn't fit, dear."
Backstage at the contest, she meets a blues singer named Doris Shelley (Jennifer Leigh Warren). Doris advises Edna to follow her heart, and the two women trade dresses. Clad in Dorisâs sleek black dress, Edna sings "Hey There" instead. Despite the fact that she wins the contest, she loses the respect of her mother, who has since left the theater in humiliation.
An excited Denise decides to use her grand prize winnings to record a demo. The studio producer (Richard Schiff) tactfully delivers the painful truth to Edna that not only are girl singers not getting signed, the record companies are trying to get rid of the ones currently on their rosters. When she tells him that she wrote the song, he is impressed enough to direct her to Joel Milner (John Turturro) who takes her under his wing, renames her "Denise Waverly" and invents a blue-collar persona for her. Milner reworks her song for a male doo-wop group, the Stylettes, as male solo artists are groups are far more marketable. The song becomes a hit.
Denise moves to New York and becomes a songwriter in the Brill Building. At a party, she meets the arrogant songwriter Howard Caszatt (Eric Stoltz), and despite an awkward initial meeting they become romantically involved. She also reunites with Doris, who is not only singing at the party that night, but apologizes for keeping Deniseâs expensive dress after all that time. She insists it was because she wasnât sure how or where to return it. Meanwhile, Denise offers to and writes a song specifically for Doris and her two girlfriends. She persuades a reluctant Milner to audition the group. Milner likes the group and the song Denise has written, and renames the group The Luminaries.
At Howard's insistence he and Denise begin writing together; partly out of respect for her talent, but primarily because she's had greater mainstream and commercial success. His songs had been deemed "too controversial" and had been repeatedly banned from radio airplay. She overhears an argument between Sha-Sha (Kathy Barbour)âs niece Annie (Tracy Vilar) and her boyfriend. It turns out the young teen is pregnant. Denise and Howard pen the song âUnwanted Numberâ based on the girlâs struggle. Although it's banned, it attracts the attention of prominent and influential disc jockey John Murray (Bruce Davison) who, despite the negative attention of the song, credits Denise with sparking the craze for girl groups.
Denise then suggests that she and Howard should write a wedding-themed song for the Luminaries. Howard says he doesn't believe in marriage, but when Denise reveals that she is pregnant with Howard's child, they are married and have a daughter.
Life is idyllic for Denise with a family and successful songwriting career. Milner then recruits the beautiful English songwriter Cheryl Steed, who immediately catches Howardâs eye, and ultimately Deniseâs disdain. Cheryl immediately diffuses the flirtation by informing the couple that she already has a songwriting partnerâher husband Matthew (Chris Isaak).
Joel tasks Denise and Cheryl with collaboration on a song for the ingénue singer Kelly Porter (Bridget Fonda). The women protest but, nevertheless, bond over the realization that the young songstress is in a closeted lesbian relationship. Their song âMy Secret Loveâ is the hit that is born out of this situation.
Denise arrives home unexpectedly and finds Howard in bed with another woman; not long afterward, she learns that she is pregnant with Howard's second baby; Cheryl convinces her to see an obstetrician, who safely performs an illegal abortion.
Denise throws herself into her work and becomes highly successful. Having broken up with Howard, she has a brief but unhappy affair with the married John Murray, which ends when he moves with his family to Chicago.
Denise is despondent over the end of her affair with Murray. As a means of cheering her up, he finally offers to send her to the studio to sing for herself. As added incentive, he offers the production assistance of California wunderkind Jay Phillips to produce her single. Sheâs initially hesitant, saying she finds the whole "surf and turf" sound laughable. She writes and sings "God Give Me Strength," and is delighted by Jay's skillful orchestral arrangement. Her record, however, bombs. Between the loss suffered by her foundering single and the advent of the British invasion. Milner's fortunes are depleted. Denise blames herself for making the song too personal and bankrupting Joel. He tells her she did more for him than she realized and that it was time for then both to move on.
Denise and Jay become a couple and resettle in California Things seem fine for a while; Annie has stayed on to help take care of Deniseâs daughter Luna, and the child becomes like a sister to Annieâs son. Jay is affectionate and showers love on both children, but is reclusive and a user of recreational drugs like marijuana and peyote. He disapproves of Denise writing songs for television-sheâs since joined forces with the newly divorced Cheryl who is writing Los Angeles for a Bubblegum pop TV show called Where the Action Is. He insists that it's beneath her and hopes that she'll fail.
Jay's behavior becomes more erratic-He becomes increasingly paranoid. His songwriting becomes too avant garde and his band mates distance themselves from him. He takes the children on an outing, and comes home, having completely forgotten them. When the police bring them home safely, Jay realizes what heâs done and drifts into a deep depression causing him to become even more isolated. The depression seemingly abates after a visit from his friend "Jonesy", who reminds him of the things that are important in his life, including his "groovy new old lady", Denise.
Thinking that the worst is over, Denise invites Jay to join her and Cheryl at the Whiskey a Go-Go to hear Doris (who embarked on a solo career in LA when The Luminaries broke up) and her new boyfriend sing. Jay begs off, saying he's got a song idea he wants to explore. He promises a night of lovemaking when she returns. While the women celebrate, Jay is revealed to be still in the throes of his depression; having put on a brave face for Denise's benefit. He walks into the ocean, taking his own life. Denise is further distraught to discover that Jay's fans blame her for not stopping his death.
Numbed by Jay's death, Denise retires with her family to a hippie commune in Northern California and tries to make sense of everything that has happened.
Joel Milner visits Denise at the commune and takes her and the children to dinner. That night, he criticizes how far down she's allowed her grieving to take her and that it's destroying her and her talent. Denise angrily lashes out, and she tells Milner that he'd be nothing without her success. He agrees, and the more he agrees with the angrier she becomes. She strikes him then collapses in tears, grieving for Jay. Milner consoles her and the two are reconciled.
With Joel's help and Jay's spiritual guidance from beyond, Denise is able to put the pieces of her life together to create what will become the platinum-selling work Grace of My Heart. As she lays down the piano track for the song, her life is recounted in pictures; leading to the moment when her own mother receives a copy of her album in the mail with a handwritten note. Seemingly proud of her daughter's success, she smiles. Denise finally finds her fit after all. | Grace of My Heart | 9822cee6-fac4-e090-d415-7b080cd8be26 | What is the name of Edna's first original song? | [
"Hey There"
] | false |
/m/0fk60h | This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (August 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Edna Buxton (Illeana Douglas) is a steel heiress from Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, who wants to be a singer and enters a talent contest. The story begins with a conversation between herself and her mother (Christina Pickles) with regard to what she will sing and what she will wear. At her mother's insistence, she reluctantly makes a plan to sing "You'll Never Walk Alone." Edna is even less thrilled about her mother's choice of wardrobe, calling it uncomfortable. Her mother responds with a cutting remark, "Perhaps it's not the dress. Perhaps it's you who doesn't fit, dear."
Backstage at the contest, she meets a blues singer named Doris Shelley (Jennifer Leigh Warren). Doris advises Edna to follow her heart, and the two women trade dresses. Clad in Dorisâs sleek black dress, Edna sings "Hey There" instead. Despite the fact that she wins the contest, she loses the respect of her mother, who has since left the theater in humiliation.
An excited Denise decides to use her grand prize winnings to record a demo. The studio producer (Richard Schiff) tactfully delivers the painful truth to Edna that not only are girl singers not getting signed, the record companies are trying to get rid of the ones currently on their rosters. When she tells him that she wrote the song, he is impressed enough to direct her to Joel Milner (John Turturro) who takes her under his wing, renames her "Denise Waverly" and invents a blue-collar persona for her. Milner reworks her song for a male doo-wop group, the Stylettes, as male solo artists are groups are far more marketable. The song becomes a hit.
Denise moves to New York and becomes a songwriter in the Brill Building. At a party, she meets the arrogant songwriter Howard Caszatt (Eric Stoltz), and despite an awkward initial meeting they become romantically involved. She also reunites with Doris, who is not only singing at the party that night, but apologizes for keeping Deniseâs expensive dress after all that time. She insists it was because she wasnât sure how or where to return it. Meanwhile, Denise offers to and writes a song specifically for Doris and her two girlfriends. She persuades a reluctant Milner to audition the group. Milner likes the group and the song Denise has written, and renames the group The Luminaries.
At Howard's insistence he and Denise begin writing together; partly out of respect for her talent, but primarily because she's had greater mainstream and commercial success. His songs had been deemed "too controversial" and had been repeatedly banned from radio airplay. She overhears an argument between Sha-Sha (Kathy Barbour)âs niece Annie (Tracy Vilar) and her boyfriend. It turns out the young teen is pregnant. Denise and Howard pen the song âUnwanted Numberâ based on the girlâs struggle. Although it's banned, it attracts the attention of prominent and influential disc jockey John Murray (Bruce Davison) who, despite the negative attention of the song, credits Denise with sparking the craze for girl groups.
Denise then suggests that she and Howard should write a wedding-themed song for the Luminaries. Howard says he doesn't believe in marriage, but when Denise reveals that she is pregnant with Howard's child, they are married and have a daughter.
Life is idyllic for Denise with a family and successful songwriting career. Milner then recruits the beautiful English songwriter Cheryl Steed, who immediately catches Howardâs eye, and ultimately Deniseâs disdain. Cheryl immediately diffuses the flirtation by informing the couple that she already has a songwriting partnerâher husband Matthew (Chris Isaak).
Joel tasks Denise and Cheryl with collaboration on a song for the ingénue singer Kelly Porter (Bridget Fonda). The women protest but, nevertheless, bond over the realization that the young songstress is in a closeted lesbian relationship. Their song âMy Secret Loveâ is the hit that is born out of this situation.
Denise arrives home unexpectedly and finds Howard in bed with another woman; not long afterward, she learns that she is pregnant with Howard's second baby; Cheryl convinces her to see an obstetrician, who safely performs an illegal abortion.
Denise throws herself into her work and becomes highly successful. Having broken up with Howard, she has a brief but unhappy affair with the married John Murray, which ends when he moves with his family to Chicago.
Denise is despondent over the end of her affair with Murray. As a means of cheering her up, he finally offers to send her to the studio to sing for herself. As added incentive, he offers the production assistance of California wunderkind Jay Phillips to produce her single. Sheâs initially hesitant, saying she finds the whole "surf and turf" sound laughable. She writes and sings "God Give Me Strength," and is delighted by Jay's skillful orchestral arrangement. Her record, however, bombs. Between the loss suffered by her foundering single and the advent of the British invasion. Milner's fortunes are depleted. Denise blames herself for making the song too personal and bankrupting Joel. He tells her she did more for him than she realized and that it was time for then both to move on.
Denise and Jay become a couple and resettle in California Things seem fine for a while; Annie has stayed on to help take care of Deniseâs daughter Luna, and the child becomes like a sister to Annieâs son. Jay is affectionate and showers love on both children, but is reclusive and a user of recreational drugs like marijuana and peyote. He disapproves of Denise writing songs for television-sheâs since joined forces with the newly divorced Cheryl who is writing Los Angeles for a Bubblegum pop TV show called Where the Action Is. He insists that it's beneath her and hopes that she'll fail.
Jay's behavior becomes more erratic-He becomes increasingly paranoid. His songwriting becomes too avant garde and his band mates distance themselves from him. He takes the children on an outing, and comes home, having completely forgotten them. When the police bring them home safely, Jay realizes what heâs done and drifts into a deep depression causing him to become even more isolated. The depression seemingly abates after a visit from his friend "Jonesy", who reminds him of the things that are important in his life, including his "groovy new old lady", Denise.
Thinking that the worst is over, Denise invites Jay to join her and Cheryl at the Whiskey a Go-Go to hear Doris (who embarked on a solo career in LA when The Luminaries broke up) and her new boyfriend sing. Jay begs off, saying he's got a song idea he wants to explore. He promises a night of lovemaking when she returns. While the women celebrate, Jay is revealed to be still in the throes of his depression; having put on a brave face for Denise's benefit. He walks into the ocean, taking his own life. Denise is further distraught to discover that Jay's fans blame her for not stopping his death.
Numbed by Jay's death, Denise retires with her family to a hippie commune in Northern California and tries to make sense of everything that has happened.
Joel Milner visits Denise at the commune and takes her and the children to dinner. That night, he criticizes how far down she's allowed her grieving to take her and that it's destroying her and her talent. Denise angrily lashes out, and she tells Milner that he'd be nothing without her success. He agrees, and the more he agrees with the angrier she becomes. She strikes him then collapses in tears, grieving for Jay. Milner consoles her and the two are reconciled.
With Joel's help and Jay's spiritual guidance from beyond, Denise is able to put the pieces of her life together to create what will become the platinum-selling work Grace of My Heart. As she lays down the piano track for the song, her life is recounted in pictures; leading to the moment when her own mother receives a copy of her album in the mail with a handwritten note. Seemingly proud of her daughter's success, she smiles. Denise finally finds her fit after all. | Grace of My Heart | ca0fd017-2361-84d7-b152-07ef2ae1f5e6 | Where did Denise retire to? | [
"A hippie commune in Northern California"
] | false |
/m/0fk60h | This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (August 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Edna Buxton (Illeana Douglas) is a steel heiress from Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, who wants to be a singer and enters a talent contest. The story begins with a conversation between herself and her mother (Christina Pickles) with regard to what she will sing and what she will wear. At her mother's insistence, she reluctantly makes a plan to sing "You'll Never Walk Alone." Edna is even less thrilled about her mother's choice of wardrobe, calling it uncomfortable. Her mother responds with a cutting remark, "Perhaps it's not the dress. Perhaps it's you who doesn't fit, dear."
Backstage at the contest, she meets a blues singer named Doris Shelley (Jennifer Leigh Warren). Doris advises Edna to follow her heart, and the two women trade dresses. Clad in Dorisâs sleek black dress, Edna sings "Hey There" instead. Despite the fact that she wins the contest, she loses the respect of her mother, who has since left the theater in humiliation.
An excited Denise decides to use her grand prize winnings to record a demo. The studio producer (Richard Schiff) tactfully delivers the painful truth to Edna that not only are girl singers not getting signed, the record companies are trying to get rid of the ones currently on their rosters. When she tells him that she wrote the song, he is impressed enough to direct her to Joel Milner (John Turturro) who takes her under his wing, renames her "Denise Waverly" and invents a blue-collar persona for her. Milner reworks her song for a male doo-wop group, the Stylettes, as male solo artists are groups are far more marketable. The song becomes a hit.
Denise moves to New York and becomes a songwriter in the Brill Building. At a party, she meets the arrogant songwriter Howard Caszatt (Eric Stoltz), and despite an awkward initial meeting they become romantically involved. She also reunites with Doris, who is not only singing at the party that night, but apologizes for keeping Deniseâs expensive dress after all that time. She insists it was because she wasnât sure how or where to return it. Meanwhile, Denise offers to and writes a song specifically for Doris and her two girlfriends. She persuades a reluctant Milner to audition the group. Milner likes the group and the song Denise has written, and renames the group The Luminaries.
At Howard's insistence he and Denise begin writing together; partly out of respect for her talent, but primarily because she's had greater mainstream and commercial success. His songs had been deemed "too controversial" and had been repeatedly banned from radio airplay. She overhears an argument between Sha-Sha (Kathy Barbour)âs niece Annie (Tracy Vilar) and her boyfriend. It turns out the young teen is pregnant. Denise and Howard pen the song âUnwanted Numberâ based on the girlâs struggle. Although it's banned, it attracts the attention of prominent and influential disc jockey John Murray (Bruce Davison) who, despite the negative attention of the song, credits Denise with sparking the craze for girl groups.
Denise then suggests that she and Howard should write a wedding-themed song for the Luminaries. Howard says he doesn't believe in marriage, but when Denise reveals that she is pregnant with Howard's child, they are married and have a daughter.
Life is idyllic for Denise with a family and successful songwriting career. Milner then recruits the beautiful English songwriter Cheryl Steed, who immediately catches Howardâs eye, and ultimately Deniseâs disdain. Cheryl immediately diffuses the flirtation by informing the couple that she already has a songwriting partnerâher husband Matthew (Chris Isaak).
Joel tasks Denise and Cheryl with collaboration on a song for the ingénue singer Kelly Porter (Bridget Fonda). The women protest but, nevertheless, bond over the realization that the young songstress is in a closeted lesbian relationship. Their song âMy Secret Loveâ is the hit that is born out of this situation.
Denise arrives home unexpectedly and finds Howard in bed with another woman; not long afterward, she learns that she is pregnant with Howard's second baby; Cheryl convinces her to see an obstetrician, who safely performs an illegal abortion.
Denise throws herself into her work and becomes highly successful. Having broken up with Howard, she has a brief but unhappy affair with the married John Murray, which ends when he moves with his family to Chicago.
Denise is despondent over the end of her affair with Murray. As a means of cheering her up, he finally offers to send her to the studio to sing for herself. As added incentive, he offers the production assistance of California wunderkind Jay Phillips to produce her single. Sheâs initially hesitant, saying she finds the whole "surf and turf" sound laughable. She writes and sings "God Give Me Strength," and is delighted by Jay's skillful orchestral arrangement. Her record, however, bombs. Between the loss suffered by her foundering single and the advent of the British invasion. Milner's fortunes are depleted. Denise blames herself for making the song too personal and bankrupting Joel. He tells her she did more for him than she realized and that it was time for then both to move on.
Denise and Jay become a couple and resettle in California Things seem fine for a while; Annie has stayed on to help take care of Deniseâs daughter Luna, and the child becomes like a sister to Annieâs son. Jay is affectionate and showers love on both children, but is reclusive and a user of recreational drugs like marijuana and peyote. He disapproves of Denise writing songs for television-sheâs since joined forces with the newly divorced Cheryl who is writing Los Angeles for a Bubblegum pop TV show called Where the Action Is. He insists that it's beneath her and hopes that she'll fail.
Jay's behavior becomes more erratic-He becomes increasingly paranoid. His songwriting becomes too avant garde and his band mates distance themselves from him. He takes the children on an outing, and comes home, having completely forgotten them. When the police bring them home safely, Jay realizes what heâs done and drifts into a deep depression causing him to become even more isolated. The depression seemingly abates after a visit from his friend "Jonesy", who reminds him of the things that are important in his life, including his "groovy new old lady", Denise.
Thinking that the worst is over, Denise invites Jay to join her and Cheryl at the Whiskey a Go-Go to hear Doris (who embarked on a solo career in LA when The Luminaries broke up) and her new boyfriend sing. Jay begs off, saying he's got a song idea he wants to explore. He promises a night of lovemaking when she returns. While the women celebrate, Jay is revealed to be still in the throes of his depression; having put on a brave face for Denise's benefit. He walks into the ocean, taking his own life. Denise is further distraught to discover that Jay's fans blame her for not stopping his death.
Numbed by Jay's death, Denise retires with her family to a hippie commune in Northern California and tries to make sense of everything that has happened.
Joel Milner visits Denise at the commune and takes her and the children to dinner. That night, he criticizes how far down she's allowed her grieving to take her and that it's destroying her and her talent. Denise angrily lashes out, and she tells Milner that he'd be nothing without her success. He agrees, and the more he agrees with the angrier she becomes. She strikes him then collapses in tears, grieving for Jay. Milner consoles her and the two are reconciled.
With Joel's help and Jay's spiritual guidance from beyond, Denise is able to put the pieces of her life together to create what will become the platinum-selling work Grace of My Heart. As she lays down the piano track for the song, her life is recounted in pictures; leading to the moment when her own mother receives a copy of her album in the mail with a handwritten note. Seemingly proud of her daughter's success, she smiles. Denise finally finds her fit after all. | Grace of My Heart | aeaa900f-a575-f97a-3291-d6118636c9ba | What is the name of Denise's first solo album? | [
"Grace of My Heart"
] | false |
/m/03srb9 | The film opens with narration over a silhouette of Hill House at night. The narrator, Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) tells us, "An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House. Whatever walked there walked alone." Title and credits follow, then narration continues, "Scandal, murder, insanity, suicide: The history of Hill House was ideal. It had everything I wanted..." The house was built in New England by a man named Hugh Crain for his wife and young daughter. A horse and carriage accident took the life of the first Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Pamela Buckley) before she even saw the house. Hugh Crain (an uncredited Howard Lang) and young daughter, Abigail (an uncredited Janet Mansell) said a few words over the body, but Hugh was left an embittered man. Crain married again, and the second Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Freda Knorr) also died, falling down the main staircase. Hugh Crain left Abigail with a nurse (an uncredited Susan Richards) and went to England where he died in a drowning accident. Abigail kept the same nursery room her entire life. By the time she was eighty (an uncredited Amy Dalby) she was a bedridden invalid. Her nurse-companion (an uncredited Rosemary Dorken) was a local girl and, it is with this young companion the evil reputation of Hill House really begins. The old lady died while calling for help. The companion was trysting on the verandah with a farm hand. The companion inherited Hill House and occupied it for many years, but eventually hanged herself. The house then passed to a distant relative, named Mrs. Sanderson (Fay Compton).Markway visits Mrs. Sanderson where he convinces her to let him use the house for psychic research. He explains, "I shall occupy the house with a group of carefully selected assistants...I must have specially qualified help to take notes and document any evidence of the supernatural I may find." Eldridge Harper (Ronald Adam), Mrs. Sanderson's lawyer, voices his concern about publicity seekers and the propriety of having women in the house. Harper suggests to Mrs. Sanderson that her nephew, Luke, joins the doctor at Hill House, as he expects to inherit the property. Mrs. Sanderson asks point blank, "Exactly what do you and your assistants expect to find at Hill House?" Markway replies, "Maybe only a few loose floorboards, and maybe, I only say maybe, the key to another world."Dr. Markway, taking a leave of absence from his university professorship, finalizes his list of assistants. Only two end up accepting, Eleanor Lance and Theodora (no last name).Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris) is living with her sister. She is nearly broke and weary after looking after her invalid mother non-stop for eleven years. Mother is now dead, and she fights with her sister over just about everything. She begs to use the car, which is after all, half hers. Her brother-in-law, Bud Fredericks (an uncredited Paul Maxwell) tries to act as mediator between Eleanor and his wife, Carrie (Diane Clare). He is sympathetic to Eleanor's plight, but their daughter, Dora (an uncredited Verina Greenlaw) takes her cues from her mother, and taunts her Aunt Eleanor. On the vacation plan, Bud sides with Eleanor, "I think you should have a vacation, Nell." Carrie objects, but Eleanor is not to be deterred and she shows her family how she reacts when pushed to her breaking point. She is normally quiet and meek, but when pushed is loud and assertive.Nell decides to take the car and confronts the garage attendant (an uncredited Claude Jones) for the keys. She departs Boston along U.S. 50 and Route 238 to Hill House. We hear Nell thinking and she reveals she will never return to live with her sister. In fact, most of what we learn of Eleanor is hearing her thoughts.Eleanor arrives at Hill House. The property is surrounded by a stone wall and the entrance by a tall, iron spiked, gate. She honks the car horn, and Mr. Dudley (Valentine Dyall), the cranky caretaker, finally deigns to respond. "What do you want?" he asks. Eleanor explains that she is expected. After an impertinent exchange with Eleanor, Dudley finally opens the gate and allows her to enter the property. Eleanor is the first to arrive and drives up to the house. Along the way she stops to look at it. It is a huge, stone mansion with lots of detail on the façade and steep, pitched roofs. Her first reaction is that the house is vile and it is staring at her. She carries her suitcase to the front door and is greeted by Mrs. Dudley (Rosalie Crutchley). Mrs. Dudley reluctantly allows Eleanor to come inside, but does not utter a word to her.The inside of the house is dark and over-decorated, and Eleanor is escorted to her room. Mrs. Dudley explains the house rules about meals, and that she won't stay in the house after dark. Eleanor checks out the bathroom and hears the next guest arrive. Theodora (Claire Bloom) introduces herself. Eleanor explains they share a bathroom. Mrs. Dudley repeats her meal and departure rules by rote, but Theo and Nell ignore her. Theodora is a bit strange to Eleanor (Theo clearly flirts with Eleanor throughout the film) Theodora's sexual orientation is only hinted at, and we later learn she has the gift of ESP. Theo and Nell explore the house, but they get lost. Both women feel a chill, and Nell observes, "The house, it's alive." Theo seems to feel that the house wants Nell.Dr. Markway appears and explains he left the door opened, but it closed itself. Markway gives the women a tour of part of the house, starting with the main purple parlor, which they will use as an operations center. He explains that all the doors were set slightly off-center, so they close themselves. Despite studying plans to the house, even Markway gets lost on his way to the dining room. They hear a noise, but it turns out to be Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn) mixing a pitcher of martinis as he enters the dining room. Luke serves each person a martini. They sit down for dinner and discuss their duties and responsibilities. Markway explains that Theo was accepted because of her remarkable power of ESP and Eleanor had a poltergeist experience as a child, "showers of stone fell on your house for three days when you were 10 years old." Luke is a non-believer. His interest is to financially exploit Hill House, after he inherits it, of course.That evening, in the parlor, Markway works on his notes while Eleanor sits quietly on the couch. Theo and Luke play gin rummy at the game table. Theo's ability to see cards allows her to win five games in a row, much to Luke annoyance. She demands he pay her the $12 he owes, but he refuses because she cheated. The four decide to turn in for the night and continue the tour the next morning. Markway gives them papers and asks that they complete them with their observations each night.Sometime during the night, Eleanor wakes, and still in a near dream state, thinks she hears her mother knocking on the wall. Theo hears it from the next room also and calls to Nell. The two women are frightened and both hear the pounding noise. It comes and goes, but louder each time. They finally hear a woman shrieking and laughing that fades away. When Nell opens the door she sees Luke and Markway in the hall outside. The men explain they were chasing a dog and followed it outside, but they did not hear the loud noises the women heard. Markway concludes that something is trying to separate the men and women.The next morning, Markway and Nell join for breakfast. Nell is starting to develop romantic feelings for John Markway, unaware that he is married. She tells him that she spent eleven years taking care of her invalid mother. Nell also voices her fear that she will be turned out of Hill House with no where to go. Markway tells Nell how he came to do psychic research, and that his family disapproves. Theo joins the pair and warns the doctor, "If anyone gets hurt, it's going to be your fault, Markway." Markway explains that no one has ever been physically hurt by a ghost. Luke enters and directs his companions to something he saw in the hall. Someone or something has handwritten a message in chalk on the wall. It says, "Help Eleanor Come Home." Eleanor reacts strongly. She first accuses Theo of playing a cruel joke. The two women bicker and Markway postpones the tour and tells Theo to take Eleanor to her room.The tour starts with the greenhouse. A large stone sculpture sits in the center of the room. It is supposed to be St. Francis curing the lepers, but Luke thinks its a family portrait of Hugh Crain and his wives and daughter. Suddenly, the door slams open and a gust of wind moves the plants. They approach the library, but Nell refuses to enter. The smell reminds her of her mother's sick room. Prominent in the room is a very tall, wrought iron, spiral staircase. Markway points out that the balcony high above is where the companion to Abigail Crain hanged herself. Luke climbs up a few feet on the staircase, but jumps back to the ground when it starts to sway and shake.Eleanor ventures out to the verandah and nearly falls over the balcony as she looks up to the tower above the library. Markway threatens to send her home, but Nell begs to stay. Markway suggests Theo and Nell share a bedroom... "like sisters". That evening, the two women discuss their lives and plans for the future. Nell makes up a story about having an apartment of her own. Just when Theo is about to make a move onto Nell, Markway calls them and Luke into the hallway outside the Nursery. He has discovered a cold spot. He invites all to experience the phenomenon. He gleefully explains, "A cold spot, a genuine cold spot. I guarantee it won't register on any thermometer." Luke dismisses it as just a draft, but Markway says it is the heart of Hill House: The Nursery.In the middle of the night, Nell awakens. She hears a little girl laughing. She asks Theo to hold her hand, as their two beds are almost touching. The laughter continues and Nell complains, "Theo, you're breaking my hand." The laughs turn to wimpering and Nell complains that something is hurting a child and she won't allow that to happen. She yells, "Stop It!" Theo turns on the light and we see Nell is on a day bed about twenty feet from the bed Theo occupies. Nell stares at her hand and asks, "Whose hand was I holding?"The next morning, Markway is in the music room and checks his watch and makes a note about the harp playing itself. Nell enters the room and asks about how it could play itself. Markway explains that it may be preternatural: Something we don't have any natural explanation for right now, but probably will have some day. Nell voices her fear that it is all in her imagination and concludes she may be going insane. She is haunted by the circumstances of her mother's death and that she may somehow be responsible. They both hear the harp play a note and Markway again checks his watch and makes a note in his paperwork.That evening, Luke finds a disturbing book that Hugh Crain made for his daughter, Abigail. Nell and Theo bicker and Markway notes that everyone's nerves are on edge. Theo continues to flirt as well as needle Nell, this time about a budding romance she fantasizes about with John Markway. Nell runs away and Theo catches up to her, and tells Nell that is he is making a fool of herself in thinking that Dr. Markway will ever get involved with her. Nell accuses Theo of being an "unnatural thing" as well as a "nature's mistake."At that moment, a car horn honks and a taxi pulls up in front of the house. Grace Markway (Lois Maxwell), John's wife, arrives. She informs her husband, "A reporter's been telephoning all day. He's on your track. He's heard about you renting this place." Grace begs her husband to abandon the house and his research. When John refuses, Grace pays the driver, grabs her suitcase and announces she is staying at Hill House, "to join the ghost hunt." When Eleanor casually mentions the nursery as a place to stay, Grace quickly accepts the challenge, "Thank you, my dear. The nursery it is." Markway and Nell try to dissuade her, but Grace responds, "You insult my intelligence. You don't think I'd believe anything you ghost hunters might tell me." Luke notices the door to the nursery is open for the first time. Grace decides to spend the night in the room, despite everyone's warning not to. Markway insists he and the three researchers spend the night downstairs in the parlor.Later that night, Nell and Theo sleep together on the sofa by the fireplace as Markway sleeps in a chair. Luke finishes his tour upstairs and enters the parlor. He heads for a bottle on the mantle. Suddenly, the parlor door slams shut by itself and the others wake with a start. They hear a deep rhythmic banging outside the door. Markway is concerned about his wife upstairs. Next a very loud banging comes from just outside the door. The unseen phantom presses against the parlor door as it bows inward and out like breathing, creaking and crunching against the hinges. The sound moves to overhead towards the nursery. Markway is desperate to check on his wife.Unseen, Nell runs from the parlor, through the music room, and upstairs directly to the nursery room. The doors are open, but Grace Markway is nowhere to be seen. Her bed shows signs of being used. Markway and the others arrive and start the search. Nell wanders away. She finds herself in the greenhouse. Descending into her own little world, Nell dances out onto the verandah. When she hears the others calling to her, Nell runs into the Library. She is drawn to the spiral staircase and the balcony at the top. Before she reaches the top, the rickety staircase begins its swaying, the lateral support bolts pulling away from the wall. Markway calls to her, begging her to carefully walk back down. She ignores him and stands on the balcony. Markway carefully climbs the stairs and joins Nell on the iron balcony platform. Before they walk back down, Nell sees Grace Markway peer at her through a trap door in the ceiling.A little later, Markway is furious and now insists Eleanor leave the house for her own safety. Luke brings her car around and Theo packs her bag. Nell tries to talk them out of her dismissal, but the three insist she leave. They escort Eleanor out to her car. Luke gets back out of Nell's car to retrieve the gate key from Markway. She drives off without Luke. Before she reaches the gate she is distracted by the white-robed figure of Grace Markway and crashes into a tree.The three find Eleanor dead in the half overturned car. She crashed into the same tree that killed the first Mrs. Crain. Grace wanders over to the accident scene. She explains to her husband, "I didn't want any of this to happen. You must believe me, John." She explains that she woke and was frightened. She got lost looking for her husband and ended up in the attic. While Theo blames Grace for Eleanor's accident, Luke takes a different view. "Eleanor did it to herself. It looked to me, anyway, like she deliberately aimed the car at this tree." Markway blames the house. Luke stares at the house and remarks, "It ought to be burned down and the ground sowed with salt."We close with an evening shot of Hill House with Eleanor, now a ghost, narrating from beyond the grave about Hill House and that "we who walk here... walk alone." The end title comes up as well as the final title card 'The Haunting' followed by eerie piano music. | The Haunting | 95f55a6c-1c2d-f0b1-190a-50f7e85bfb8a | who remarks that Eleanor got what she wanted? | [
"Theo"
] | false |
/m/03srb9 | The film opens with narration over a silhouette of Hill House at night. The narrator, Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) tells us, "An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House. Whatever walked there walked alone." Title and credits follow, then narration continues, "Scandal, murder, insanity, suicide: The history of Hill House was ideal. It had everything I wanted..." The house was built in New England by a man named Hugh Crain for his wife and young daughter. A horse and carriage accident took the life of the first Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Pamela Buckley) before she even saw the house. Hugh Crain (an uncredited Howard Lang) and young daughter, Abigail (an uncredited Janet Mansell) said a few words over the body, but Hugh was left an embittered man. Crain married again, and the second Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Freda Knorr) also died, falling down the main staircase. Hugh Crain left Abigail with a nurse (an uncredited Susan Richards) and went to England where he died in a drowning accident. Abigail kept the same nursery room her entire life. By the time she was eighty (an uncredited Amy Dalby) she was a bedridden invalid. Her nurse-companion (an uncredited Rosemary Dorken) was a local girl and, it is with this young companion the evil reputation of Hill House really begins. The old lady died while calling for help. The companion was trysting on the verandah with a farm hand. The companion inherited Hill House and occupied it for many years, but eventually hanged herself. The house then passed to a distant relative, named Mrs. Sanderson (Fay Compton).Markway visits Mrs. Sanderson where he convinces her to let him use the house for psychic research. He explains, "I shall occupy the house with a group of carefully selected assistants...I must have specially qualified help to take notes and document any evidence of the supernatural I may find." Eldridge Harper (Ronald Adam), Mrs. Sanderson's lawyer, voices his concern about publicity seekers and the propriety of having women in the house. Harper suggests to Mrs. Sanderson that her nephew, Luke, joins the doctor at Hill House, as he expects to inherit the property. Mrs. Sanderson asks point blank, "Exactly what do you and your assistants expect to find at Hill House?" Markway replies, "Maybe only a few loose floorboards, and maybe, I only say maybe, the key to another world."Dr. Markway, taking a leave of absence from his university professorship, finalizes his list of assistants. Only two end up accepting, Eleanor Lance and Theodora (no last name).Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris) is living with her sister. She is nearly broke and weary after looking after her invalid mother non-stop for eleven years. Mother is now dead, and she fights with her sister over just about everything. She begs to use the car, which is after all, half hers. Her brother-in-law, Bud Fredericks (an uncredited Paul Maxwell) tries to act as mediator between Eleanor and his wife, Carrie (Diane Clare). He is sympathetic to Eleanor's plight, but their daughter, Dora (an uncredited Verina Greenlaw) takes her cues from her mother, and taunts her Aunt Eleanor. On the vacation plan, Bud sides with Eleanor, "I think you should have a vacation, Nell." Carrie objects, but Eleanor is not to be deterred and she shows her family how she reacts when pushed to her breaking point. She is normally quiet and meek, but when pushed is loud and assertive.Nell decides to take the car and confronts the garage attendant (an uncredited Claude Jones) for the keys. She departs Boston along U.S. 50 and Route 238 to Hill House. We hear Nell thinking and she reveals she will never return to live with her sister. In fact, most of what we learn of Eleanor is hearing her thoughts.Eleanor arrives at Hill House. The property is surrounded by a stone wall and the entrance by a tall, iron spiked, gate. She honks the car horn, and Mr. Dudley (Valentine Dyall), the cranky caretaker, finally deigns to respond. "What do you want?" he asks. Eleanor explains that she is expected. After an impertinent exchange with Eleanor, Dudley finally opens the gate and allows her to enter the property. Eleanor is the first to arrive and drives up to the house. Along the way she stops to look at it. It is a huge, stone mansion with lots of detail on the façade and steep, pitched roofs. Her first reaction is that the house is vile and it is staring at her. She carries her suitcase to the front door and is greeted by Mrs. Dudley (Rosalie Crutchley). Mrs. Dudley reluctantly allows Eleanor to come inside, but does not utter a word to her.The inside of the house is dark and over-decorated, and Eleanor is escorted to her room. Mrs. Dudley explains the house rules about meals, and that she won't stay in the house after dark. Eleanor checks out the bathroom and hears the next guest arrive. Theodora (Claire Bloom) introduces herself. Eleanor explains they share a bathroom. Mrs. Dudley repeats her meal and departure rules by rote, but Theo and Nell ignore her. Theodora is a bit strange to Eleanor (Theo clearly flirts with Eleanor throughout the film) Theodora's sexual orientation is only hinted at, and we later learn she has the gift of ESP. Theo and Nell explore the house, but they get lost. Both women feel a chill, and Nell observes, "The house, it's alive." Theo seems to feel that the house wants Nell.Dr. Markway appears and explains he left the door opened, but it closed itself. Markway gives the women a tour of part of the house, starting with the main purple parlor, which they will use as an operations center. He explains that all the doors were set slightly off-center, so they close themselves. Despite studying plans to the house, even Markway gets lost on his way to the dining room. They hear a noise, but it turns out to be Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn) mixing a pitcher of martinis as he enters the dining room. Luke serves each person a martini. They sit down for dinner and discuss their duties and responsibilities. Markway explains that Theo was accepted because of her remarkable power of ESP and Eleanor had a poltergeist experience as a child, "showers of stone fell on your house for three days when you were 10 years old." Luke is a non-believer. His interest is to financially exploit Hill House, after he inherits it, of course.That evening, in the parlor, Markway works on his notes while Eleanor sits quietly on the couch. Theo and Luke play gin rummy at the game table. Theo's ability to see cards allows her to win five games in a row, much to Luke annoyance. She demands he pay her the $12 he owes, but he refuses because she cheated. The four decide to turn in for the night and continue the tour the next morning. Markway gives them papers and asks that they complete them with their observations each night.Sometime during the night, Eleanor wakes, and still in a near dream state, thinks she hears her mother knocking on the wall. Theo hears it from the next room also and calls to Nell. The two women are frightened and both hear the pounding noise. It comes and goes, but louder each time. They finally hear a woman shrieking and laughing that fades away. When Nell opens the door she sees Luke and Markway in the hall outside. The men explain they were chasing a dog and followed it outside, but they did not hear the loud noises the women heard. Markway concludes that something is trying to separate the men and women.The next morning, Markway and Nell join for breakfast. Nell is starting to develop romantic feelings for John Markway, unaware that he is married. She tells him that she spent eleven years taking care of her invalid mother. Nell also voices her fear that she will be turned out of Hill House with no where to go. Markway tells Nell how he came to do psychic research, and that his family disapproves. Theo joins the pair and warns the doctor, "If anyone gets hurt, it's going to be your fault, Markway." Markway explains that no one has ever been physically hurt by a ghost. Luke enters and directs his companions to something he saw in the hall. Someone or something has handwritten a message in chalk on the wall. It says, "Help Eleanor Come Home." Eleanor reacts strongly. She first accuses Theo of playing a cruel joke. The two women bicker and Markway postpones the tour and tells Theo to take Eleanor to her room.The tour starts with the greenhouse. A large stone sculpture sits in the center of the room. It is supposed to be St. Francis curing the lepers, but Luke thinks its a family portrait of Hugh Crain and his wives and daughter. Suddenly, the door slams open and a gust of wind moves the plants. They approach the library, but Nell refuses to enter. The smell reminds her of her mother's sick room. Prominent in the room is a very tall, wrought iron, spiral staircase. Markway points out that the balcony high above is where the companion to Abigail Crain hanged herself. Luke climbs up a few feet on the staircase, but jumps back to the ground when it starts to sway and shake.Eleanor ventures out to the verandah and nearly falls over the balcony as she looks up to the tower above the library. Markway threatens to send her home, but Nell begs to stay. Markway suggests Theo and Nell share a bedroom... "like sisters". That evening, the two women discuss their lives and plans for the future. Nell makes up a story about having an apartment of her own. Just when Theo is about to make a move onto Nell, Markway calls them and Luke into the hallway outside the Nursery. He has discovered a cold spot. He invites all to experience the phenomenon. He gleefully explains, "A cold spot, a genuine cold spot. I guarantee it won't register on any thermometer." Luke dismisses it as just a draft, but Markway says it is the heart of Hill House: The Nursery.In the middle of the night, Nell awakens. She hears a little girl laughing. She asks Theo to hold her hand, as their two beds are almost touching. The laughter continues and Nell complains, "Theo, you're breaking my hand." The laughs turn to wimpering and Nell complains that something is hurting a child and she won't allow that to happen. She yells, "Stop It!" Theo turns on the light and we see Nell is on a day bed about twenty feet from the bed Theo occupies. Nell stares at her hand and asks, "Whose hand was I holding?"The next morning, Markway is in the music room and checks his watch and makes a note about the harp playing itself. Nell enters the room and asks about how it could play itself. Markway explains that it may be preternatural: Something we don't have any natural explanation for right now, but probably will have some day. Nell voices her fear that it is all in her imagination and concludes she may be going insane. She is haunted by the circumstances of her mother's death and that she may somehow be responsible. They both hear the harp play a note and Markway again checks his watch and makes a note in his paperwork.That evening, Luke finds a disturbing book that Hugh Crain made for his daughter, Abigail. Nell and Theo bicker and Markway notes that everyone's nerves are on edge. Theo continues to flirt as well as needle Nell, this time about a budding romance she fantasizes about with John Markway. Nell runs away and Theo catches up to her, and tells Nell that is he is making a fool of herself in thinking that Dr. Markway will ever get involved with her. Nell accuses Theo of being an "unnatural thing" as well as a "nature's mistake."At that moment, a car horn honks and a taxi pulls up in front of the house. Grace Markway (Lois Maxwell), John's wife, arrives. She informs her husband, "A reporter's been telephoning all day. He's on your track. He's heard about you renting this place." Grace begs her husband to abandon the house and his research. When John refuses, Grace pays the driver, grabs her suitcase and announces she is staying at Hill House, "to join the ghost hunt." When Eleanor casually mentions the nursery as a place to stay, Grace quickly accepts the challenge, "Thank you, my dear. The nursery it is." Markway and Nell try to dissuade her, but Grace responds, "You insult my intelligence. You don't think I'd believe anything you ghost hunters might tell me." Luke notices the door to the nursery is open for the first time. Grace decides to spend the night in the room, despite everyone's warning not to. Markway insists he and the three researchers spend the night downstairs in the parlor.Later that night, Nell and Theo sleep together on the sofa by the fireplace as Markway sleeps in a chair. Luke finishes his tour upstairs and enters the parlor. He heads for a bottle on the mantle. Suddenly, the parlor door slams shut by itself and the others wake with a start. They hear a deep rhythmic banging outside the door. Markway is concerned about his wife upstairs. Next a very loud banging comes from just outside the door. The unseen phantom presses against the parlor door as it bows inward and out like breathing, creaking and crunching against the hinges. The sound moves to overhead towards the nursery. Markway is desperate to check on his wife.Unseen, Nell runs from the parlor, through the music room, and upstairs directly to the nursery room. The doors are open, but Grace Markway is nowhere to be seen. Her bed shows signs of being used. Markway and the others arrive and start the search. Nell wanders away. She finds herself in the greenhouse. Descending into her own little world, Nell dances out onto the verandah. When she hears the others calling to her, Nell runs into the Library. She is drawn to the spiral staircase and the balcony at the top. Before she reaches the top, the rickety staircase begins its swaying, the lateral support bolts pulling away from the wall. Markway calls to her, begging her to carefully walk back down. She ignores him and stands on the balcony. Markway carefully climbs the stairs and joins Nell on the iron balcony platform. Before they walk back down, Nell sees Grace Markway peer at her through a trap door in the ceiling.A little later, Markway is furious and now insists Eleanor leave the house for her own safety. Luke brings her car around and Theo packs her bag. Nell tries to talk them out of her dismissal, but the three insist she leave. They escort Eleanor out to her car. Luke gets back out of Nell's car to retrieve the gate key from Markway. She drives off without Luke. Before she reaches the gate she is distracted by the white-robed figure of Grace Markway and crashes into a tree.The three find Eleanor dead in the half overturned car. She crashed into the same tree that killed the first Mrs. Crain. Grace wanders over to the accident scene. She explains to her husband, "I didn't want any of this to happen. You must believe me, John." She explains that she woke and was frightened. She got lost looking for her husband and ended up in the attic. While Theo blames Grace for Eleanor's accident, Luke takes a different view. "Eleanor did it to herself. It looked to me, anyway, like she deliberately aimed the car at this tree." Markway blames the house. Luke stares at the house and remarks, "It ought to be burned down and the ground sowed with salt."We close with an evening shot of Hill House with Eleanor, now a ghost, narrating from beyond the grave about Hill House and that "we who walk here... walk alone." The end title comes up as well as the final title card 'The Haunting' followed by eerie piano music. | The Haunting | dc75b8d3-a23c-3b09-06df-79c543bec160 | where they discovered the cold spot? | [
"Outside the nursery"
] | false |
/m/03srb9 | The film opens with narration over a silhouette of Hill House at night. The narrator, Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) tells us, "An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House. Whatever walked there walked alone." Title and credits follow, then narration continues, "Scandal, murder, insanity, suicide: The history of Hill House was ideal. It had everything I wanted..." The house was built in New England by a man named Hugh Crain for his wife and young daughter. A horse and carriage accident took the life of the first Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Pamela Buckley) before she even saw the house. Hugh Crain (an uncredited Howard Lang) and young daughter, Abigail (an uncredited Janet Mansell) said a few words over the body, but Hugh was left an embittered man. Crain married again, and the second Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Freda Knorr) also died, falling down the main staircase. Hugh Crain left Abigail with a nurse (an uncredited Susan Richards) and went to England where he died in a drowning accident. Abigail kept the same nursery room her entire life. By the time she was eighty (an uncredited Amy Dalby) she was a bedridden invalid. Her nurse-companion (an uncredited Rosemary Dorken) was a local girl and, it is with this young companion the evil reputation of Hill House really begins. The old lady died while calling for help. The companion was trysting on the verandah with a farm hand. The companion inherited Hill House and occupied it for many years, but eventually hanged herself. The house then passed to a distant relative, named Mrs. Sanderson (Fay Compton).Markway visits Mrs. Sanderson where he convinces her to let him use the house for psychic research. He explains, "I shall occupy the house with a group of carefully selected assistants...I must have specially qualified help to take notes and document any evidence of the supernatural I may find." Eldridge Harper (Ronald Adam), Mrs. Sanderson's lawyer, voices his concern about publicity seekers and the propriety of having women in the house. Harper suggests to Mrs. Sanderson that her nephew, Luke, joins the doctor at Hill House, as he expects to inherit the property. Mrs. Sanderson asks point blank, "Exactly what do you and your assistants expect to find at Hill House?" Markway replies, "Maybe only a few loose floorboards, and maybe, I only say maybe, the key to another world."Dr. Markway, taking a leave of absence from his university professorship, finalizes his list of assistants. Only two end up accepting, Eleanor Lance and Theodora (no last name).Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris) is living with her sister. She is nearly broke and weary after looking after her invalid mother non-stop for eleven years. Mother is now dead, and she fights with her sister over just about everything. She begs to use the car, which is after all, half hers. Her brother-in-law, Bud Fredericks (an uncredited Paul Maxwell) tries to act as mediator between Eleanor and his wife, Carrie (Diane Clare). He is sympathetic to Eleanor's plight, but their daughter, Dora (an uncredited Verina Greenlaw) takes her cues from her mother, and taunts her Aunt Eleanor. On the vacation plan, Bud sides with Eleanor, "I think you should have a vacation, Nell." Carrie objects, but Eleanor is not to be deterred and she shows her family how she reacts when pushed to her breaking point. She is normally quiet and meek, but when pushed is loud and assertive.Nell decides to take the car and confronts the garage attendant (an uncredited Claude Jones) for the keys. She departs Boston along U.S. 50 and Route 238 to Hill House. We hear Nell thinking and she reveals she will never return to live with her sister. In fact, most of what we learn of Eleanor is hearing her thoughts.Eleanor arrives at Hill House. The property is surrounded by a stone wall and the entrance by a tall, iron spiked, gate. She honks the car horn, and Mr. Dudley (Valentine Dyall), the cranky caretaker, finally deigns to respond. "What do you want?" he asks. Eleanor explains that she is expected. After an impertinent exchange with Eleanor, Dudley finally opens the gate and allows her to enter the property. Eleanor is the first to arrive and drives up to the house. Along the way she stops to look at it. It is a huge, stone mansion with lots of detail on the façade and steep, pitched roofs. Her first reaction is that the house is vile and it is staring at her. She carries her suitcase to the front door and is greeted by Mrs. Dudley (Rosalie Crutchley). Mrs. Dudley reluctantly allows Eleanor to come inside, but does not utter a word to her.The inside of the house is dark and over-decorated, and Eleanor is escorted to her room. Mrs. Dudley explains the house rules about meals, and that she won't stay in the house after dark. Eleanor checks out the bathroom and hears the next guest arrive. Theodora (Claire Bloom) introduces herself. Eleanor explains they share a bathroom. Mrs. Dudley repeats her meal and departure rules by rote, but Theo and Nell ignore her. Theodora is a bit strange to Eleanor (Theo clearly flirts with Eleanor throughout the film) Theodora's sexual orientation is only hinted at, and we later learn she has the gift of ESP. Theo and Nell explore the house, but they get lost. Both women feel a chill, and Nell observes, "The house, it's alive." Theo seems to feel that the house wants Nell.Dr. Markway appears and explains he left the door opened, but it closed itself. Markway gives the women a tour of part of the house, starting with the main purple parlor, which they will use as an operations center. He explains that all the doors were set slightly off-center, so they close themselves. Despite studying plans to the house, even Markway gets lost on his way to the dining room. They hear a noise, but it turns out to be Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn) mixing a pitcher of martinis as he enters the dining room. Luke serves each person a martini. They sit down for dinner and discuss their duties and responsibilities. Markway explains that Theo was accepted because of her remarkable power of ESP and Eleanor had a poltergeist experience as a child, "showers of stone fell on your house for three days when you were 10 years old." Luke is a non-believer. His interest is to financially exploit Hill House, after he inherits it, of course.That evening, in the parlor, Markway works on his notes while Eleanor sits quietly on the couch. Theo and Luke play gin rummy at the game table. Theo's ability to see cards allows her to win five games in a row, much to Luke annoyance. She demands he pay her the $12 he owes, but he refuses because she cheated. The four decide to turn in for the night and continue the tour the next morning. Markway gives them papers and asks that they complete them with their observations each night.Sometime during the night, Eleanor wakes, and still in a near dream state, thinks she hears her mother knocking on the wall. Theo hears it from the next room also and calls to Nell. The two women are frightened and both hear the pounding noise. It comes and goes, but louder each time. They finally hear a woman shrieking and laughing that fades away. When Nell opens the door she sees Luke and Markway in the hall outside. The men explain they were chasing a dog and followed it outside, but they did not hear the loud noises the women heard. Markway concludes that something is trying to separate the men and women.The next morning, Markway and Nell join for breakfast. Nell is starting to develop romantic feelings for John Markway, unaware that he is married. She tells him that she spent eleven years taking care of her invalid mother. Nell also voices her fear that she will be turned out of Hill House with no where to go. Markway tells Nell how he came to do psychic research, and that his family disapproves. Theo joins the pair and warns the doctor, "If anyone gets hurt, it's going to be your fault, Markway." Markway explains that no one has ever been physically hurt by a ghost. Luke enters and directs his companions to something he saw in the hall. Someone or something has handwritten a message in chalk on the wall. It says, "Help Eleanor Come Home." Eleanor reacts strongly. She first accuses Theo of playing a cruel joke. The two women bicker and Markway postpones the tour and tells Theo to take Eleanor to her room.The tour starts with the greenhouse. A large stone sculpture sits in the center of the room. It is supposed to be St. Francis curing the lepers, but Luke thinks its a family portrait of Hugh Crain and his wives and daughter. Suddenly, the door slams open and a gust of wind moves the plants. They approach the library, but Nell refuses to enter. The smell reminds her of her mother's sick room. Prominent in the room is a very tall, wrought iron, spiral staircase. Markway points out that the balcony high above is where the companion to Abigail Crain hanged herself. Luke climbs up a few feet on the staircase, but jumps back to the ground when it starts to sway and shake.Eleanor ventures out to the verandah and nearly falls over the balcony as she looks up to the tower above the library. Markway threatens to send her home, but Nell begs to stay. Markway suggests Theo and Nell share a bedroom... "like sisters". That evening, the two women discuss their lives and plans for the future. Nell makes up a story about having an apartment of her own. Just when Theo is about to make a move onto Nell, Markway calls them and Luke into the hallway outside the Nursery. He has discovered a cold spot. He invites all to experience the phenomenon. He gleefully explains, "A cold spot, a genuine cold spot. I guarantee it won't register on any thermometer." Luke dismisses it as just a draft, but Markway says it is the heart of Hill House: The Nursery.In the middle of the night, Nell awakens. She hears a little girl laughing. She asks Theo to hold her hand, as their two beds are almost touching. The laughter continues and Nell complains, "Theo, you're breaking my hand." The laughs turn to wimpering and Nell complains that something is hurting a child and she won't allow that to happen. She yells, "Stop It!" Theo turns on the light and we see Nell is on a day bed about twenty feet from the bed Theo occupies. Nell stares at her hand and asks, "Whose hand was I holding?"The next morning, Markway is in the music room and checks his watch and makes a note about the harp playing itself. Nell enters the room and asks about how it could play itself. Markway explains that it may be preternatural: Something we don't have any natural explanation for right now, but probably will have some day. Nell voices her fear that it is all in her imagination and concludes she may be going insane. She is haunted by the circumstances of her mother's death and that she may somehow be responsible. They both hear the harp play a note and Markway again checks his watch and makes a note in his paperwork.That evening, Luke finds a disturbing book that Hugh Crain made for his daughter, Abigail. Nell and Theo bicker and Markway notes that everyone's nerves are on edge. Theo continues to flirt as well as needle Nell, this time about a budding romance she fantasizes about with John Markway. Nell runs away and Theo catches up to her, and tells Nell that is he is making a fool of herself in thinking that Dr. Markway will ever get involved with her. Nell accuses Theo of being an "unnatural thing" as well as a "nature's mistake."At that moment, a car horn honks and a taxi pulls up in front of the house. Grace Markway (Lois Maxwell), John's wife, arrives. She informs her husband, "A reporter's been telephoning all day. He's on your track. He's heard about you renting this place." Grace begs her husband to abandon the house and his research. When John refuses, Grace pays the driver, grabs her suitcase and announces she is staying at Hill House, "to join the ghost hunt." When Eleanor casually mentions the nursery as a place to stay, Grace quickly accepts the challenge, "Thank you, my dear. The nursery it is." Markway and Nell try to dissuade her, but Grace responds, "You insult my intelligence. You don't think I'd believe anything you ghost hunters might tell me." Luke notices the door to the nursery is open for the first time. Grace decides to spend the night in the room, despite everyone's warning not to. Markway insists he and the three researchers spend the night downstairs in the parlor.Later that night, Nell and Theo sleep together on the sofa by the fireplace as Markway sleeps in a chair. Luke finishes his tour upstairs and enters the parlor. He heads for a bottle on the mantle. Suddenly, the parlor door slams shut by itself and the others wake with a start. They hear a deep rhythmic banging outside the door. Markway is concerned about his wife upstairs. Next a very loud banging comes from just outside the door. The unseen phantom presses against the parlor door as it bows inward and out like breathing, creaking and crunching against the hinges. The sound moves to overhead towards the nursery. Markway is desperate to check on his wife.Unseen, Nell runs from the parlor, through the music room, and upstairs directly to the nursery room. The doors are open, but Grace Markway is nowhere to be seen. Her bed shows signs of being used. Markway and the others arrive and start the search. Nell wanders away. She finds herself in the greenhouse. Descending into her own little world, Nell dances out onto the verandah. When she hears the others calling to her, Nell runs into the Library. She is drawn to the spiral staircase and the balcony at the top. Before she reaches the top, the rickety staircase begins its swaying, the lateral support bolts pulling away from the wall. Markway calls to her, begging her to carefully walk back down. She ignores him and stands on the balcony. Markway carefully climbs the stairs and joins Nell on the iron balcony platform. Before they walk back down, Nell sees Grace Markway peer at her through a trap door in the ceiling.A little later, Markway is furious and now insists Eleanor leave the house for her own safety. Luke brings her car around and Theo packs her bag. Nell tries to talk them out of her dismissal, but the three insist she leave. They escort Eleanor out to her car. Luke gets back out of Nell's car to retrieve the gate key from Markway. She drives off without Luke. Before she reaches the gate she is distracted by the white-robed figure of Grace Markway and crashes into a tree.The three find Eleanor dead in the half overturned car. She crashed into the same tree that killed the first Mrs. Crain. Grace wanders over to the accident scene. She explains to her husband, "I didn't want any of this to happen. You must believe me, John." She explains that she woke and was frightened. She got lost looking for her husband and ended up in the attic. While Theo blames Grace for Eleanor's accident, Luke takes a different view. "Eleanor did it to herself. It looked to me, anyway, like she deliberately aimed the car at this tree." Markway blames the house. Luke stares at the house and remarks, "It ought to be burned down and the ground sowed with salt."We close with an evening shot of Hill House with Eleanor, now a ghost, narrating from beyond the grave about Hill House and that "we who walk here... walk alone." The end title comes up as well as the final title card 'The Haunting' followed by eerie piano music. | The Haunting | dd2f8a4b-83b6-17ee-4ea6-78a3be58aba4 | What is the name of the house Markway wants to study? | [
"the psychological response to fear"
] | false |
/m/03srb9 | The film opens with narration over a silhouette of Hill House at night. The narrator, Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) tells us, "An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House. Whatever walked there walked alone." Title and credits follow, then narration continues, "Scandal, murder, insanity, suicide: The history of Hill House was ideal. It had everything I wanted..." The house was built in New England by a man named Hugh Crain for his wife and young daughter. A horse and carriage accident took the life of the first Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Pamela Buckley) before she even saw the house. Hugh Crain (an uncredited Howard Lang) and young daughter, Abigail (an uncredited Janet Mansell) said a few words over the body, but Hugh was left an embittered man. Crain married again, and the second Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Freda Knorr) also died, falling down the main staircase. Hugh Crain left Abigail with a nurse (an uncredited Susan Richards) and went to England where he died in a drowning accident. Abigail kept the same nursery room her entire life. By the time she was eighty (an uncredited Amy Dalby) she was a bedridden invalid. Her nurse-companion (an uncredited Rosemary Dorken) was a local girl and, it is with this young companion the evil reputation of Hill House really begins. The old lady died while calling for help. The companion was trysting on the verandah with a farm hand. The companion inherited Hill House and occupied it for many years, but eventually hanged herself. The house then passed to a distant relative, named Mrs. Sanderson (Fay Compton).Markway visits Mrs. Sanderson where he convinces her to let him use the house for psychic research. He explains, "I shall occupy the house with a group of carefully selected assistants...I must have specially qualified help to take notes and document any evidence of the supernatural I may find." Eldridge Harper (Ronald Adam), Mrs. Sanderson's lawyer, voices his concern about publicity seekers and the propriety of having women in the house. Harper suggests to Mrs. Sanderson that her nephew, Luke, joins the doctor at Hill House, as he expects to inherit the property. Mrs. Sanderson asks point blank, "Exactly what do you and your assistants expect to find at Hill House?" Markway replies, "Maybe only a few loose floorboards, and maybe, I only say maybe, the key to another world."Dr. Markway, taking a leave of absence from his university professorship, finalizes his list of assistants. Only two end up accepting, Eleanor Lance and Theodora (no last name).Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris) is living with her sister. She is nearly broke and weary after looking after her invalid mother non-stop for eleven years. Mother is now dead, and she fights with her sister over just about everything. She begs to use the car, which is after all, half hers. Her brother-in-law, Bud Fredericks (an uncredited Paul Maxwell) tries to act as mediator between Eleanor and his wife, Carrie (Diane Clare). He is sympathetic to Eleanor's plight, but their daughter, Dora (an uncredited Verina Greenlaw) takes her cues from her mother, and taunts her Aunt Eleanor. On the vacation plan, Bud sides with Eleanor, "I think you should have a vacation, Nell." Carrie objects, but Eleanor is not to be deterred and she shows her family how she reacts when pushed to her breaking point. She is normally quiet and meek, but when pushed is loud and assertive.Nell decides to take the car and confronts the garage attendant (an uncredited Claude Jones) for the keys. She departs Boston along U.S. 50 and Route 238 to Hill House. We hear Nell thinking and she reveals she will never return to live with her sister. In fact, most of what we learn of Eleanor is hearing her thoughts.Eleanor arrives at Hill House. The property is surrounded by a stone wall and the entrance by a tall, iron spiked, gate. She honks the car horn, and Mr. Dudley (Valentine Dyall), the cranky caretaker, finally deigns to respond. "What do you want?" he asks. Eleanor explains that she is expected. After an impertinent exchange with Eleanor, Dudley finally opens the gate and allows her to enter the property. Eleanor is the first to arrive and drives up to the house. Along the way she stops to look at it. It is a huge, stone mansion with lots of detail on the façade and steep, pitched roofs. Her first reaction is that the house is vile and it is staring at her. She carries her suitcase to the front door and is greeted by Mrs. Dudley (Rosalie Crutchley). Mrs. Dudley reluctantly allows Eleanor to come inside, but does not utter a word to her.The inside of the house is dark and over-decorated, and Eleanor is escorted to her room. Mrs. Dudley explains the house rules about meals, and that she won't stay in the house after dark. Eleanor checks out the bathroom and hears the next guest arrive. Theodora (Claire Bloom) introduces herself. Eleanor explains they share a bathroom. Mrs. Dudley repeats her meal and departure rules by rote, but Theo and Nell ignore her. Theodora is a bit strange to Eleanor (Theo clearly flirts with Eleanor throughout the film) Theodora's sexual orientation is only hinted at, and we later learn she has the gift of ESP. Theo and Nell explore the house, but they get lost. Both women feel a chill, and Nell observes, "The house, it's alive." Theo seems to feel that the house wants Nell.Dr. Markway appears and explains he left the door opened, but it closed itself. Markway gives the women a tour of part of the house, starting with the main purple parlor, which they will use as an operations center. He explains that all the doors were set slightly off-center, so they close themselves. Despite studying plans to the house, even Markway gets lost on his way to the dining room. They hear a noise, but it turns out to be Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn) mixing a pitcher of martinis as he enters the dining room. Luke serves each person a martini. They sit down for dinner and discuss their duties and responsibilities. Markway explains that Theo was accepted because of her remarkable power of ESP and Eleanor had a poltergeist experience as a child, "showers of stone fell on your house for three days when you were 10 years old." Luke is a non-believer. His interest is to financially exploit Hill House, after he inherits it, of course.That evening, in the parlor, Markway works on his notes while Eleanor sits quietly on the couch. Theo and Luke play gin rummy at the game table. Theo's ability to see cards allows her to win five games in a row, much to Luke annoyance. She demands he pay her the $12 he owes, but he refuses because she cheated. The four decide to turn in for the night and continue the tour the next morning. Markway gives them papers and asks that they complete them with their observations each night.Sometime during the night, Eleanor wakes, and still in a near dream state, thinks she hears her mother knocking on the wall. Theo hears it from the next room also and calls to Nell. The two women are frightened and both hear the pounding noise. It comes and goes, but louder each time. They finally hear a woman shrieking and laughing that fades away. When Nell opens the door she sees Luke and Markway in the hall outside. The men explain they were chasing a dog and followed it outside, but they did not hear the loud noises the women heard. Markway concludes that something is trying to separate the men and women.The next morning, Markway and Nell join for breakfast. Nell is starting to develop romantic feelings for John Markway, unaware that he is married. She tells him that she spent eleven years taking care of her invalid mother. Nell also voices her fear that she will be turned out of Hill House with no where to go. Markway tells Nell how he came to do psychic research, and that his family disapproves. Theo joins the pair and warns the doctor, "If anyone gets hurt, it's going to be your fault, Markway." Markway explains that no one has ever been physically hurt by a ghost. Luke enters and directs his companions to something he saw in the hall. Someone or something has handwritten a message in chalk on the wall. It says, "Help Eleanor Come Home." Eleanor reacts strongly. She first accuses Theo of playing a cruel joke. The two women bicker and Markway postpones the tour and tells Theo to take Eleanor to her room.The tour starts with the greenhouse. A large stone sculpture sits in the center of the room. It is supposed to be St. Francis curing the lepers, but Luke thinks its a family portrait of Hugh Crain and his wives and daughter. Suddenly, the door slams open and a gust of wind moves the plants. They approach the library, but Nell refuses to enter. The smell reminds her of her mother's sick room. Prominent in the room is a very tall, wrought iron, spiral staircase. Markway points out that the balcony high above is where the companion to Abigail Crain hanged herself. Luke climbs up a few feet on the staircase, but jumps back to the ground when it starts to sway and shake.Eleanor ventures out to the verandah and nearly falls over the balcony as she looks up to the tower above the library. Markway threatens to send her home, but Nell begs to stay. Markway suggests Theo and Nell share a bedroom... "like sisters". That evening, the two women discuss their lives and plans for the future. Nell makes up a story about having an apartment of her own. Just when Theo is about to make a move onto Nell, Markway calls them and Luke into the hallway outside the Nursery. He has discovered a cold spot. He invites all to experience the phenomenon. He gleefully explains, "A cold spot, a genuine cold spot. I guarantee it won't register on any thermometer." Luke dismisses it as just a draft, but Markway says it is the heart of Hill House: The Nursery.In the middle of the night, Nell awakens. She hears a little girl laughing. She asks Theo to hold her hand, as their two beds are almost touching. The laughter continues and Nell complains, "Theo, you're breaking my hand." The laughs turn to wimpering and Nell complains that something is hurting a child and she won't allow that to happen. She yells, "Stop It!" Theo turns on the light and we see Nell is on a day bed about twenty feet from the bed Theo occupies. Nell stares at her hand and asks, "Whose hand was I holding?"The next morning, Markway is in the music room and checks his watch and makes a note about the harp playing itself. Nell enters the room and asks about how it could play itself. Markway explains that it may be preternatural: Something we don't have any natural explanation for right now, but probably will have some day. Nell voices her fear that it is all in her imagination and concludes she may be going insane. She is haunted by the circumstances of her mother's death and that she may somehow be responsible. They both hear the harp play a note and Markway again checks his watch and makes a note in his paperwork.That evening, Luke finds a disturbing book that Hugh Crain made for his daughter, Abigail. Nell and Theo bicker and Markway notes that everyone's nerves are on edge. Theo continues to flirt as well as needle Nell, this time about a budding romance she fantasizes about with John Markway. Nell runs away and Theo catches up to her, and tells Nell that is he is making a fool of herself in thinking that Dr. Markway will ever get involved with her. Nell accuses Theo of being an "unnatural thing" as well as a "nature's mistake."At that moment, a car horn honks and a taxi pulls up in front of the house. Grace Markway (Lois Maxwell), John's wife, arrives. She informs her husband, "A reporter's been telephoning all day. He's on your track. He's heard about you renting this place." Grace begs her husband to abandon the house and his research. When John refuses, Grace pays the driver, grabs her suitcase and announces she is staying at Hill House, "to join the ghost hunt." When Eleanor casually mentions the nursery as a place to stay, Grace quickly accepts the challenge, "Thank you, my dear. The nursery it is." Markway and Nell try to dissuade her, but Grace responds, "You insult my intelligence. You don't think I'd believe anything you ghost hunters might tell me." Luke notices the door to the nursery is open for the first time. Grace decides to spend the night in the room, despite everyone's warning not to. Markway insists he and the three researchers spend the night downstairs in the parlor.Later that night, Nell and Theo sleep together on the sofa by the fireplace as Markway sleeps in a chair. Luke finishes his tour upstairs and enters the parlor. He heads for a bottle on the mantle. Suddenly, the parlor door slams shut by itself and the others wake with a start. They hear a deep rhythmic banging outside the door. Markway is concerned about his wife upstairs. Next a very loud banging comes from just outside the door. The unseen phantom presses against the parlor door as it bows inward and out like breathing, creaking and crunching against the hinges. The sound moves to overhead towards the nursery. Markway is desperate to check on his wife.Unseen, Nell runs from the parlor, through the music room, and upstairs directly to the nursery room. The doors are open, but Grace Markway is nowhere to be seen. Her bed shows signs of being used. Markway and the others arrive and start the search. Nell wanders away. She finds herself in the greenhouse. Descending into her own little world, Nell dances out onto the verandah. When she hears the others calling to her, Nell runs into the Library. She is drawn to the spiral staircase and the balcony at the top. Before she reaches the top, the rickety staircase begins its swaying, the lateral support bolts pulling away from the wall. Markway calls to her, begging her to carefully walk back down. She ignores him and stands on the balcony. Markway carefully climbs the stairs and joins Nell on the iron balcony platform. Before they walk back down, Nell sees Grace Markway peer at her through a trap door in the ceiling.A little later, Markway is furious and now insists Eleanor leave the house for her own safety. Luke brings her car around and Theo packs her bag. Nell tries to talk them out of her dismissal, but the three insist she leave. They escort Eleanor out to her car. Luke gets back out of Nell's car to retrieve the gate key from Markway. She drives off without Luke. Before she reaches the gate she is distracted by the white-robed figure of Grace Markway and crashes into a tree.The three find Eleanor dead in the half overturned car. She crashed into the same tree that killed the first Mrs. Crain. Grace wanders over to the accident scene. She explains to her husband, "I didn't want any of this to happen. You must believe me, John." She explains that she woke and was frightened. She got lost looking for her husband and ended up in the attic. While Theo blames Grace for Eleanor's accident, Luke takes a different view. "Eleanor did it to herself. It looked to me, anyway, like she deliberately aimed the car at this tree." Markway blames the house. Luke stares at the house and remarks, "It ought to be burned down and the ground sowed with salt."We close with an evening shot of Hill House with Eleanor, now a ghost, narrating from beyond the grave about Hill House and that "we who walk here... walk alone." The end title comes up as well as the final title card 'The Haunting' followed by eerie piano music. | The Haunting | 4f224005-e91f-cc66-d4a3-722153f521d6 | Who does Mrs. Sanderson require Markway to take with him to the house? | [
"Luke"
] | false |
/m/03srb9 | The film opens with narration over a silhouette of Hill House at night. The narrator, Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) tells us, "An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House. Whatever walked there walked alone." Title and credits follow, then narration continues, "Scandal, murder, insanity, suicide: The history of Hill House was ideal. It had everything I wanted..." The house was built in New England by a man named Hugh Crain for his wife and young daughter. A horse and carriage accident took the life of the first Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Pamela Buckley) before she even saw the house. Hugh Crain (an uncredited Howard Lang) and young daughter, Abigail (an uncredited Janet Mansell) said a few words over the body, but Hugh was left an embittered man. Crain married again, and the second Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Freda Knorr) also died, falling down the main staircase. Hugh Crain left Abigail with a nurse (an uncredited Susan Richards) and went to England where he died in a drowning accident. Abigail kept the same nursery room her entire life. By the time she was eighty (an uncredited Amy Dalby) she was a bedridden invalid. Her nurse-companion (an uncredited Rosemary Dorken) was a local girl and, it is with this young companion the evil reputation of Hill House really begins. The old lady died while calling for help. The companion was trysting on the verandah with a farm hand. The companion inherited Hill House and occupied it for many years, but eventually hanged herself. The house then passed to a distant relative, named Mrs. Sanderson (Fay Compton).Markway visits Mrs. Sanderson where he convinces her to let him use the house for psychic research. He explains, "I shall occupy the house with a group of carefully selected assistants...I must have specially qualified help to take notes and document any evidence of the supernatural I may find." Eldridge Harper (Ronald Adam), Mrs. Sanderson's lawyer, voices his concern about publicity seekers and the propriety of having women in the house. Harper suggests to Mrs. Sanderson that her nephew, Luke, joins the doctor at Hill House, as he expects to inherit the property. Mrs. Sanderson asks point blank, "Exactly what do you and your assistants expect to find at Hill House?" Markway replies, "Maybe only a few loose floorboards, and maybe, I only say maybe, the key to another world."Dr. Markway, taking a leave of absence from his university professorship, finalizes his list of assistants. Only two end up accepting, Eleanor Lance and Theodora (no last name).Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris) is living with her sister. She is nearly broke and weary after looking after her invalid mother non-stop for eleven years. Mother is now dead, and she fights with her sister over just about everything. She begs to use the car, which is after all, half hers. Her brother-in-law, Bud Fredericks (an uncredited Paul Maxwell) tries to act as mediator between Eleanor and his wife, Carrie (Diane Clare). He is sympathetic to Eleanor's plight, but their daughter, Dora (an uncredited Verina Greenlaw) takes her cues from her mother, and taunts her Aunt Eleanor. On the vacation plan, Bud sides with Eleanor, "I think you should have a vacation, Nell." Carrie objects, but Eleanor is not to be deterred and she shows her family how she reacts when pushed to her breaking point. She is normally quiet and meek, but when pushed is loud and assertive.Nell decides to take the car and confronts the garage attendant (an uncredited Claude Jones) for the keys. She departs Boston along U.S. 50 and Route 238 to Hill House. We hear Nell thinking and she reveals she will never return to live with her sister. In fact, most of what we learn of Eleanor is hearing her thoughts.Eleanor arrives at Hill House. The property is surrounded by a stone wall and the entrance by a tall, iron spiked, gate. She honks the car horn, and Mr. Dudley (Valentine Dyall), the cranky caretaker, finally deigns to respond. "What do you want?" he asks. Eleanor explains that she is expected. After an impertinent exchange with Eleanor, Dudley finally opens the gate and allows her to enter the property. Eleanor is the first to arrive and drives up to the house. Along the way she stops to look at it. It is a huge, stone mansion with lots of detail on the façade and steep, pitched roofs. Her first reaction is that the house is vile and it is staring at her. She carries her suitcase to the front door and is greeted by Mrs. Dudley (Rosalie Crutchley). Mrs. Dudley reluctantly allows Eleanor to come inside, but does not utter a word to her.The inside of the house is dark and over-decorated, and Eleanor is escorted to her room. Mrs. Dudley explains the house rules about meals, and that she won't stay in the house after dark. Eleanor checks out the bathroom and hears the next guest arrive. Theodora (Claire Bloom) introduces herself. Eleanor explains they share a bathroom. Mrs. Dudley repeats her meal and departure rules by rote, but Theo and Nell ignore her. Theodora is a bit strange to Eleanor (Theo clearly flirts with Eleanor throughout the film) Theodora's sexual orientation is only hinted at, and we later learn she has the gift of ESP. Theo and Nell explore the house, but they get lost. Both women feel a chill, and Nell observes, "The house, it's alive." Theo seems to feel that the house wants Nell.Dr. Markway appears and explains he left the door opened, but it closed itself. Markway gives the women a tour of part of the house, starting with the main purple parlor, which they will use as an operations center. He explains that all the doors were set slightly off-center, so they close themselves. Despite studying plans to the house, even Markway gets lost on his way to the dining room. They hear a noise, but it turns out to be Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn) mixing a pitcher of martinis as he enters the dining room. Luke serves each person a martini. They sit down for dinner and discuss their duties and responsibilities. Markway explains that Theo was accepted because of her remarkable power of ESP and Eleanor had a poltergeist experience as a child, "showers of stone fell on your house for three days when you were 10 years old." Luke is a non-believer. His interest is to financially exploit Hill House, after he inherits it, of course.That evening, in the parlor, Markway works on his notes while Eleanor sits quietly on the couch. Theo and Luke play gin rummy at the game table. Theo's ability to see cards allows her to win five games in a row, much to Luke annoyance. She demands he pay her the $12 he owes, but he refuses because she cheated. The four decide to turn in for the night and continue the tour the next morning. Markway gives them papers and asks that they complete them with their observations each night.Sometime during the night, Eleanor wakes, and still in a near dream state, thinks she hears her mother knocking on the wall. Theo hears it from the next room also and calls to Nell. The two women are frightened and both hear the pounding noise. It comes and goes, but louder each time. They finally hear a woman shrieking and laughing that fades away. When Nell opens the door she sees Luke and Markway in the hall outside. The men explain they were chasing a dog and followed it outside, but they did not hear the loud noises the women heard. Markway concludes that something is trying to separate the men and women.The next morning, Markway and Nell join for breakfast. Nell is starting to develop romantic feelings for John Markway, unaware that he is married. She tells him that she spent eleven years taking care of her invalid mother. Nell also voices her fear that she will be turned out of Hill House with no where to go. Markway tells Nell how he came to do psychic research, and that his family disapproves. Theo joins the pair and warns the doctor, "If anyone gets hurt, it's going to be your fault, Markway." Markway explains that no one has ever been physically hurt by a ghost. Luke enters and directs his companions to something he saw in the hall. Someone or something has handwritten a message in chalk on the wall. It says, "Help Eleanor Come Home." Eleanor reacts strongly. She first accuses Theo of playing a cruel joke. The two women bicker and Markway postpones the tour and tells Theo to take Eleanor to her room.The tour starts with the greenhouse. A large stone sculpture sits in the center of the room. It is supposed to be St. Francis curing the lepers, but Luke thinks its a family portrait of Hugh Crain and his wives and daughter. Suddenly, the door slams open and a gust of wind moves the plants. They approach the library, but Nell refuses to enter. The smell reminds her of her mother's sick room. Prominent in the room is a very tall, wrought iron, spiral staircase. Markway points out that the balcony high above is where the companion to Abigail Crain hanged herself. Luke climbs up a few feet on the staircase, but jumps back to the ground when it starts to sway and shake.Eleanor ventures out to the verandah and nearly falls over the balcony as she looks up to the tower above the library. Markway threatens to send her home, but Nell begs to stay. Markway suggests Theo and Nell share a bedroom... "like sisters". That evening, the two women discuss their lives and plans for the future. Nell makes up a story about having an apartment of her own. Just when Theo is about to make a move onto Nell, Markway calls them and Luke into the hallway outside the Nursery. He has discovered a cold spot. He invites all to experience the phenomenon. He gleefully explains, "A cold spot, a genuine cold spot. I guarantee it won't register on any thermometer." Luke dismisses it as just a draft, but Markway says it is the heart of Hill House: The Nursery.In the middle of the night, Nell awakens. She hears a little girl laughing. She asks Theo to hold her hand, as their two beds are almost touching. The laughter continues and Nell complains, "Theo, you're breaking my hand." The laughs turn to wimpering and Nell complains that something is hurting a child and she won't allow that to happen. She yells, "Stop It!" Theo turns on the light and we see Nell is on a day bed about twenty feet from the bed Theo occupies. Nell stares at her hand and asks, "Whose hand was I holding?"The next morning, Markway is in the music room and checks his watch and makes a note about the harp playing itself. Nell enters the room and asks about how it could play itself. Markway explains that it may be preternatural: Something we don't have any natural explanation for right now, but probably will have some day. Nell voices her fear that it is all in her imagination and concludes she may be going insane. She is haunted by the circumstances of her mother's death and that she may somehow be responsible. They both hear the harp play a note and Markway again checks his watch and makes a note in his paperwork.That evening, Luke finds a disturbing book that Hugh Crain made for his daughter, Abigail. Nell and Theo bicker and Markway notes that everyone's nerves are on edge. Theo continues to flirt as well as needle Nell, this time about a budding romance she fantasizes about with John Markway. Nell runs away and Theo catches up to her, and tells Nell that is he is making a fool of herself in thinking that Dr. Markway will ever get involved with her. Nell accuses Theo of being an "unnatural thing" as well as a "nature's mistake."At that moment, a car horn honks and a taxi pulls up in front of the house. Grace Markway (Lois Maxwell), John's wife, arrives. She informs her husband, "A reporter's been telephoning all day. He's on your track. He's heard about you renting this place." Grace begs her husband to abandon the house and his research. When John refuses, Grace pays the driver, grabs her suitcase and announces she is staying at Hill House, "to join the ghost hunt." When Eleanor casually mentions the nursery as a place to stay, Grace quickly accepts the challenge, "Thank you, my dear. The nursery it is." Markway and Nell try to dissuade her, but Grace responds, "You insult my intelligence. You don't think I'd believe anything you ghost hunters might tell me." Luke notices the door to the nursery is open for the first time. Grace decides to spend the night in the room, despite everyone's warning not to. Markway insists he and the three researchers spend the night downstairs in the parlor.Later that night, Nell and Theo sleep together on the sofa by the fireplace as Markway sleeps in a chair. Luke finishes his tour upstairs and enters the parlor. He heads for a bottle on the mantle. Suddenly, the parlor door slams shut by itself and the others wake with a start. They hear a deep rhythmic banging outside the door. Markway is concerned about his wife upstairs. Next a very loud banging comes from just outside the door. The unseen phantom presses against the parlor door as it bows inward and out like breathing, creaking and crunching against the hinges. The sound moves to overhead towards the nursery. Markway is desperate to check on his wife.Unseen, Nell runs from the parlor, through the music room, and upstairs directly to the nursery room. The doors are open, but Grace Markway is nowhere to be seen. Her bed shows signs of being used. Markway and the others arrive and start the search. Nell wanders away. She finds herself in the greenhouse. Descending into her own little world, Nell dances out onto the verandah. When she hears the others calling to her, Nell runs into the Library. She is drawn to the spiral staircase and the balcony at the top. Before she reaches the top, the rickety staircase begins its swaying, the lateral support bolts pulling away from the wall. Markway calls to her, begging her to carefully walk back down. She ignores him and stands on the balcony. Markway carefully climbs the stairs and joins Nell on the iron balcony platform. Before they walk back down, Nell sees Grace Markway peer at her through a trap door in the ceiling.A little later, Markway is furious and now insists Eleanor leave the house for her own safety. Luke brings her car around and Theo packs her bag. Nell tries to talk them out of her dismissal, but the three insist she leave. They escort Eleanor out to her car. Luke gets back out of Nell's car to retrieve the gate key from Markway. She drives off without Luke. Before she reaches the gate she is distracted by the white-robed figure of Grace Markway and crashes into a tree.The three find Eleanor dead in the half overturned car. She crashed into the same tree that killed the first Mrs. Crain. Grace wanders over to the accident scene. She explains to her husband, "I didn't want any of this to happen. You must believe me, John." She explains that she woke and was frightened. She got lost looking for her husband and ended up in the attic. While Theo blames Grace for Eleanor's accident, Luke takes a different view. "Eleanor did it to herself. It looked to me, anyway, like she deliberately aimed the car at this tree." Markway blames the house. Luke stares at the house and remarks, "It ought to be burned down and the ground sowed with salt."We close with an evening shot of Hill House with Eleanor, now a ghost, narrating from beyond the grave about Hill House and that "we who walk here... walk alone." The end title comes up as well as the final title card 'The Haunting' followed by eerie piano music. | The Haunting | a802bd3f-ffe8-dfab-6f67-e8460609e0dd | Who almost gets drowned by a statue in a pool of water in the greenhouse? | [
"Dr. Marrow",
"Dr. Marrow"
] | false |
/m/03srb9 | The film opens with narration over a silhouette of Hill House at night. The narrator, Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) tells us, "An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House. Whatever walked there walked alone." Title and credits follow, then narration continues, "Scandal, murder, insanity, suicide: The history of Hill House was ideal. It had everything I wanted..." The house was built in New England by a man named Hugh Crain for his wife and young daughter. A horse and carriage accident took the life of the first Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Pamela Buckley) before she even saw the house. Hugh Crain (an uncredited Howard Lang) and young daughter, Abigail (an uncredited Janet Mansell) said a few words over the body, but Hugh was left an embittered man. Crain married again, and the second Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Freda Knorr) also died, falling down the main staircase. Hugh Crain left Abigail with a nurse (an uncredited Susan Richards) and went to England where he died in a drowning accident. Abigail kept the same nursery room her entire life. By the time she was eighty (an uncredited Amy Dalby) she was a bedridden invalid. Her nurse-companion (an uncredited Rosemary Dorken) was a local girl and, it is with this young companion the evil reputation of Hill House really begins. The old lady died while calling for help. The companion was trysting on the verandah with a farm hand. The companion inherited Hill House and occupied it for many years, but eventually hanged herself. The house then passed to a distant relative, named Mrs. Sanderson (Fay Compton).Markway visits Mrs. Sanderson where he convinces her to let him use the house for psychic research. He explains, "I shall occupy the house with a group of carefully selected assistants...I must have specially qualified help to take notes and document any evidence of the supernatural I may find." Eldridge Harper (Ronald Adam), Mrs. Sanderson's lawyer, voices his concern about publicity seekers and the propriety of having women in the house. Harper suggests to Mrs. Sanderson that her nephew, Luke, joins the doctor at Hill House, as he expects to inherit the property. Mrs. Sanderson asks point blank, "Exactly what do you and your assistants expect to find at Hill House?" Markway replies, "Maybe only a few loose floorboards, and maybe, I only say maybe, the key to another world."Dr. Markway, taking a leave of absence from his university professorship, finalizes his list of assistants. Only two end up accepting, Eleanor Lance and Theodora (no last name).Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris) is living with her sister. She is nearly broke and weary after looking after her invalid mother non-stop for eleven years. Mother is now dead, and she fights with her sister over just about everything. She begs to use the car, which is after all, half hers. Her brother-in-law, Bud Fredericks (an uncredited Paul Maxwell) tries to act as mediator between Eleanor and his wife, Carrie (Diane Clare). He is sympathetic to Eleanor's plight, but their daughter, Dora (an uncredited Verina Greenlaw) takes her cues from her mother, and taunts her Aunt Eleanor. On the vacation plan, Bud sides with Eleanor, "I think you should have a vacation, Nell." Carrie objects, but Eleanor is not to be deterred and she shows her family how she reacts when pushed to her breaking point. She is normally quiet and meek, but when pushed is loud and assertive.Nell decides to take the car and confronts the garage attendant (an uncredited Claude Jones) for the keys. She departs Boston along U.S. 50 and Route 238 to Hill House. We hear Nell thinking and she reveals she will never return to live with her sister. In fact, most of what we learn of Eleanor is hearing her thoughts.Eleanor arrives at Hill House. The property is surrounded by a stone wall and the entrance by a tall, iron spiked, gate. She honks the car horn, and Mr. Dudley (Valentine Dyall), the cranky caretaker, finally deigns to respond. "What do you want?" he asks. Eleanor explains that she is expected. After an impertinent exchange with Eleanor, Dudley finally opens the gate and allows her to enter the property. Eleanor is the first to arrive and drives up to the house. Along the way she stops to look at it. It is a huge, stone mansion with lots of detail on the façade and steep, pitched roofs. Her first reaction is that the house is vile and it is staring at her. She carries her suitcase to the front door and is greeted by Mrs. Dudley (Rosalie Crutchley). Mrs. Dudley reluctantly allows Eleanor to come inside, but does not utter a word to her.The inside of the house is dark and over-decorated, and Eleanor is escorted to her room. Mrs. Dudley explains the house rules about meals, and that she won't stay in the house after dark. Eleanor checks out the bathroom and hears the next guest arrive. Theodora (Claire Bloom) introduces herself. Eleanor explains they share a bathroom. Mrs. Dudley repeats her meal and departure rules by rote, but Theo and Nell ignore her. Theodora is a bit strange to Eleanor (Theo clearly flirts with Eleanor throughout the film) Theodora's sexual orientation is only hinted at, and we later learn she has the gift of ESP. Theo and Nell explore the house, but they get lost. Both women feel a chill, and Nell observes, "The house, it's alive." Theo seems to feel that the house wants Nell.Dr. Markway appears and explains he left the door opened, but it closed itself. Markway gives the women a tour of part of the house, starting with the main purple parlor, which they will use as an operations center. He explains that all the doors were set slightly off-center, so they close themselves. Despite studying plans to the house, even Markway gets lost on his way to the dining room. They hear a noise, but it turns out to be Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn) mixing a pitcher of martinis as he enters the dining room. Luke serves each person a martini. They sit down for dinner and discuss their duties and responsibilities. Markway explains that Theo was accepted because of her remarkable power of ESP and Eleanor had a poltergeist experience as a child, "showers of stone fell on your house for three days when you were 10 years old." Luke is a non-believer. His interest is to financially exploit Hill House, after he inherits it, of course.That evening, in the parlor, Markway works on his notes while Eleanor sits quietly on the couch. Theo and Luke play gin rummy at the game table. Theo's ability to see cards allows her to win five games in a row, much to Luke annoyance. She demands he pay her the $12 he owes, but he refuses because she cheated. The four decide to turn in for the night and continue the tour the next morning. Markway gives them papers and asks that they complete them with their observations each night.Sometime during the night, Eleanor wakes, and still in a near dream state, thinks she hears her mother knocking on the wall. Theo hears it from the next room also and calls to Nell. The two women are frightened and both hear the pounding noise. It comes and goes, but louder each time. They finally hear a woman shrieking and laughing that fades away. When Nell opens the door she sees Luke and Markway in the hall outside. The men explain they were chasing a dog and followed it outside, but they did not hear the loud noises the women heard. Markway concludes that something is trying to separate the men and women.The next morning, Markway and Nell join for breakfast. Nell is starting to develop romantic feelings for John Markway, unaware that he is married. She tells him that she spent eleven years taking care of her invalid mother. Nell also voices her fear that she will be turned out of Hill House with no where to go. Markway tells Nell how he came to do psychic research, and that his family disapproves. Theo joins the pair and warns the doctor, "If anyone gets hurt, it's going to be your fault, Markway." Markway explains that no one has ever been physically hurt by a ghost. Luke enters and directs his companions to something he saw in the hall. Someone or something has handwritten a message in chalk on the wall. It says, "Help Eleanor Come Home." Eleanor reacts strongly. She first accuses Theo of playing a cruel joke. The two women bicker and Markway postpones the tour and tells Theo to take Eleanor to her room.The tour starts with the greenhouse. A large stone sculpture sits in the center of the room. It is supposed to be St. Francis curing the lepers, but Luke thinks its a family portrait of Hugh Crain and his wives and daughter. Suddenly, the door slams open and a gust of wind moves the plants. They approach the library, but Nell refuses to enter. The smell reminds her of her mother's sick room. Prominent in the room is a very tall, wrought iron, spiral staircase. Markway points out that the balcony high above is where the companion to Abigail Crain hanged herself. Luke climbs up a few feet on the staircase, but jumps back to the ground when it starts to sway and shake.Eleanor ventures out to the verandah and nearly falls over the balcony as she looks up to the tower above the library. Markway threatens to send her home, but Nell begs to stay. Markway suggests Theo and Nell share a bedroom... "like sisters". That evening, the two women discuss their lives and plans for the future. Nell makes up a story about having an apartment of her own. Just when Theo is about to make a move onto Nell, Markway calls them and Luke into the hallway outside the Nursery. He has discovered a cold spot. He invites all to experience the phenomenon. He gleefully explains, "A cold spot, a genuine cold spot. I guarantee it won't register on any thermometer." Luke dismisses it as just a draft, but Markway says it is the heart of Hill House: The Nursery.In the middle of the night, Nell awakens. She hears a little girl laughing. She asks Theo to hold her hand, as their two beds are almost touching. The laughter continues and Nell complains, "Theo, you're breaking my hand." The laughs turn to wimpering and Nell complains that something is hurting a child and she won't allow that to happen. She yells, "Stop It!" Theo turns on the light and we see Nell is on a day bed about twenty feet from the bed Theo occupies. Nell stares at her hand and asks, "Whose hand was I holding?"The next morning, Markway is in the music room and checks his watch and makes a note about the harp playing itself. Nell enters the room and asks about how it could play itself. Markway explains that it may be preternatural: Something we don't have any natural explanation for right now, but probably will have some day. Nell voices her fear that it is all in her imagination and concludes she may be going insane. She is haunted by the circumstances of her mother's death and that she may somehow be responsible. They both hear the harp play a note and Markway again checks his watch and makes a note in his paperwork.That evening, Luke finds a disturbing book that Hugh Crain made for his daughter, Abigail. Nell and Theo bicker and Markway notes that everyone's nerves are on edge. Theo continues to flirt as well as needle Nell, this time about a budding romance she fantasizes about with John Markway. Nell runs away and Theo catches up to her, and tells Nell that is he is making a fool of herself in thinking that Dr. Markway will ever get involved with her. Nell accuses Theo of being an "unnatural thing" as well as a "nature's mistake."At that moment, a car horn honks and a taxi pulls up in front of the house. Grace Markway (Lois Maxwell), John's wife, arrives. She informs her husband, "A reporter's been telephoning all day. He's on your track. He's heard about you renting this place." Grace begs her husband to abandon the house and his research. When John refuses, Grace pays the driver, grabs her suitcase and announces she is staying at Hill House, "to join the ghost hunt." When Eleanor casually mentions the nursery as a place to stay, Grace quickly accepts the challenge, "Thank you, my dear. The nursery it is." Markway and Nell try to dissuade her, but Grace responds, "You insult my intelligence. You don't think I'd believe anything you ghost hunters might tell me." Luke notices the door to the nursery is open for the first time. Grace decides to spend the night in the room, despite everyone's warning not to. Markway insists he and the three researchers spend the night downstairs in the parlor.Later that night, Nell and Theo sleep together on the sofa by the fireplace as Markway sleeps in a chair. Luke finishes his tour upstairs and enters the parlor. He heads for a bottle on the mantle. Suddenly, the parlor door slams shut by itself and the others wake with a start. They hear a deep rhythmic banging outside the door. Markway is concerned about his wife upstairs. Next a very loud banging comes from just outside the door. The unseen phantom presses against the parlor door as it bows inward and out like breathing, creaking and crunching against the hinges. The sound moves to overhead towards the nursery. Markway is desperate to check on his wife.Unseen, Nell runs from the parlor, through the music room, and upstairs directly to the nursery room. The doors are open, but Grace Markway is nowhere to be seen. Her bed shows signs of being used. Markway and the others arrive and start the search. Nell wanders away. She finds herself in the greenhouse. Descending into her own little world, Nell dances out onto the verandah. When she hears the others calling to her, Nell runs into the Library. She is drawn to the spiral staircase and the balcony at the top. Before she reaches the top, the rickety staircase begins its swaying, the lateral support bolts pulling away from the wall. Markway calls to her, begging her to carefully walk back down. She ignores him and stands on the balcony. Markway carefully climbs the stairs and joins Nell on the iron balcony platform. Before they walk back down, Nell sees Grace Markway peer at her through a trap door in the ceiling.A little later, Markway is furious and now insists Eleanor leave the house for her own safety. Luke brings her car around and Theo packs her bag. Nell tries to talk them out of her dismissal, but the three insist she leave. They escort Eleanor out to her car. Luke gets back out of Nell's car to retrieve the gate key from Markway. She drives off without Luke. Before she reaches the gate she is distracted by the white-robed figure of Grace Markway and crashes into a tree.The three find Eleanor dead in the half overturned car. She crashed into the same tree that killed the first Mrs. Crain. Grace wanders over to the accident scene. She explains to her husband, "I didn't want any of this to happen. You must believe me, John." She explains that she woke and was frightened. She got lost looking for her husband and ended up in the attic. While Theo blames Grace for Eleanor's accident, Luke takes a different view. "Eleanor did it to herself. It looked to me, anyway, like she deliberately aimed the car at this tree." Markway blames the house. Luke stares at the house and remarks, "It ought to be burned down and the ground sowed with salt."We close with an evening shot of Hill House with Eleanor, now a ghost, narrating from beyond the grave about Hill House and that "we who walk here... walk alone." The end title comes up as well as the final title card 'The Haunting' followed by eerie piano music. | The Haunting | cfd4b77a-02a2-71bf-8ce5-cf5b933fad9c | Who asks Dr. Marrow if he found what he wanted? | [
"Mr. Dudley",
"Mr. Dudley"
] | false |
/m/03srb9 | The film opens with narration over a silhouette of Hill House at night. The narrator, Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) tells us, "An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House. Whatever walked there walked alone." Title and credits follow, then narration continues, "Scandal, murder, insanity, suicide: The history of Hill House was ideal. It had everything I wanted..." The house was built in New England by a man named Hugh Crain for his wife and young daughter. A horse and carriage accident took the life of the first Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Pamela Buckley) before she even saw the house. Hugh Crain (an uncredited Howard Lang) and young daughter, Abigail (an uncredited Janet Mansell) said a few words over the body, but Hugh was left an embittered man. Crain married again, and the second Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Freda Knorr) also died, falling down the main staircase. Hugh Crain left Abigail with a nurse (an uncredited Susan Richards) and went to England where he died in a drowning accident. Abigail kept the same nursery room her entire life. By the time she was eighty (an uncredited Amy Dalby) she was a bedridden invalid. Her nurse-companion (an uncredited Rosemary Dorken) was a local girl and, it is with this young companion the evil reputation of Hill House really begins. The old lady died while calling for help. The companion was trysting on the verandah with a farm hand. The companion inherited Hill House and occupied it for many years, but eventually hanged herself. The house then passed to a distant relative, named Mrs. Sanderson (Fay Compton).Markway visits Mrs. Sanderson where he convinces her to let him use the house for psychic research. He explains, "I shall occupy the house with a group of carefully selected assistants...I must have specially qualified help to take notes and document any evidence of the supernatural I may find." Eldridge Harper (Ronald Adam), Mrs. Sanderson's lawyer, voices his concern about publicity seekers and the propriety of having women in the house. Harper suggests to Mrs. Sanderson that her nephew, Luke, joins the doctor at Hill House, as he expects to inherit the property. Mrs. Sanderson asks point blank, "Exactly what do you and your assistants expect to find at Hill House?" Markway replies, "Maybe only a few loose floorboards, and maybe, I only say maybe, the key to another world."Dr. Markway, taking a leave of absence from his university professorship, finalizes his list of assistants. Only two end up accepting, Eleanor Lance and Theodora (no last name).Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris) is living with her sister. She is nearly broke and weary after looking after her invalid mother non-stop for eleven years. Mother is now dead, and she fights with her sister over just about everything. She begs to use the car, which is after all, half hers. Her brother-in-law, Bud Fredericks (an uncredited Paul Maxwell) tries to act as mediator between Eleanor and his wife, Carrie (Diane Clare). He is sympathetic to Eleanor's plight, but their daughter, Dora (an uncredited Verina Greenlaw) takes her cues from her mother, and taunts her Aunt Eleanor. On the vacation plan, Bud sides with Eleanor, "I think you should have a vacation, Nell." Carrie objects, but Eleanor is not to be deterred and she shows her family how she reacts when pushed to her breaking point. She is normally quiet and meek, but when pushed is loud and assertive.Nell decides to take the car and confronts the garage attendant (an uncredited Claude Jones) for the keys. She departs Boston along U.S. 50 and Route 238 to Hill House. We hear Nell thinking and she reveals she will never return to live with her sister. In fact, most of what we learn of Eleanor is hearing her thoughts.Eleanor arrives at Hill House. The property is surrounded by a stone wall and the entrance by a tall, iron spiked, gate. She honks the car horn, and Mr. Dudley (Valentine Dyall), the cranky caretaker, finally deigns to respond. "What do you want?" he asks. Eleanor explains that she is expected. After an impertinent exchange with Eleanor, Dudley finally opens the gate and allows her to enter the property. Eleanor is the first to arrive and drives up to the house. Along the way she stops to look at it. It is a huge, stone mansion with lots of detail on the façade and steep, pitched roofs. Her first reaction is that the house is vile and it is staring at her. She carries her suitcase to the front door and is greeted by Mrs. Dudley (Rosalie Crutchley). Mrs. Dudley reluctantly allows Eleanor to come inside, but does not utter a word to her.The inside of the house is dark and over-decorated, and Eleanor is escorted to her room. Mrs. Dudley explains the house rules about meals, and that she won't stay in the house after dark. Eleanor checks out the bathroom and hears the next guest arrive. Theodora (Claire Bloom) introduces herself. Eleanor explains they share a bathroom. Mrs. Dudley repeats her meal and departure rules by rote, but Theo and Nell ignore her. Theodora is a bit strange to Eleanor (Theo clearly flirts with Eleanor throughout the film) Theodora's sexual orientation is only hinted at, and we later learn she has the gift of ESP. Theo and Nell explore the house, but they get lost. Both women feel a chill, and Nell observes, "The house, it's alive." Theo seems to feel that the house wants Nell.Dr. Markway appears and explains he left the door opened, but it closed itself. Markway gives the women a tour of part of the house, starting with the main purple parlor, which they will use as an operations center. He explains that all the doors were set slightly off-center, so they close themselves. Despite studying plans to the house, even Markway gets lost on his way to the dining room. They hear a noise, but it turns out to be Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn) mixing a pitcher of martinis as he enters the dining room. Luke serves each person a martini. They sit down for dinner and discuss their duties and responsibilities. Markway explains that Theo was accepted because of her remarkable power of ESP and Eleanor had a poltergeist experience as a child, "showers of stone fell on your house for three days when you were 10 years old." Luke is a non-believer. His interest is to financially exploit Hill House, after he inherits it, of course.That evening, in the parlor, Markway works on his notes while Eleanor sits quietly on the couch. Theo and Luke play gin rummy at the game table. Theo's ability to see cards allows her to win five games in a row, much to Luke annoyance. She demands he pay her the $12 he owes, but he refuses because she cheated. The four decide to turn in for the night and continue the tour the next morning. Markway gives them papers and asks that they complete them with their observations each night.Sometime during the night, Eleanor wakes, and still in a near dream state, thinks she hears her mother knocking on the wall. Theo hears it from the next room also and calls to Nell. The two women are frightened and both hear the pounding noise. It comes and goes, but louder each time. They finally hear a woman shrieking and laughing that fades away. When Nell opens the door she sees Luke and Markway in the hall outside. The men explain they were chasing a dog and followed it outside, but they did not hear the loud noises the women heard. Markway concludes that something is trying to separate the men and women.The next morning, Markway and Nell join for breakfast. Nell is starting to develop romantic feelings for John Markway, unaware that he is married. She tells him that she spent eleven years taking care of her invalid mother. Nell also voices her fear that she will be turned out of Hill House with no where to go. Markway tells Nell how he came to do psychic research, and that his family disapproves. Theo joins the pair and warns the doctor, "If anyone gets hurt, it's going to be your fault, Markway." Markway explains that no one has ever been physically hurt by a ghost. Luke enters and directs his companions to something he saw in the hall. Someone or something has handwritten a message in chalk on the wall. It says, "Help Eleanor Come Home." Eleanor reacts strongly. She first accuses Theo of playing a cruel joke. The two women bicker and Markway postpones the tour and tells Theo to take Eleanor to her room.The tour starts with the greenhouse. A large stone sculpture sits in the center of the room. It is supposed to be St. Francis curing the lepers, but Luke thinks its a family portrait of Hugh Crain and his wives and daughter. Suddenly, the door slams open and a gust of wind moves the plants. They approach the library, but Nell refuses to enter. The smell reminds her of her mother's sick room. Prominent in the room is a very tall, wrought iron, spiral staircase. Markway points out that the balcony high above is where the companion to Abigail Crain hanged herself. Luke climbs up a few feet on the staircase, but jumps back to the ground when it starts to sway and shake.Eleanor ventures out to the verandah and nearly falls over the balcony as she looks up to the tower above the library. Markway threatens to send her home, but Nell begs to stay. Markway suggests Theo and Nell share a bedroom... "like sisters". That evening, the two women discuss their lives and plans for the future. Nell makes up a story about having an apartment of her own. Just when Theo is about to make a move onto Nell, Markway calls them and Luke into the hallway outside the Nursery. He has discovered a cold spot. He invites all to experience the phenomenon. He gleefully explains, "A cold spot, a genuine cold spot. I guarantee it won't register on any thermometer." Luke dismisses it as just a draft, but Markway says it is the heart of Hill House: The Nursery.In the middle of the night, Nell awakens. She hears a little girl laughing. She asks Theo to hold her hand, as their two beds are almost touching. The laughter continues and Nell complains, "Theo, you're breaking my hand." The laughs turn to wimpering and Nell complains that something is hurting a child and she won't allow that to happen. She yells, "Stop It!" Theo turns on the light and we see Nell is on a day bed about twenty feet from the bed Theo occupies. Nell stares at her hand and asks, "Whose hand was I holding?"The next morning, Markway is in the music room and checks his watch and makes a note about the harp playing itself. Nell enters the room and asks about how it could play itself. Markway explains that it may be preternatural: Something we don't have any natural explanation for right now, but probably will have some day. Nell voices her fear that it is all in her imagination and concludes she may be going insane. She is haunted by the circumstances of her mother's death and that she may somehow be responsible. They both hear the harp play a note and Markway again checks his watch and makes a note in his paperwork.That evening, Luke finds a disturbing book that Hugh Crain made for his daughter, Abigail. Nell and Theo bicker and Markway notes that everyone's nerves are on edge. Theo continues to flirt as well as needle Nell, this time about a budding romance she fantasizes about with John Markway. Nell runs away and Theo catches up to her, and tells Nell that is he is making a fool of herself in thinking that Dr. Markway will ever get involved with her. Nell accuses Theo of being an "unnatural thing" as well as a "nature's mistake."At that moment, a car horn honks and a taxi pulls up in front of the house. Grace Markway (Lois Maxwell), John's wife, arrives. She informs her husband, "A reporter's been telephoning all day. He's on your track. He's heard about you renting this place." Grace begs her husband to abandon the house and his research. When John refuses, Grace pays the driver, grabs her suitcase and announces she is staying at Hill House, "to join the ghost hunt." When Eleanor casually mentions the nursery as a place to stay, Grace quickly accepts the challenge, "Thank you, my dear. The nursery it is." Markway and Nell try to dissuade her, but Grace responds, "You insult my intelligence. You don't think I'd believe anything you ghost hunters might tell me." Luke notices the door to the nursery is open for the first time. Grace decides to spend the night in the room, despite everyone's warning not to. Markway insists he and the three researchers spend the night downstairs in the parlor.Later that night, Nell and Theo sleep together on the sofa by the fireplace as Markway sleeps in a chair. Luke finishes his tour upstairs and enters the parlor. He heads for a bottle on the mantle. Suddenly, the parlor door slams shut by itself and the others wake with a start. They hear a deep rhythmic banging outside the door. Markway is concerned about his wife upstairs. Next a very loud banging comes from just outside the door. The unseen phantom presses against the parlor door as it bows inward and out like breathing, creaking and crunching against the hinges. The sound moves to overhead towards the nursery. Markway is desperate to check on his wife.Unseen, Nell runs from the parlor, through the music room, and upstairs directly to the nursery room. The doors are open, but Grace Markway is nowhere to be seen. Her bed shows signs of being used. Markway and the others arrive and start the search. Nell wanders away. She finds herself in the greenhouse. Descending into her own little world, Nell dances out onto the verandah. When she hears the others calling to her, Nell runs into the Library. She is drawn to the spiral staircase and the balcony at the top. Before she reaches the top, the rickety staircase begins its swaying, the lateral support bolts pulling away from the wall. Markway calls to her, begging her to carefully walk back down. She ignores him and stands on the balcony. Markway carefully climbs the stairs and joins Nell on the iron balcony platform. Before they walk back down, Nell sees Grace Markway peer at her through a trap door in the ceiling.A little later, Markway is furious and now insists Eleanor leave the house for her own safety. Luke brings her car around and Theo packs her bag. Nell tries to talk them out of her dismissal, but the three insist she leave. They escort Eleanor out to her car. Luke gets back out of Nell's car to retrieve the gate key from Markway. She drives off without Luke. Before she reaches the gate she is distracted by the white-robed figure of Grace Markway and crashes into a tree.The three find Eleanor dead in the half overturned car. She crashed into the same tree that killed the first Mrs. Crain. Grace wanders over to the accident scene. She explains to her husband, "I didn't want any of this to happen. You must believe me, John." She explains that she woke and was frightened. She got lost looking for her husband and ended up in the attic. While Theo blames Grace for Eleanor's accident, Luke takes a different view. "Eleanor did it to herself. It looked to me, anyway, like she deliberately aimed the car at this tree." Markway blames the house. Luke stares at the house and remarks, "It ought to be burned down and the ground sowed with salt."We close with an evening shot of Hill House with Eleanor, now a ghost, narrating from beyond the grave about Hill House and that "we who walk here... walk alone." The end title comes up as well as the final title card 'The Haunting' followed by eerie piano music. | The Haunting | a1d52d2b-5768-634c-bd3f-cc6080246c55 | The voice of who is heard echoing with laughter? | [
"Hugh Crain"
] | false |
/m/03srb9 | The film opens with narration over a silhouette of Hill House at night. The narrator, Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) tells us, "An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House. Whatever walked there walked alone." Title and credits follow, then narration continues, "Scandal, murder, insanity, suicide: The history of Hill House was ideal. It had everything I wanted..." The house was built in New England by a man named Hugh Crain for his wife and young daughter. A horse and carriage accident took the life of the first Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Pamela Buckley) before she even saw the house. Hugh Crain (an uncredited Howard Lang) and young daughter, Abigail (an uncredited Janet Mansell) said a few words over the body, but Hugh was left an embittered man. Crain married again, and the second Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Freda Knorr) also died, falling down the main staircase. Hugh Crain left Abigail with a nurse (an uncredited Susan Richards) and went to England where he died in a drowning accident. Abigail kept the same nursery room her entire life. By the time she was eighty (an uncredited Amy Dalby) she was a bedridden invalid. Her nurse-companion (an uncredited Rosemary Dorken) was a local girl and, it is with this young companion the evil reputation of Hill House really begins. The old lady died while calling for help. The companion was trysting on the verandah with a farm hand. The companion inherited Hill House and occupied it for many years, but eventually hanged herself. The house then passed to a distant relative, named Mrs. Sanderson (Fay Compton).Markway visits Mrs. Sanderson where he convinces her to let him use the house for psychic research. He explains, "I shall occupy the house with a group of carefully selected assistants...I must have specially qualified help to take notes and document any evidence of the supernatural I may find." Eldridge Harper (Ronald Adam), Mrs. Sanderson's lawyer, voices his concern about publicity seekers and the propriety of having women in the house. Harper suggests to Mrs. Sanderson that her nephew, Luke, joins the doctor at Hill House, as he expects to inherit the property. Mrs. Sanderson asks point blank, "Exactly what do you and your assistants expect to find at Hill House?" Markway replies, "Maybe only a few loose floorboards, and maybe, I only say maybe, the key to another world."Dr. Markway, taking a leave of absence from his university professorship, finalizes his list of assistants. Only two end up accepting, Eleanor Lance and Theodora (no last name).Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris) is living with her sister. She is nearly broke and weary after looking after her invalid mother non-stop for eleven years. Mother is now dead, and she fights with her sister over just about everything. She begs to use the car, which is after all, half hers. Her brother-in-law, Bud Fredericks (an uncredited Paul Maxwell) tries to act as mediator between Eleanor and his wife, Carrie (Diane Clare). He is sympathetic to Eleanor's plight, but their daughter, Dora (an uncredited Verina Greenlaw) takes her cues from her mother, and taunts her Aunt Eleanor. On the vacation plan, Bud sides with Eleanor, "I think you should have a vacation, Nell." Carrie objects, but Eleanor is not to be deterred and she shows her family how she reacts when pushed to her breaking point. She is normally quiet and meek, but when pushed is loud and assertive.Nell decides to take the car and confronts the garage attendant (an uncredited Claude Jones) for the keys. She departs Boston along U.S. 50 and Route 238 to Hill House. We hear Nell thinking and she reveals she will never return to live with her sister. In fact, most of what we learn of Eleanor is hearing her thoughts.Eleanor arrives at Hill House. The property is surrounded by a stone wall and the entrance by a tall, iron spiked, gate. She honks the car horn, and Mr. Dudley (Valentine Dyall), the cranky caretaker, finally deigns to respond. "What do you want?" he asks. Eleanor explains that she is expected. After an impertinent exchange with Eleanor, Dudley finally opens the gate and allows her to enter the property. Eleanor is the first to arrive and drives up to the house. Along the way she stops to look at it. It is a huge, stone mansion with lots of detail on the façade and steep, pitched roofs. Her first reaction is that the house is vile and it is staring at her. She carries her suitcase to the front door and is greeted by Mrs. Dudley (Rosalie Crutchley). Mrs. Dudley reluctantly allows Eleanor to come inside, but does not utter a word to her.The inside of the house is dark and over-decorated, and Eleanor is escorted to her room. Mrs. Dudley explains the house rules about meals, and that she won't stay in the house after dark. Eleanor checks out the bathroom and hears the next guest arrive. Theodora (Claire Bloom) introduces herself. Eleanor explains they share a bathroom. Mrs. Dudley repeats her meal and departure rules by rote, but Theo and Nell ignore her. Theodora is a bit strange to Eleanor (Theo clearly flirts with Eleanor throughout the film) Theodora's sexual orientation is only hinted at, and we later learn she has the gift of ESP. Theo and Nell explore the house, but they get lost. Both women feel a chill, and Nell observes, "The house, it's alive." Theo seems to feel that the house wants Nell.Dr. Markway appears and explains he left the door opened, but it closed itself. Markway gives the women a tour of part of the house, starting with the main purple parlor, which they will use as an operations center. He explains that all the doors were set slightly off-center, so they close themselves. Despite studying plans to the house, even Markway gets lost on his way to the dining room. They hear a noise, but it turns out to be Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn) mixing a pitcher of martinis as he enters the dining room. Luke serves each person a martini. They sit down for dinner and discuss their duties and responsibilities. Markway explains that Theo was accepted because of her remarkable power of ESP and Eleanor had a poltergeist experience as a child, "showers of stone fell on your house for three days when you were 10 years old." Luke is a non-believer. His interest is to financially exploit Hill House, after he inherits it, of course.That evening, in the parlor, Markway works on his notes while Eleanor sits quietly on the couch. Theo and Luke play gin rummy at the game table. Theo's ability to see cards allows her to win five games in a row, much to Luke annoyance. She demands he pay her the $12 he owes, but he refuses because she cheated. The four decide to turn in for the night and continue the tour the next morning. Markway gives them papers and asks that they complete them with their observations each night.Sometime during the night, Eleanor wakes, and still in a near dream state, thinks she hears her mother knocking on the wall. Theo hears it from the next room also and calls to Nell. The two women are frightened and both hear the pounding noise. It comes and goes, but louder each time. They finally hear a woman shrieking and laughing that fades away. When Nell opens the door she sees Luke and Markway in the hall outside. The men explain they were chasing a dog and followed it outside, but they did not hear the loud noises the women heard. Markway concludes that something is trying to separate the men and women.The next morning, Markway and Nell join for breakfast. Nell is starting to develop romantic feelings for John Markway, unaware that he is married. She tells him that she spent eleven years taking care of her invalid mother. Nell also voices her fear that she will be turned out of Hill House with no where to go. Markway tells Nell how he came to do psychic research, and that his family disapproves. Theo joins the pair and warns the doctor, "If anyone gets hurt, it's going to be your fault, Markway." Markway explains that no one has ever been physically hurt by a ghost. Luke enters and directs his companions to something he saw in the hall. Someone or something has handwritten a message in chalk on the wall. It says, "Help Eleanor Come Home." Eleanor reacts strongly. She first accuses Theo of playing a cruel joke. The two women bicker and Markway postpones the tour and tells Theo to take Eleanor to her room.The tour starts with the greenhouse. A large stone sculpture sits in the center of the room. It is supposed to be St. Francis curing the lepers, but Luke thinks its a family portrait of Hugh Crain and his wives and daughter. Suddenly, the door slams open and a gust of wind moves the plants. They approach the library, but Nell refuses to enter. The smell reminds her of her mother's sick room. Prominent in the room is a very tall, wrought iron, spiral staircase. Markway points out that the balcony high above is where the companion to Abigail Crain hanged herself. Luke climbs up a few feet on the staircase, but jumps back to the ground when it starts to sway and shake.Eleanor ventures out to the verandah and nearly falls over the balcony as she looks up to the tower above the library. Markway threatens to send her home, but Nell begs to stay. Markway suggests Theo and Nell share a bedroom... "like sisters". That evening, the two women discuss their lives and plans for the future. Nell makes up a story about having an apartment of her own. Just when Theo is about to make a move onto Nell, Markway calls them and Luke into the hallway outside the Nursery. He has discovered a cold spot. He invites all to experience the phenomenon. He gleefully explains, "A cold spot, a genuine cold spot. I guarantee it won't register on any thermometer." Luke dismisses it as just a draft, but Markway says it is the heart of Hill House: The Nursery.In the middle of the night, Nell awakens. She hears a little girl laughing. She asks Theo to hold her hand, as their two beds are almost touching. The laughter continues and Nell complains, "Theo, you're breaking my hand." The laughs turn to wimpering and Nell complains that something is hurting a child and she won't allow that to happen. She yells, "Stop It!" Theo turns on the light and we see Nell is on a day bed about twenty feet from the bed Theo occupies. Nell stares at her hand and asks, "Whose hand was I holding?"The next morning, Markway is in the music room and checks his watch and makes a note about the harp playing itself. Nell enters the room and asks about how it could play itself. Markway explains that it may be preternatural: Something we don't have any natural explanation for right now, but probably will have some day. Nell voices her fear that it is all in her imagination and concludes she may be going insane. She is haunted by the circumstances of her mother's death and that she may somehow be responsible. They both hear the harp play a note and Markway again checks his watch and makes a note in his paperwork.That evening, Luke finds a disturbing book that Hugh Crain made for his daughter, Abigail. Nell and Theo bicker and Markway notes that everyone's nerves are on edge. Theo continues to flirt as well as needle Nell, this time about a budding romance she fantasizes about with John Markway. Nell runs away and Theo catches up to her, and tells Nell that is he is making a fool of herself in thinking that Dr. Markway will ever get involved with her. Nell accuses Theo of being an "unnatural thing" as well as a "nature's mistake."At that moment, a car horn honks and a taxi pulls up in front of the house. Grace Markway (Lois Maxwell), John's wife, arrives. She informs her husband, "A reporter's been telephoning all day. He's on your track. He's heard about you renting this place." Grace begs her husband to abandon the house and his research. When John refuses, Grace pays the driver, grabs her suitcase and announces she is staying at Hill House, "to join the ghost hunt." When Eleanor casually mentions the nursery as a place to stay, Grace quickly accepts the challenge, "Thank you, my dear. The nursery it is." Markway and Nell try to dissuade her, but Grace responds, "You insult my intelligence. You don't think I'd believe anything you ghost hunters might tell me." Luke notices the door to the nursery is open for the first time. Grace decides to spend the night in the room, despite everyone's warning not to. Markway insists he and the three researchers spend the night downstairs in the parlor.Later that night, Nell and Theo sleep together on the sofa by the fireplace as Markway sleeps in a chair. Luke finishes his tour upstairs and enters the parlor. He heads for a bottle on the mantle. Suddenly, the parlor door slams shut by itself and the others wake with a start. They hear a deep rhythmic banging outside the door. Markway is concerned about his wife upstairs. Next a very loud banging comes from just outside the door. The unseen phantom presses against the parlor door as it bows inward and out like breathing, creaking and crunching against the hinges. The sound moves to overhead towards the nursery. Markway is desperate to check on his wife.Unseen, Nell runs from the parlor, through the music room, and upstairs directly to the nursery room. The doors are open, but Grace Markway is nowhere to be seen. Her bed shows signs of being used. Markway and the others arrive and start the search. Nell wanders away. She finds herself in the greenhouse. Descending into her own little world, Nell dances out onto the verandah. When she hears the others calling to her, Nell runs into the Library. She is drawn to the spiral staircase and the balcony at the top. Before she reaches the top, the rickety staircase begins its swaying, the lateral support bolts pulling away from the wall. Markway calls to her, begging her to carefully walk back down. She ignores him and stands on the balcony. Markway carefully climbs the stairs and joins Nell on the iron balcony platform. Before they walk back down, Nell sees Grace Markway peer at her through a trap door in the ceiling.A little later, Markway is furious and now insists Eleanor leave the house for her own safety. Luke brings her car around and Theo packs her bag. Nell tries to talk them out of her dismissal, but the three insist she leave. They escort Eleanor out to her car. Luke gets back out of Nell's car to retrieve the gate key from Markway. She drives off without Luke. Before she reaches the gate she is distracted by the white-robed figure of Grace Markway and crashes into a tree.The three find Eleanor dead in the half overturned car. She crashed into the same tree that killed the first Mrs. Crain. Grace wanders over to the accident scene. She explains to her husband, "I didn't want any of this to happen. You must believe me, John." She explains that she woke and was frightened. She got lost looking for her husband and ended up in the attic. While Theo blames Grace for Eleanor's accident, Luke takes a different view. "Eleanor did it to herself. It looked to me, anyway, like she deliberately aimed the car at this tree." Markway blames the house. Luke stares at the house and remarks, "It ought to be burned down and the ground sowed with salt."We close with an evening shot of Hill House with Eleanor, now a ghost, narrating from beyond the grave about Hill House and that "we who walk here... walk alone." The end title comes up as well as the final title card 'The Haunting' followed by eerie piano music. | The Haunting | 78fecd21-d503-bf8f-df47-4f44f346d9ef | In what room did the previous owner hang herself? | [] | true |
/m/03srb9 | The film opens with narration over a silhouette of Hill House at night. The narrator, Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) tells us, "An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House. Whatever walked there walked alone." Title and credits follow, then narration continues, "Scandal, murder, insanity, suicide: The history of Hill House was ideal. It had everything I wanted..." The house was built in New England by a man named Hugh Crain for his wife and young daughter. A horse and carriage accident took the life of the first Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Pamela Buckley) before she even saw the house. Hugh Crain (an uncredited Howard Lang) and young daughter, Abigail (an uncredited Janet Mansell) said a few words over the body, but Hugh was left an embittered man. Crain married again, and the second Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Freda Knorr) also died, falling down the main staircase. Hugh Crain left Abigail with a nurse (an uncredited Susan Richards) and went to England where he died in a drowning accident. Abigail kept the same nursery room her entire life. By the time she was eighty (an uncredited Amy Dalby) she was a bedridden invalid. Her nurse-companion (an uncredited Rosemary Dorken) was a local girl and, it is with this young companion the evil reputation of Hill House really begins. The old lady died while calling for help. The companion was trysting on the verandah with a farm hand. The companion inherited Hill House and occupied it for many years, but eventually hanged herself. The house then passed to a distant relative, named Mrs. Sanderson (Fay Compton).Markway visits Mrs. Sanderson where he convinces her to let him use the house for psychic research. He explains, "I shall occupy the house with a group of carefully selected assistants...I must have specially qualified help to take notes and document any evidence of the supernatural I may find." Eldridge Harper (Ronald Adam), Mrs. Sanderson's lawyer, voices his concern about publicity seekers and the propriety of having women in the house. Harper suggests to Mrs. Sanderson that her nephew, Luke, joins the doctor at Hill House, as he expects to inherit the property. Mrs. Sanderson asks point blank, "Exactly what do you and your assistants expect to find at Hill House?" Markway replies, "Maybe only a few loose floorboards, and maybe, I only say maybe, the key to another world."Dr. Markway, taking a leave of absence from his university professorship, finalizes his list of assistants. Only two end up accepting, Eleanor Lance and Theodora (no last name).Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris) is living with her sister. She is nearly broke and weary after looking after her invalid mother non-stop for eleven years. Mother is now dead, and she fights with her sister over just about everything. She begs to use the car, which is after all, half hers. Her brother-in-law, Bud Fredericks (an uncredited Paul Maxwell) tries to act as mediator between Eleanor and his wife, Carrie (Diane Clare). He is sympathetic to Eleanor's plight, but their daughter, Dora (an uncredited Verina Greenlaw) takes her cues from her mother, and taunts her Aunt Eleanor. On the vacation plan, Bud sides with Eleanor, "I think you should have a vacation, Nell." Carrie objects, but Eleanor is not to be deterred and she shows her family how she reacts when pushed to her breaking point. She is normally quiet and meek, but when pushed is loud and assertive.Nell decides to take the car and confronts the garage attendant (an uncredited Claude Jones) for the keys. She departs Boston along U.S. 50 and Route 238 to Hill House. We hear Nell thinking and she reveals she will never return to live with her sister. In fact, most of what we learn of Eleanor is hearing her thoughts.Eleanor arrives at Hill House. The property is surrounded by a stone wall and the entrance by a tall, iron spiked, gate. She honks the car horn, and Mr. Dudley (Valentine Dyall), the cranky caretaker, finally deigns to respond. "What do you want?" he asks. Eleanor explains that she is expected. After an impertinent exchange with Eleanor, Dudley finally opens the gate and allows her to enter the property. Eleanor is the first to arrive and drives up to the house. Along the way she stops to look at it. It is a huge, stone mansion with lots of detail on the façade and steep, pitched roofs. Her first reaction is that the house is vile and it is staring at her. She carries her suitcase to the front door and is greeted by Mrs. Dudley (Rosalie Crutchley). Mrs. Dudley reluctantly allows Eleanor to come inside, but does not utter a word to her.The inside of the house is dark and over-decorated, and Eleanor is escorted to her room. Mrs. Dudley explains the house rules about meals, and that she won't stay in the house after dark. Eleanor checks out the bathroom and hears the next guest arrive. Theodora (Claire Bloom) introduces herself. Eleanor explains they share a bathroom. Mrs. Dudley repeats her meal and departure rules by rote, but Theo and Nell ignore her. Theodora is a bit strange to Eleanor (Theo clearly flirts with Eleanor throughout the film) Theodora's sexual orientation is only hinted at, and we later learn she has the gift of ESP. Theo and Nell explore the house, but they get lost. Both women feel a chill, and Nell observes, "The house, it's alive." Theo seems to feel that the house wants Nell.Dr. Markway appears and explains he left the door opened, but it closed itself. Markway gives the women a tour of part of the house, starting with the main purple parlor, which they will use as an operations center. He explains that all the doors were set slightly off-center, so they close themselves. Despite studying plans to the house, even Markway gets lost on his way to the dining room. They hear a noise, but it turns out to be Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn) mixing a pitcher of martinis as he enters the dining room. Luke serves each person a martini. They sit down for dinner and discuss their duties and responsibilities. Markway explains that Theo was accepted because of her remarkable power of ESP and Eleanor had a poltergeist experience as a child, "showers of stone fell on your house for three days when you were 10 years old." Luke is a non-believer. His interest is to financially exploit Hill House, after he inherits it, of course.That evening, in the parlor, Markway works on his notes while Eleanor sits quietly on the couch. Theo and Luke play gin rummy at the game table. Theo's ability to see cards allows her to win five games in a row, much to Luke annoyance. She demands he pay her the $12 he owes, but he refuses because she cheated. The four decide to turn in for the night and continue the tour the next morning. Markway gives them papers and asks that they complete them with their observations each night.Sometime during the night, Eleanor wakes, and still in a near dream state, thinks she hears her mother knocking on the wall. Theo hears it from the next room also and calls to Nell. The two women are frightened and both hear the pounding noise. It comes and goes, but louder each time. They finally hear a woman shrieking and laughing that fades away. When Nell opens the door she sees Luke and Markway in the hall outside. The men explain they were chasing a dog and followed it outside, but they did not hear the loud noises the women heard. Markway concludes that something is trying to separate the men and women.The next morning, Markway and Nell join for breakfast. Nell is starting to develop romantic feelings for John Markway, unaware that he is married. She tells him that she spent eleven years taking care of her invalid mother. Nell also voices her fear that she will be turned out of Hill House with no where to go. Markway tells Nell how he came to do psychic research, and that his family disapproves. Theo joins the pair and warns the doctor, "If anyone gets hurt, it's going to be your fault, Markway." Markway explains that no one has ever been physically hurt by a ghost. Luke enters and directs his companions to something he saw in the hall. Someone or something has handwritten a message in chalk on the wall. It says, "Help Eleanor Come Home." Eleanor reacts strongly. She first accuses Theo of playing a cruel joke. The two women bicker and Markway postpones the tour and tells Theo to take Eleanor to her room.The tour starts with the greenhouse. A large stone sculpture sits in the center of the room. It is supposed to be St. Francis curing the lepers, but Luke thinks its a family portrait of Hugh Crain and his wives and daughter. Suddenly, the door slams open and a gust of wind moves the plants. They approach the library, but Nell refuses to enter. The smell reminds her of her mother's sick room. Prominent in the room is a very tall, wrought iron, spiral staircase. Markway points out that the balcony high above is where the companion to Abigail Crain hanged herself. Luke climbs up a few feet on the staircase, but jumps back to the ground when it starts to sway and shake.Eleanor ventures out to the verandah and nearly falls over the balcony as she looks up to the tower above the library. Markway threatens to send her home, but Nell begs to stay. Markway suggests Theo and Nell share a bedroom... "like sisters". That evening, the two women discuss their lives and plans for the future. Nell makes up a story about having an apartment of her own. Just when Theo is about to make a move onto Nell, Markway calls them and Luke into the hallway outside the Nursery. He has discovered a cold spot. He invites all to experience the phenomenon. He gleefully explains, "A cold spot, a genuine cold spot. I guarantee it won't register on any thermometer." Luke dismisses it as just a draft, but Markway says it is the heart of Hill House: The Nursery.In the middle of the night, Nell awakens. She hears a little girl laughing. She asks Theo to hold her hand, as their two beds are almost touching. The laughter continues and Nell complains, "Theo, you're breaking my hand." The laughs turn to wimpering and Nell complains that something is hurting a child and she won't allow that to happen. She yells, "Stop It!" Theo turns on the light and we see Nell is on a day bed about twenty feet from the bed Theo occupies. Nell stares at her hand and asks, "Whose hand was I holding?"The next morning, Markway is in the music room and checks his watch and makes a note about the harp playing itself. Nell enters the room and asks about how it could play itself. Markway explains that it may be preternatural: Something we don't have any natural explanation for right now, but probably will have some day. Nell voices her fear that it is all in her imagination and concludes she may be going insane. She is haunted by the circumstances of her mother's death and that she may somehow be responsible. They both hear the harp play a note and Markway again checks his watch and makes a note in his paperwork.That evening, Luke finds a disturbing book that Hugh Crain made for his daughter, Abigail. Nell and Theo bicker and Markway notes that everyone's nerves are on edge. Theo continues to flirt as well as needle Nell, this time about a budding romance she fantasizes about with John Markway. Nell runs away and Theo catches up to her, and tells Nell that is he is making a fool of herself in thinking that Dr. Markway will ever get involved with her. Nell accuses Theo of being an "unnatural thing" as well as a "nature's mistake."At that moment, a car horn honks and a taxi pulls up in front of the house. Grace Markway (Lois Maxwell), John's wife, arrives. She informs her husband, "A reporter's been telephoning all day. He's on your track. He's heard about you renting this place." Grace begs her husband to abandon the house and his research. When John refuses, Grace pays the driver, grabs her suitcase and announces she is staying at Hill House, "to join the ghost hunt." When Eleanor casually mentions the nursery as a place to stay, Grace quickly accepts the challenge, "Thank you, my dear. The nursery it is." Markway and Nell try to dissuade her, but Grace responds, "You insult my intelligence. You don't think I'd believe anything you ghost hunters might tell me." Luke notices the door to the nursery is open for the first time. Grace decides to spend the night in the room, despite everyone's warning not to. Markway insists he and the three researchers spend the night downstairs in the parlor.Later that night, Nell and Theo sleep together on the sofa by the fireplace as Markway sleeps in a chair. Luke finishes his tour upstairs and enters the parlor. He heads for a bottle on the mantle. Suddenly, the parlor door slams shut by itself and the others wake with a start. They hear a deep rhythmic banging outside the door. Markway is concerned about his wife upstairs. Next a very loud banging comes from just outside the door. The unseen phantom presses against the parlor door as it bows inward and out like breathing, creaking and crunching against the hinges. The sound moves to overhead towards the nursery. Markway is desperate to check on his wife.Unseen, Nell runs from the parlor, through the music room, and upstairs directly to the nursery room. The doors are open, but Grace Markway is nowhere to be seen. Her bed shows signs of being used. Markway and the others arrive and start the search. Nell wanders away. She finds herself in the greenhouse. Descending into her own little world, Nell dances out onto the verandah. When she hears the others calling to her, Nell runs into the Library. She is drawn to the spiral staircase and the balcony at the top. Before she reaches the top, the rickety staircase begins its swaying, the lateral support bolts pulling away from the wall. Markway calls to her, begging her to carefully walk back down. She ignores him and stands on the balcony. Markway carefully climbs the stairs and joins Nell on the iron balcony platform. Before they walk back down, Nell sees Grace Markway peer at her through a trap door in the ceiling.A little later, Markway is furious and now insists Eleanor leave the house for her own safety. Luke brings her car around and Theo packs her bag. Nell tries to talk them out of her dismissal, but the three insist she leave. They escort Eleanor out to her car. Luke gets back out of Nell's car to retrieve the gate key from Markway. She drives off without Luke. Before she reaches the gate she is distracted by the white-robed figure of Grace Markway and crashes into a tree.The three find Eleanor dead in the half overturned car. She crashed into the same tree that killed the first Mrs. Crain. Grace wanders over to the accident scene. She explains to her husband, "I didn't want any of this to happen. You must believe me, John." She explains that she woke and was frightened. She got lost looking for her husband and ended up in the attic. While Theo blames Grace for Eleanor's accident, Luke takes a different view. "Eleanor did it to herself. It looked to me, anyway, like she deliberately aimed the car at this tree." Markway blames the house. Luke stares at the house and remarks, "It ought to be burned down and the ground sowed with salt."We close with an evening shot of Hill House with Eleanor, now a ghost, narrating from beyond the grave about Hill House and that "we who walk here... walk alone." The end title comes up as well as the final title card 'The Haunting' followed by eerie piano music. | The Haunting | b04477e8-f332-f3f1-4e27-51b6d9f0612c | Where is Nell dragged to? | [
"Nell is dragged to Hell",
"Heaven,",
"into the iron door that leads to hell"
] | false |
/m/03srb9 | The film opens with narration over a silhouette of Hill House at night. The narrator, Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) tells us, "An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House. Whatever walked there walked alone." Title and credits follow, then narration continues, "Scandal, murder, insanity, suicide: The history of Hill House was ideal. It had everything I wanted..." The house was built in New England by a man named Hugh Crain for his wife and young daughter. A horse and carriage accident took the life of the first Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Pamela Buckley) before she even saw the house. Hugh Crain (an uncredited Howard Lang) and young daughter, Abigail (an uncredited Janet Mansell) said a few words over the body, but Hugh was left an embittered man. Crain married again, and the second Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Freda Knorr) also died, falling down the main staircase. Hugh Crain left Abigail with a nurse (an uncredited Susan Richards) and went to England where he died in a drowning accident. Abigail kept the same nursery room her entire life. By the time she was eighty (an uncredited Amy Dalby) she was a bedridden invalid. Her nurse-companion (an uncredited Rosemary Dorken) was a local girl and, it is with this young companion the evil reputation of Hill House really begins. The old lady died while calling for help. The companion was trysting on the verandah with a farm hand. The companion inherited Hill House and occupied it for many years, but eventually hanged herself. The house then passed to a distant relative, named Mrs. Sanderson (Fay Compton).Markway visits Mrs. Sanderson where he convinces her to let him use the house for psychic research. He explains, "I shall occupy the house with a group of carefully selected assistants...I must have specially qualified help to take notes and document any evidence of the supernatural I may find." Eldridge Harper (Ronald Adam), Mrs. Sanderson's lawyer, voices his concern about publicity seekers and the propriety of having women in the house. Harper suggests to Mrs. Sanderson that her nephew, Luke, joins the doctor at Hill House, as he expects to inherit the property. Mrs. Sanderson asks point blank, "Exactly what do you and your assistants expect to find at Hill House?" Markway replies, "Maybe only a few loose floorboards, and maybe, I only say maybe, the key to another world."Dr. Markway, taking a leave of absence from his university professorship, finalizes his list of assistants. Only two end up accepting, Eleanor Lance and Theodora (no last name).Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris) is living with her sister. She is nearly broke and weary after looking after her invalid mother non-stop for eleven years. Mother is now dead, and she fights with her sister over just about everything. She begs to use the car, which is after all, half hers. Her brother-in-law, Bud Fredericks (an uncredited Paul Maxwell) tries to act as mediator between Eleanor and his wife, Carrie (Diane Clare). He is sympathetic to Eleanor's plight, but their daughter, Dora (an uncredited Verina Greenlaw) takes her cues from her mother, and taunts her Aunt Eleanor. On the vacation plan, Bud sides with Eleanor, "I think you should have a vacation, Nell." Carrie objects, but Eleanor is not to be deterred and she shows her family how she reacts when pushed to her breaking point. She is normally quiet and meek, but when pushed is loud and assertive.Nell decides to take the car and confronts the garage attendant (an uncredited Claude Jones) for the keys. She departs Boston along U.S. 50 and Route 238 to Hill House. We hear Nell thinking and she reveals she will never return to live with her sister. In fact, most of what we learn of Eleanor is hearing her thoughts.Eleanor arrives at Hill House. The property is surrounded by a stone wall and the entrance by a tall, iron spiked, gate. She honks the car horn, and Mr. Dudley (Valentine Dyall), the cranky caretaker, finally deigns to respond. "What do you want?" he asks. Eleanor explains that she is expected. After an impertinent exchange with Eleanor, Dudley finally opens the gate and allows her to enter the property. Eleanor is the first to arrive and drives up to the house. Along the way she stops to look at it. It is a huge, stone mansion with lots of detail on the façade and steep, pitched roofs. Her first reaction is that the house is vile and it is staring at her. She carries her suitcase to the front door and is greeted by Mrs. Dudley (Rosalie Crutchley). Mrs. Dudley reluctantly allows Eleanor to come inside, but does not utter a word to her.The inside of the house is dark and over-decorated, and Eleanor is escorted to her room. Mrs. Dudley explains the house rules about meals, and that she won't stay in the house after dark. Eleanor checks out the bathroom and hears the next guest arrive. Theodora (Claire Bloom) introduces herself. Eleanor explains they share a bathroom. Mrs. Dudley repeats her meal and departure rules by rote, but Theo and Nell ignore her. Theodora is a bit strange to Eleanor (Theo clearly flirts with Eleanor throughout the film) Theodora's sexual orientation is only hinted at, and we later learn she has the gift of ESP. Theo and Nell explore the house, but they get lost. Both women feel a chill, and Nell observes, "The house, it's alive." Theo seems to feel that the house wants Nell.Dr. Markway appears and explains he left the door opened, but it closed itself. Markway gives the women a tour of part of the house, starting with the main purple parlor, which they will use as an operations center. He explains that all the doors were set slightly off-center, so they close themselves. Despite studying plans to the house, even Markway gets lost on his way to the dining room. They hear a noise, but it turns out to be Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn) mixing a pitcher of martinis as he enters the dining room. Luke serves each person a martini. They sit down for dinner and discuss their duties and responsibilities. Markway explains that Theo was accepted because of her remarkable power of ESP and Eleanor had a poltergeist experience as a child, "showers of stone fell on your house for three days when you were 10 years old." Luke is a non-believer. His interest is to financially exploit Hill House, after he inherits it, of course.That evening, in the parlor, Markway works on his notes while Eleanor sits quietly on the couch. Theo and Luke play gin rummy at the game table. Theo's ability to see cards allows her to win five games in a row, much to Luke annoyance. She demands he pay her the $12 he owes, but he refuses because she cheated. The four decide to turn in for the night and continue the tour the next morning. Markway gives them papers and asks that they complete them with their observations each night.Sometime during the night, Eleanor wakes, and still in a near dream state, thinks she hears her mother knocking on the wall. Theo hears it from the next room also and calls to Nell. The two women are frightened and both hear the pounding noise. It comes and goes, but louder each time. They finally hear a woman shrieking and laughing that fades away. When Nell opens the door she sees Luke and Markway in the hall outside. The men explain they were chasing a dog and followed it outside, but they did not hear the loud noises the women heard. Markway concludes that something is trying to separate the men and women.The next morning, Markway and Nell join for breakfast. Nell is starting to develop romantic feelings for John Markway, unaware that he is married. She tells him that she spent eleven years taking care of her invalid mother. Nell also voices her fear that she will be turned out of Hill House with no where to go. Markway tells Nell how he came to do psychic research, and that his family disapproves. Theo joins the pair and warns the doctor, "If anyone gets hurt, it's going to be your fault, Markway." Markway explains that no one has ever been physically hurt by a ghost. Luke enters and directs his companions to something he saw in the hall. Someone or something has handwritten a message in chalk on the wall. It says, "Help Eleanor Come Home." Eleanor reacts strongly. She first accuses Theo of playing a cruel joke. The two women bicker and Markway postpones the tour and tells Theo to take Eleanor to her room.The tour starts with the greenhouse. A large stone sculpture sits in the center of the room. It is supposed to be St. Francis curing the lepers, but Luke thinks its a family portrait of Hugh Crain and his wives and daughter. Suddenly, the door slams open and a gust of wind moves the plants. They approach the library, but Nell refuses to enter. The smell reminds her of her mother's sick room. Prominent in the room is a very tall, wrought iron, spiral staircase. Markway points out that the balcony high above is where the companion to Abigail Crain hanged herself. Luke climbs up a few feet on the staircase, but jumps back to the ground when it starts to sway and shake.Eleanor ventures out to the verandah and nearly falls over the balcony as she looks up to the tower above the library. Markway threatens to send her home, but Nell begs to stay. Markway suggests Theo and Nell share a bedroom... "like sisters". That evening, the two women discuss their lives and plans for the future. Nell makes up a story about having an apartment of her own. Just when Theo is about to make a move onto Nell, Markway calls them and Luke into the hallway outside the Nursery. He has discovered a cold spot. He invites all to experience the phenomenon. He gleefully explains, "A cold spot, a genuine cold spot. I guarantee it won't register on any thermometer." Luke dismisses it as just a draft, but Markway says it is the heart of Hill House: The Nursery.In the middle of the night, Nell awakens. She hears a little girl laughing. She asks Theo to hold her hand, as their two beds are almost touching. The laughter continues and Nell complains, "Theo, you're breaking my hand." The laughs turn to wimpering and Nell complains that something is hurting a child and she won't allow that to happen. She yells, "Stop It!" Theo turns on the light and we see Nell is on a day bed about twenty feet from the bed Theo occupies. Nell stares at her hand and asks, "Whose hand was I holding?"The next morning, Markway is in the music room and checks his watch and makes a note about the harp playing itself. Nell enters the room and asks about how it could play itself. Markway explains that it may be preternatural: Something we don't have any natural explanation for right now, but probably will have some day. Nell voices her fear that it is all in her imagination and concludes she may be going insane. She is haunted by the circumstances of her mother's death and that she may somehow be responsible. They both hear the harp play a note and Markway again checks his watch and makes a note in his paperwork.That evening, Luke finds a disturbing book that Hugh Crain made for his daughter, Abigail. Nell and Theo bicker and Markway notes that everyone's nerves are on edge. Theo continues to flirt as well as needle Nell, this time about a budding romance she fantasizes about with John Markway. Nell runs away and Theo catches up to her, and tells Nell that is he is making a fool of herself in thinking that Dr. Markway will ever get involved with her. Nell accuses Theo of being an "unnatural thing" as well as a "nature's mistake."At that moment, a car horn honks and a taxi pulls up in front of the house. Grace Markway (Lois Maxwell), John's wife, arrives. She informs her husband, "A reporter's been telephoning all day. He's on your track. He's heard about you renting this place." Grace begs her husband to abandon the house and his research. When John refuses, Grace pays the driver, grabs her suitcase and announces she is staying at Hill House, "to join the ghost hunt." When Eleanor casually mentions the nursery as a place to stay, Grace quickly accepts the challenge, "Thank you, my dear. The nursery it is." Markway and Nell try to dissuade her, but Grace responds, "You insult my intelligence. You don't think I'd believe anything you ghost hunters might tell me." Luke notices the door to the nursery is open for the first time. Grace decides to spend the night in the room, despite everyone's warning not to. Markway insists he and the three researchers spend the night downstairs in the parlor.Later that night, Nell and Theo sleep together on the sofa by the fireplace as Markway sleeps in a chair. Luke finishes his tour upstairs and enters the parlor. He heads for a bottle on the mantle. Suddenly, the parlor door slams shut by itself and the others wake with a start. They hear a deep rhythmic banging outside the door. Markway is concerned about his wife upstairs. Next a very loud banging comes from just outside the door. The unseen phantom presses against the parlor door as it bows inward and out like breathing, creaking and crunching against the hinges. The sound moves to overhead towards the nursery. Markway is desperate to check on his wife.Unseen, Nell runs from the parlor, through the music room, and upstairs directly to the nursery room. The doors are open, but Grace Markway is nowhere to be seen. Her bed shows signs of being used. Markway and the others arrive and start the search. Nell wanders away. She finds herself in the greenhouse. Descending into her own little world, Nell dances out onto the verandah. When she hears the others calling to her, Nell runs into the Library. She is drawn to the spiral staircase and the balcony at the top. Before she reaches the top, the rickety staircase begins its swaying, the lateral support bolts pulling away from the wall. Markway calls to her, begging her to carefully walk back down. She ignores him and stands on the balcony. Markway carefully climbs the stairs and joins Nell on the iron balcony platform. Before they walk back down, Nell sees Grace Markway peer at her through a trap door in the ceiling.A little later, Markway is furious and now insists Eleanor leave the house for her own safety. Luke brings her car around and Theo packs her bag. Nell tries to talk them out of her dismissal, but the three insist she leave. They escort Eleanor out to her car. Luke gets back out of Nell's car to retrieve the gate key from Markway. She drives off without Luke. Before she reaches the gate she is distracted by the white-robed figure of Grace Markway and crashes into a tree.The three find Eleanor dead in the half overturned car. She crashed into the same tree that killed the first Mrs. Crain. Grace wanders over to the accident scene. She explains to her husband, "I didn't want any of this to happen. You must believe me, John." She explains that she woke and was frightened. She got lost looking for her husband and ended up in the attic. While Theo blames Grace for Eleanor's accident, Luke takes a different view. "Eleanor did it to herself. It looked to me, anyway, like she deliberately aimed the car at this tree." Markway blames the house. Luke stares at the house and remarks, "It ought to be burned down and the ground sowed with salt."We close with an evening shot of Hill House with Eleanor, now a ghost, narrating from beyond the grave about Hill House and that "we who walk here... walk alone." The end title comes up as well as the final title card 'The Haunting' followed by eerie piano music. | The Haunting | 862f5d63-7dfd-f9c5-83a2-a964ccc0ff0f | What does Nell learn that Crain did to the children that are haunting the house? | [
"He kidnapped, slaughtered, and then burned them in the fireplace.",
"Took them to work in the mines and never let me them go",
"Crain kidnapped the children"
] | false |
/m/03srb9 | The film opens with narration over a silhouette of Hill House at night. The narrator, Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) tells us, "An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House. Whatever walked there walked alone." Title and credits follow, then narration continues, "Scandal, murder, insanity, suicide: The history of Hill House was ideal. It had everything I wanted..." The house was built in New England by a man named Hugh Crain for his wife and young daughter. A horse and carriage accident took the life of the first Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Pamela Buckley) before she even saw the house. Hugh Crain (an uncredited Howard Lang) and young daughter, Abigail (an uncredited Janet Mansell) said a few words over the body, but Hugh was left an embittered man. Crain married again, and the second Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Freda Knorr) also died, falling down the main staircase. Hugh Crain left Abigail with a nurse (an uncredited Susan Richards) and went to England where he died in a drowning accident. Abigail kept the same nursery room her entire life. By the time she was eighty (an uncredited Amy Dalby) she was a bedridden invalid. Her nurse-companion (an uncredited Rosemary Dorken) was a local girl and, it is with this young companion the evil reputation of Hill House really begins. The old lady died while calling for help. The companion was trysting on the verandah with a farm hand. The companion inherited Hill House and occupied it for many years, but eventually hanged herself. The house then passed to a distant relative, named Mrs. Sanderson (Fay Compton).Markway visits Mrs. Sanderson where he convinces her to let him use the house for psychic research. He explains, "I shall occupy the house with a group of carefully selected assistants...I must have specially qualified help to take notes and document any evidence of the supernatural I may find." Eldridge Harper (Ronald Adam), Mrs. Sanderson's lawyer, voices his concern about publicity seekers and the propriety of having women in the house. Harper suggests to Mrs. Sanderson that her nephew, Luke, joins the doctor at Hill House, as he expects to inherit the property. Mrs. Sanderson asks point blank, "Exactly what do you and your assistants expect to find at Hill House?" Markway replies, "Maybe only a few loose floorboards, and maybe, I only say maybe, the key to another world."Dr. Markway, taking a leave of absence from his university professorship, finalizes his list of assistants. Only two end up accepting, Eleanor Lance and Theodora (no last name).Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris) is living with her sister. She is nearly broke and weary after looking after her invalid mother non-stop for eleven years. Mother is now dead, and she fights with her sister over just about everything. She begs to use the car, which is after all, half hers. Her brother-in-law, Bud Fredericks (an uncredited Paul Maxwell) tries to act as mediator between Eleanor and his wife, Carrie (Diane Clare). He is sympathetic to Eleanor's plight, but their daughter, Dora (an uncredited Verina Greenlaw) takes her cues from her mother, and taunts her Aunt Eleanor. On the vacation plan, Bud sides with Eleanor, "I think you should have a vacation, Nell." Carrie objects, but Eleanor is not to be deterred and she shows her family how she reacts when pushed to her breaking point. She is normally quiet and meek, but when pushed is loud and assertive.Nell decides to take the car and confronts the garage attendant (an uncredited Claude Jones) for the keys. She departs Boston along U.S. 50 and Route 238 to Hill House. We hear Nell thinking and she reveals she will never return to live with her sister. In fact, most of what we learn of Eleanor is hearing her thoughts.Eleanor arrives at Hill House. The property is surrounded by a stone wall and the entrance by a tall, iron spiked, gate. She honks the car horn, and Mr. Dudley (Valentine Dyall), the cranky caretaker, finally deigns to respond. "What do you want?" he asks. Eleanor explains that she is expected. After an impertinent exchange with Eleanor, Dudley finally opens the gate and allows her to enter the property. Eleanor is the first to arrive and drives up to the house. Along the way she stops to look at it. It is a huge, stone mansion with lots of detail on the façade and steep, pitched roofs. Her first reaction is that the house is vile and it is staring at her. She carries her suitcase to the front door and is greeted by Mrs. Dudley (Rosalie Crutchley). Mrs. Dudley reluctantly allows Eleanor to come inside, but does not utter a word to her.The inside of the house is dark and over-decorated, and Eleanor is escorted to her room. Mrs. Dudley explains the house rules about meals, and that she won't stay in the house after dark. Eleanor checks out the bathroom and hears the next guest arrive. Theodora (Claire Bloom) introduces herself. Eleanor explains they share a bathroom. Mrs. Dudley repeats her meal and departure rules by rote, but Theo and Nell ignore her. Theodora is a bit strange to Eleanor (Theo clearly flirts with Eleanor throughout the film) Theodora's sexual orientation is only hinted at, and we later learn she has the gift of ESP. Theo and Nell explore the house, but they get lost. Both women feel a chill, and Nell observes, "The house, it's alive." Theo seems to feel that the house wants Nell.Dr. Markway appears and explains he left the door opened, but it closed itself. Markway gives the women a tour of part of the house, starting with the main purple parlor, which they will use as an operations center. He explains that all the doors were set slightly off-center, so they close themselves. Despite studying plans to the house, even Markway gets lost on his way to the dining room. They hear a noise, but it turns out to be Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn) mixing a pitcher of martinis as he enters the dining room. Luke serves each person a martini. They sit down for dinner and discuss their duties and responsibilities. Markway explains that Theo was accepted because of her remarkable power of ESP and Eleanor had a poltergeist experience as a child, "showers of stone fell on your house for three days when you were 10 years old." Luke is a non-believer. His interest is to financially exploit Hill House, after he inherits it, of course.That evening, in the parlor, Markway works on his notes while Eleanor sits quietly on the couch. Theo and Luke play gin rummy at the game table. Theo's ability to see cards allows her to win five games in a row, much to Luke annoyance. She demands he pay her the $12 he owes, but he refuses because she cheated. The four decide to turn in for the night and continue the tour the next morning. Markway gives them papers and asks that they complete them with their observations each night.Sometime during the night, Eleanor wakes, and still in a near dream state, thinks she hears her mother knocking on the wall. Theo hears it from the next room also and calls to Nell. The two women are frightened and both hear the pounding noise. It comes and goes, but louder each time. They finally hear a woman shrieking and laughing that fades away. When Nell opens the door she sees Luke and Markway in the hall outside. The men explain they were chasing a dog and followed it outside, but they did not hear the loud noises the women heard. Markway concludes that something is trying to separate the men and women.The next morning, Markway and Nell join for breakfast. Nell is starting to develop romantic feelings for John Markway, unaware that he is married. She tells him that she spent eleven years taking care of her invalid mother. Nell also voices her fear that she will be turned out of Hill House with no where to go. Markway tells Nell how he came to do psychic research, and that his family disapproves. Theo joins the pair and warns the doctor, "If anyone gets hurt, it's going to be your fault, Markway." Markway explains that no one has ever been physically hurt by a ghost. Luke enters and directs his companions to something he saw in the hall. Someone or something has handwritten a message in chalk on the wall. It says, "Help Eleanor Come Home." Eleanor reacts strongly. She first accuses Theo of playing a cruel joke. The two women bicker and Markway postpones the tour and tells Theo to take Eleanor to her room.The tour starts with the greenhouse. A large stone sculpture sits in the center of the room. It is supposed to be St. Francis curing the lepers, but Luke thinks its a family portrait of Hugh Crain and his wives and daughter. Suddenly, the door slams open and a gust of wind moves the plants. They approach the library, but Nell refuses to enter. The smell reminds her of her mother's sick room. Prominent in the room is a very tall, wrought iron, spiral staircase. Markway points out that the balcony high above is where the companion to Abigail Crain hanged herself. Luke climbs up a few feet on the staircase, but jumps back to the ground when it starts to sway and shake.Eleanor ventures out to the verandah and nearly falls over the balcony as she looks up to the tower above the library. Markway threatens to send her home, but Nell begs to stay. Markway suggests Theo and Nell share a bedroom... "like sisters". That evening, the two women discuss their lives and plans for the future. Nell makes up a story about having an apartment of her own. Just when Theo is about to make a move onto Nell, Markway calls them and Luke into the hallway outside the Nursery. He has discovered a cold spot. He invites all to experience the phenomenon. He gleefully explains, "A cold spot, a genuine cold spot. I guarantee it won't register on any thermometer." Luke dismisses it as just a draft, but Markway says it is the heart of Hill House: The Nursery.In the middle of the night, Nell awakens. She hears a little girl laughing. She asks Theo to hold her hand, as their two beds are almost touching. The laughter continues and Nell complains, "Theo, you're breaking my hand." The laughs turn to wimpering and Nell complains that something is hurting a child and she won't allow that to happen. She yells, "Stop It!" Theo turns on the light and we see Nell is on a day bed about twenty feet from the bed Theo occupies. Nell stares at her hand and asks, "Whose hand was I holding?"The next morning, Markway is in the music room and checks his watch and makes a note about the harp playing itself. Nell enters the room and asks about how it could play itself. Markway explains that it may be preternatural: Something we don't have any natural explanation for right now, but probably will have some day. Nell voices her fear that it is all in her imagination and concludes she may be going insane. She is haunted by the circumstances of her mother's death and that she may somehow be responsible. They both hear the harp play a note and Markway again checks his watch and makes a note in his paperwork.That evening, Luke finds a disturbing book that Hugh Crain made for his daughter, Abigail. Nell and Theo bicker and Markway notes that everyone's nerves are on edge. Theo continues to flirt as well as needle Nell, this time about a budding romance she fantasizes about with John Markway. Nell runs away and Theo catches up to her, and tells Nell that is he is making a fool of herself in thinking that Dr. Markway will ever get involved with her. Nell accuses Theo of being an "unnatural thing" as well as a "nature's mistake."At that moment, a car horn honks and a taxi pulls up in front of the house. Grace Markway (Lois Maxwell), John's wife, arrives. She informs her husband, "A reporter's been telephoning all day. He's on your track. He's heard about you renting this place." Grace begs her husband to abandon the house and his research. When John refuses, Grace pays the driver, grabs her suitcase and announces she is staying at Hill House, "to join the ghost hunt." When Eleanor casually mentions the nursery as a place to stay, Grace quickly accepts the challenge, "Thank you, my dear. The nursery it is." Markway and Nell try to dissuade her, but Grace responds, "You insult my intelligence. You don't think I'd believe anything you ghost hunters might tell me." Luke notices the door to the nursery is open for the first time. Grace decides to spend the night in the room, despite everyone's warning not to. Markway insists he and the three researchers spend the night downstairs in the parlor.Later that night, Nell and Theo sleep together on the sofa by the fireplace as Markway sleeps in a chair. Luke finishes his tour upstairs and enters the parlor. He heads for a bottle on the mantle. Suddenly, the parlor door slams shut by itself and the others wake with a start. They hear a deep rhythmic banging outside the door. Markway is concerned about his wife upstairs. Next a very loud banging comes from just outside the door. The unseen phantom presses against the parlor door as it bows inward and out like breathing, creaking and crunching against the hinges. The sound moves to overhead towards the nursery. Markway is desperate to check on his wife.Unseen, Nell runs from the parlor, through the music room, and upstairs directly to the nursery room. The doors are open, but Grace Markway is nowhere to be seen. Her bed shows signs of being used. Markway and the others arrive and start the search. Nell wanders away. She finds herself in the greenhouse. Descending into her own little world, Nell dances out onto the verandah. When she hears the others calling to her, Nell runs into the Library. She is drawn to the spiral staircase and the balcony at the top. Before she reaches the top, the rickety staircase begins its swaying, the lateral support bolts pulling away from the wall. Markway calls to her, begging her to carefully walk back down. She ignores him and stands on the balcony. Markway carefully climbs the stairs and joins Nell on the iron balcony platform. Before they walk back down, Nell sees Grace Markway peer at her through a trap door in the ceiling.A little later, Markway is furious and now insists Eleanor leave the house for her own safety. Luke brings her car around and Theo packs her bag. Nell tries to talk them out of her dismissal, but the three insist she leave. They escort Eleanor out to her car. Luke gets back out of Nell's car to retrieve the gate key from Markway. She drives off without Luke. Before she reaches the gate she is distracted by the white-robed figure of Grace Markway and crashes into a tree.The three find Eleanor dead in the half overturned car. She crashed into the same tree that killed the first Mrs. Crain. Grace wanders over to the accident scene. She explains to her husband, "I didn't want any of this to happen. You must believe me, John." She explains that she woke and was frightened. She got lost looking for her husband and ended up in the attic. While Theo blames Grace for Eleanor's accident, Luke takes a different view. "Eleanor did it to herself. It looked to me, anyway, like she deliberately aimed the car at this tree." Markway blames the house. Luke stares at the house and remarks, "It ought to be burned down and the ground sowed with salt."We close with an evening shot of Hill House with Eleanor, now a ghost, narrating from beyond the grave about Hill House and that "we who walk here... walk alone." The end title comes up as well as the final title card 'The Haunting' followed by eerie piano music. | The Haunting | a655ef5e-d0ec-c8e7-b6b6-fbe32599214d | What was the name of Crain's second wife from who Nell is descended? | [
"Carolyn.",
"Carolyn"
] | false |
/m/03srb9 | The film opens with narration over a silhouette of Hill House at night. The narrator, Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) tells us, "An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House. Whatever walked there walked alone." Title and credits follow, then narration continues, "Scandal, murder, insanity, suicide: The history of Hill House was ideal. It had everything I wanted..." The house was built in New England by a man named Hugh Crain for his wife and young daughter. A horse and carriage accident took the life of the first Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Pamela Buckley) before she even saw the house. Hugh Crain (an uncredited Howard Lang) and young daughter, Abigail (an uncredited Janet Mansell) said a few words over the body, but Hugh was left an embittered man. Crain married again, and the second Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Freda Knorr) also died, falling down the main staircase. Hugh Crain left Abigail with a nurse (an uncredited Susan Richards) and went to England where he died in a drowning accident. Abigail kept the same nursery room her entire life. By the time she was eighty (an uncredited Amy Dalby) she was a bedridden invalid. Her nurse-companion (an uncredited Rosemary Dorken) was a local girl and, it is with this young companion the evil reputation of Hill House really begins. The old lady died while calling for help. The companion was trysting on the verandah with a farm hand. The companion inherited Hill House and occupied it for many years, but eventually hanged herself. The house then passed to a distant relative, named Mrs. Sanderson (Fay Compton).Markway visits Mrs. Sanderson where he convinces her to let him use the house for psychic research. He explains, "I shall occupy the house with a group of carefully selected assistants...I must have specially qualified help to take notes and document any evidence of the supernatural I may find." Eldridge Harper (Ronald Adam), Mrs. Sanderson's lawyer, voices his concern about publicity seekers and the propriety of having women in the house. Harper suggests to Mrs. Sanderson that her nephew, Luke, joins the doctor at Hill House, as he expects to inherit the property. Mrs. Sanderson asks point blank, "Exactly what do you and your assistants expect to find at Hill House?" Markway replies, "Maybe only a few loose floorboards, and maybe, I only say maybe, the key to another world."Dr. Markway, taking a leave of absence from his university professorship, finalizes his list of assistants. Only two end up accepting, Eleanor Lance and Theodora (no last name).Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris) is living with her sister. She is nearly broke and weary after looking after her invalid mother non-stop for eleven years. Mother is now dead, and she fights with her sister over just about everything. She begs to use the car, which is after all, half hers. Her brother-in-law, Bud Fredericks (an uncredited Paul Maxwell) tries to act as mediator between Eleanor and his wife, Carrie (Diane Clare). He is sympathetic to Eleanor's plight, but their daughter, Dora (an uncredited Verina Greenlaw) takes her cues from her mother, and taunts her Aunt Eleanor. On the vacation plan, Bud sides with Eleanor, "I think you should have a vacation, Nell." Carrie objects, but Eleanor is not to be deterred and she shows her family how she reacts when pushed to her breaking point. She is normally quiet and meek, but when pushed is loud and assertive.Nell decides to take the car and confronts the garage attendant (an uncredited Claude Jones) for the keys. She departs Boston along U.S. 50 and Route 238 to Hill House. We hear Nell thinking and she reveals she will never return to live with her sister. In fact, most of what we learn of Eleanor is hearing her thoughts.Eleanor arrives at Hill House. The property is surrounded by a stone wall and the entrance by a tall, iron spiked, gate. She honks the car horn, and Mr. Dudley (Valentine Dyall), the cranky caretaker, finally deigns to respond. "What do you want?" he asks. Eleanor explains that she is expected. After an impertinent exchange with Eleanor, Dudley finally opens the gate and allows her to enter the property. Eleanor is the first to arrive and drives up to the house. Along the way she stops to look at it. It is a huge, stone mansion with lots of detail on the façade and steep, pitched roofs. Her first reaction is that the house is vile and it is staring at her. She carries her suitcase to the front door and is greeted by Mrs. Dudley (Rosalie Crutchley). Mrs. Dudley reluctantly allows Eleanor to come inside, but does not utter a word to her.The inside of the house is dark and over-decorated, and Eleanor is escorted to her room. Mrs. Dudley explains the house rules about meals, and that she won't stay in the house after dark. Eleanor checks out the bathroom and hears the next guest arrive. Theodora (Claire Bloom) introduces herself. Eleanor explains they share a bathroom. Mrs. Dudley repeats her meal and departure rules by rote, but Theo and Nell ignore her. Theodora is a bit strange to Eleanor (Theo clearly flirts with Eleanor throughout the film) Theodora's sexual orientation is only hinted at, and we later learn she has the gift of ESP. Theo and Nell explore the house, but they get lost. Both women feel a chill, and Nell observes, "The house, it's alive." Theo seems to feel that the house wants Nell.Dr. Markway appears and explains he left the door opened, but it closed itself. Markway gives the women a tour of part of the house, starting with the main purple parlor, which they will use as an operations center. He explains that all the doors were set slightly off-center, so they close themselves. Despite studying plans to the house, even Markway gets lost on his way to the dining room. They hear a noise, but it turns out to be Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn) mixing a pitcher of martinis as he enters the dining room. Luke serves each person a martini. They sit down for dinner and discuss their duties and responsibilities. Markway explains that Theo was accepted because of her remarkable power of ESP and Eleanor had a poltergeist experience as a child, "showers of stone fell on your house for three days when you were 10 years old." Luke is a non-believer. His interest is to financially exploit Hill House, after he inherits it, of course.That evening, in the parlor, Markway works on his notes while Eleanor sits quietly on the couch. Theo and Luke play gin rummy at the game table. Theo's ability to see cards allows her to win five games in a row, much to Luke annoyance. She demands he pay her the $12 he owes, but he refuses because she cheated. The four decide to turn in for the night and continue the tour the next morning. Markway gives them papers and asks that they complete them with their observations each night.Sometime during the night, Eleanor wakes, and still in a near dream state, thinks she hears her mother knocking on the wall. Theo hears it from the next room also and calls to Nell. The two women are frightened and both hear the pounding noise. It comes and goes, but louder each time. They finally hear a woman shrieking and laughing that fades away. When Nell opens the door she sees Luke and Markway in the hall outside. The men explain they were chasing a dog and followed it outside, but they did not hear the loud noises the women heard. Markway concludes that something is trying to separate the men and women.The next morning, Markway and Nell join for breakfast. Nell is starting to develop romantic feelings for John Markway, unaware that he is married. She tells him that she spent eleven years taking care of her invalid mother. Nell also voices her fear that she will be turned out of Hill House with no where to go. Markway tells Nell how he came to do psychic research, and that his family disapproves. Theo joins the pair and warns the doctor, "If anyone gets hurt, it's going to be your fault, Markway." Markway explains that no one has ever been physically hurt by a ghost. Luke enters and directs his companions to something he saw in the hall. Someone or something has handwritten a message in chalk on the wall. It says, "Help Eleanor Come Home." Eleanor reacts strongly. She first accuses Theo of playing a cruel joke. The two women bicker and Markway postpones the tour and tells Theo to take Eleanor to her room.The tour starts with the greenhouse. A large stone sculpture sits in the center of the room. It is supposed to be St. Francis curing the lepers, but Luke thinks its a family portrait of Hugh Crain and his wives and daughter. Suddenly, the door slams open and a gust of wind moves the plants. They approach the library, but Nell refuses to enter. The smell reminds her of her mother's sick room. Prominent in the room is a very tall, wrought iron, spiral staircase. Markway points out that the balcony high above is where the companion to Abigail Crain hanged herself. Luke climbs up a few feet on the staircase, but jumps back to the ground when it starts to sway and shake.Eleanor ventures out to the verandah and nearly falls over the balcony as she looks up to the tower above the library. Markway threatens to send her home, but Nell begs to stay. Markway suggests Theo and Nell share a bedroom... "like sisters". That evening, the two women discuss their lives and plans for the future. Nell makes up a story about having an apartment of her own. Just when Theo is about to make a move onto Nell, Markway calls them and Luke into the hallway outside the Nursery. He has discovered a cold spot. He invites all to experience the phenomenon. He gleefully explains, "A cold spot, a genuine cold spot. I guarantee it won't register on any thermometer." Luke dismisses it as just a draft, but Markway says it is the heart of Hill House: The Nursery.In the middle of the night, Nell awakens. She hears a little girl laughing. She asks Theo to hold her hand, as their two beds are almost touching. The laughter continues and Nell complains, "Theo, you're breaking my hand." The laughs turn to wimpering and Nell complains that something is hurting a child and she won't allow that to happen. She yells, "Stop It!" Theo turns on the light and we see Nell is on a day bed about twenty feet from the bed Theo occupies. Nell stares at her hand and asks, "Whose hand was I holding?"The next morning, Markway is in the music room and checks his watch and makes a note about the harp playing itself. Nell enters the room and asks about how it could play itself. Markway explains that it may be preternatural: Something we don't have any natural explanation for right now, but probably will have some day. Nell voices her fear that it is all in her imagination and concludes she may be going insane. She is haunted by the circumstances of her mother's death and that she may somehow be responsible. They both hear the harp play a note and Markway again checks his watch and makes a note in his paperwork.That evening, Luke finds a disturbing book that Hugh Crain made for his daughter, Abigail. Nell and Theo bicker and Markway notes that everyone's nerves are on edge. Theo continues to flirt as well as needle Nell, this time about a budding romance she fantasizes about with John Markway. Nell runs away and Theo catches up to her, and tells Nell that is he is making a fool of herself in thinking that Dr. Markway will ever get involved with her. Nell accuses Theo of being an "unnatural thing" as well as a "nature's mistake."At that moment, a car horn honks and a taxi pulls up in front of the house. Grace Markway (Lois Maxwell), John's wife, arrives. She informs her husband, "A reporter's been telephoning all day. He's on your track. He's heard about you renting this place." Grace begs her husband to abandon the house and his research. When John refuses, Grace pays the driver, grabs her suitcase and announces she is staying at Hill House, "to join the ghost hunt." When Eleanor casually mentions the nursery as a place to stay, Grace quickly accepts the challenge, "Thank you, my dear. The nursery it is." Markway and Nell try to dissuade her, but Grace responds, "You insult my intelligence. You don't think I'd believe anything you ghost hunters might tell me." Luke notices the door to the nursery is open for the first time. Grace decides to spend the night in the room, despite everyone's warning not to. Markway insists he and the three researchers spend the night downstairs in the parlor.Later that night, Nell and Theo sleep together on the sofa by the fireplace as Markway sleeps in a chair. Luke finishes his tour upstairs and enters the parlor. He heads for a bottle on the mantle. Suddenly, the parlor door slams shut by itself and the others wake with a start. They hear a deep rhythmic banging outside the door. Markway is concerned about his wife upstairs. Next a very loud banging comes from just outside the door. The unseen phantom presses against the parlor door as it bows inward and out like breathing, creaking and crunching against the hinges. The sound moves to overhead towards the nursery. Markway is desperate to check on his wife.Unseen, Nell runs from the parlor, through the music room, and upstairs directly to the nursery room. The doors are open, but Grace Markway is nowhere to be seen. Her bed shows signs of being used. Markway and the others arrive and start the search. Nell wanders away. She finds herself in the greenhouse. Descending into her own little world, Nell dances out onto the verandah. When she hears the others calling to her, Nell runs into the Library. She is drawn to the spiral staircase and the balcony at the top. Before she reaches the top, the rickety staircase begins its swaying, the lateral support bolts pulling away from the wall. Markway calls to her, begging her to carefully walk back down. She ignores him and stands on the balcony. Markway carefully climbs the stairs and joins Nell on the iron balcony platform. Before they walk back down, Nell sees Grace Markway peer at her through a trap door in the ceiling.A little later, Markway is furious and now insists Eleanor leave the house for her own safety. Luke brings her car around and Theo packs her bag. Nell tries to talk them out of her dismissal, but the three insist she leave. They escort Eleanor out to her car. Luke gets back out of Nell's car to retrieve the gate key from Markway. She drives off without Luke. Before she reaches the gate she is distracted by the white-robed figure of Grace Markway and crashes into a tree.The three find Eleanor dead in the half overturned car. She crashed into the same tree that killed the first Mrs. Crain. Grace wanders over to the accident scene. She explains to her husband, "I didn't want any of this to happen. You must believe me, John." She explains that she woke and was frightened. She got lost looking for her husband and ended up in the attic. While Theo blames Grace for Eleanor's accident, Luke takes a different view. "Eleanor did it to herself. It looked to me, anyway, like she deliberately aimed the car at this tree." Markway blames the house. Luke stares at the house and remarks, "It ought to be burned down and the ground sowed with salt."We close with an evening shot of Hill House with Eleanor, now a ghost, narrating from beyond the grave about Hill House and that "we who walk here... walk alone." The end title comes up as well as the final title card 'The Haunting' followed by eerie piano music. | The Haunting | de892ed3-e119-bb07-2d5a-eab1c7294eee | What stops Eleonor from sleeping? | [
"The sounds of a man speaking indistinctly and a woman laughing",
"Sounds of a man speaking indistinctly and a woman laughing"
] | false |
/m/03srb9 | The film opens with narration over a silhouette of Hill House at night. The narrator, Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) tells us, "An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House. Whatever walked there walked alone." Title and credits follow, then narration continues, "Scandal, murder, insanity, suicide: The history of Hill House was ideal. It had everything I wanted..." The house was built in New England by a man named Hugh Crain for his wife and young daughter. A horse and carriage accident took the life of the first Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Pamela Buckley) before she even saw the house. Hugh Crain (an uncredited Howard Lang) and young daughter, Abigail (an uncredited Janet Mansell) said a few words over the body, but Hugh was left an embittered man. Crain married again, and the second Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Freda Knorr) also died, falling down the main staircase. Hugh Crain left Abigail with a nurse (an uncredited Susan Richards) and went to England where he died in a drowning accident. Abigail kept the same nursery room her entire life. By the time she was eighty (an uncredited Amy Dalby) she was a bedridden invalid. Her nurse-companion (an uncredited Rosemary Dorken) was a local girl and, it is with this young companion the evil reputation of Hill House really begins. The old lady died while calling for help. The companion was trysting on the verandah with a farm hand. The companion inherited Hill House and occupied it for many years, but eventually hanged herself. The house then passed to a distant relative, named Mrs. Sanderson (Fay Compton).Markway visits Mrs. Sanderson where he convinces her to let him use the house for psychic research. He explains, "I shall occupy the house with a group of carefully selected assistants...I must have specially qualified help to take notes and document any evidence of the supernatural I may find." Eldridge Harper (Ronald Adam), Mrs. Sanderson's lawyer, voices his concern about publicity seekers and the propriety of having women in the house. Harper suggests to Mrs. Sanderson that her nephew, Luke, joins the doctor at Hill House, as he expects to inherit the property. Mrs. Sanderson asks point blank, "Exactly what do you and your assistants expect to find at Hill House?" Markway replies, "Maybe only a few loose floorboards, and maybe, I only say maybe, the key to another world."Dr. Markway, taking a leave of absence from his university professorship, finalizes his list of assistants. Only two end up accepting, Eleanor Lance and Theodora (no last name).Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris) is living with her sister. She is nearly broke and weary after looking after her invalid mother non-stop for eleven years. Mother is now dead, and she fights with her sister over just about everything. She begs to use the car, which is after all, half hers. Her brother-in-law, Bud Fredericks (an uncredited Paul Maxwell) tries to act as mediator between Eleanor and his wife, Carrie (Diane Clare). He is sympathetic to Eleanor's plight, but their daughter, Dora (an uncredited Verina Greenlaw) takes her cues from her mother, and taunts her Aunt Eleanor. On the vacation plan, Bud sides with Eleanor, "I think you should have a vacation, Nell." Carrie objects, but Eleanor is not to be deterred and she shows her family how she reacts when pushed to her breaking point. She is normally quiet and meek, but when pushed is loud and assertive.Nell decides to take the car and confronts the garage attendant (an uncredited Claude Jones) for the keys. She departs Boston along U.S. 50 and Route 238 to Hill House. We hear Nell thinking and she reveals she will never return to live with her sister. In fact, most of what we learn of Eleanor is hearing her thoughts.Eleanor arrives at Hill House. The property is surrounded by a stone wall and the entrance by a tall, iron spiked, gate. She honks the car horn, and Mr. Dudley (Valentine Dyall), the cranky caretaker, finally deigns to respond. "What do you want?" he asks. Eleanor explains that she is expected. After an impertinent exchange with Eleanor, Dudley finally opens the gate and allows her to enter the property. Eleanor is the first to arrive and drives up to the house. Along the way she stops to look at it. It is a huge, stone mansion with lots of detail on the façade and steep, pitched roofs. Her first reaction is that the house is vile and it is staring at her. She carries her suitcase to the front door and is greeted by Mrs. Dudley (Rosalie Crutchley). Mrs. Dudley reluctantly allows Eleanor to come inside, but does not utter a word to her.The inside of the house is dark and over-decorated, and Eleanor is escorted to her room. Mrs. Dudley explains the house rules about meals, and that she won't stay in the house after dark. Eleanor checks out the bathroom and hears the next guest arrive. Theodora (Claire Bloom) introduces herself. Eleanor explains they share a bathroom. Mrs. Dudley repeats her meal and departure rules by rote, but Theo and Nell ignore her. Theodora is a bit strange to Eleanor (Theo clearly flirts with Eleanor throughout the film) Theodora's sexual orientation is only hinted at, and we later learn she has the gift of ESP. Theo and Nell explore the house, but they get lost. Both women feel a chill, and Nell observes, "The house, it's alive." Theo seems to feel that the house wants Nell.Dr. Markway appears and explains he left the door opened, but it closed itself. Markway gives the women a tour of part of the house, starting with the main purple parlor, which they will use as an operations center. He explains that all the doors were set slightly off-center, so they close themselves. Despite studying plans to the house, even Markway gets lost on his way to the dining room. They hear a noise, but it turns out to be Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn) mixing a pitcher of martinis as he enters the dining room. Luke serves each person a martini. They sit down for dinner and discuss their duties and responsibilities. Markway explains that Theo was accepted because of her remarkable power of ESP and Eleanor had a poltergeist experience as a child, "showers of stone fell on your house for three days when you were 10 years old." Luke is a non-believer. His interest is to financially exploit Hill House, after he inherits it, of course.That evening, in the parlor, Markway works on his notes while Eleanor sits quietly on the couch. Theo and Luke play gin rummy at the game table. Theo's ability to see cards allows her to win five games in a row, much to Luke annoyance. She demands he pay her the $12 he owes, but he refuses because she cheated. The four decide to turn in for the night and continue the tour the next morning. Markway gives them papers and asks that they complete them with their observations each night.Sometime during the night, Eleanor wakes, and still in a near dream state, thinks she hears her mother knocking on the wall. Theo hears it from the next room also and calls to Nell. The two women are frightened and both hear the pounding noise. It comes and goes, but louder each time. They finally hear a woman shrieking and laughing that fades away. When Nell opens the door she sees Luke and Markway in the hall outside. The men explain they were chasing a dog and followed it outside, but they did not hear the loud noises the women heard. Markway concludes that something is trying to separate the men and women.The next morning, Markway and Nell join for breakfast. Nell is starting to develop romantic feelings for John Markway, unaware that he is married. She tells him that she spent eleven years taking care of her invalid mother. Nell also voices her fear that she will be turned out of Hill House with no where to go. Markway tells Nell how he came to do psychic research, and that his family disapproves. Theo joins the pair and warns the doctor, "If anyone gets hurt, it's going to be your fault, Markway." Markway explains that no one has ever been physically hurt by a ghost. Luke enters and directs his companions to something he saw in the hall. Someone or something has handwritten a message in chalk on the wall. It says, "Help Eleanor Come Home." Eleanor reacts strongly. She first accuses Theo of playing a cruel joke. The two women bicker and Markway postpones the tour and tells Theo to take Eleanor to her room.The tour starts with the greenhouse. A large stone sculpture sits in the center of the room. It is supposed to be St. Francis curing the lepers, but Luke thinks its a family portrait of Hugh Crain and his wives and daughter. Suddenly, the door slams open and a gust of wind moves the plants. They approach the library, but Nell refuses to enter. The smell reminds her of her mother's sick room. Prominent in the room is a very tall, wrought iron, spiral staircase. Markway points out that the balcony high above is where the companion to Abigail Crain hanged herself. Luke climbs up a few feet on the staircase, but jumps back to the ground when it starts to sway and shake.Eleanor ventures out to the verandah and nearly falls over the balcony as she looks up to the tower above the library. Markway threatens to send her home, but Nell begs to stay. Markway suggests Theo and Nell share a bedroom... "like sisters". That evening, the two women discuss their lives and plans for the future. Nell makes up a story about having an apartment of her own. Just when Theo is about to make a move onto Nell, Markway calls them and Luke into the hallway outside the Nursery. He has discovered a cold spot. He invites all to experience the phenomenon. He gleefully explains, "A cold spot, a genuine cold spot. I guarantee it won't register on any thermometer." Luke dismisses it as just a draft, but Markway says it is the heart of Hill House: The Nursery.In the middle of the night, Nell awakens. She hears a little girl laughing. She asks Theo to hold her hand, as their two beds are almost touching. The laughter continues and Nell complains, "Theo, you're breaking my hand." The laughs turn to wimpering and Nell complains that something is hurting a child and she won't allow that to happen. She yells, "Stop It!" Theo turns on the light and we see Nell is on a day bed about twenty feet from the bed Theo occupies. Nell stares at her hand and asks, "Whose hand was I holding?"The next morning, Markway is in the music room and checks his watch and makes a note about the harp playing itself. Nell enters the room and asks about how it could play itself. Markway explains that it may be preternatural: Something we don't have any natural explanation for right now, but probably will have some day. Nell voices her fear that it is all in her imagination and concludes she may be going insane. She is haunted by the circumstances of her mother's death and that she may somehow be responsible. They both hear the harp play a note and Markway again checks his watch and makes a note in his paperwork.That evening, Luke finds a disturbing book that Hugh Crain made for his daughter, Abigail. Nell and Theo bicker and Markway notes that everyone's nerves are on edge. Theo continues to flirt as well as needle Nell, this time about a budding romance she fantasizes about with John Markway. Nell runs away and Theo catches up to her, and tells Nell that is he is making a fool of herself in thinking that Dr. Markway will ever get involved with her. Nell accuses Theo of being an "unnatural thing" as well as a "nature's mistake."At that moment, a car horn honks and a taxi pulls up in front of the house. Grace Markway (Lois Maxwell), John's wife, arrives. She informs her husband, "A reporter's been telephoning all day. He's on your track. He's heard about you renting this place." Grace begs her husband to abandon the house and his research. When John refuses, Grace pays the driver, grabs her suitcase and announces she is staying at Hill House, "to join the ghost hunt." When Eleanor casually mentions the nursery as a place to stay, Grace quickly accepts the challenge, "Thank you, my dear. The nursery it is." Markway and Nell try to dissuade her, but Grace responds, "You insult my intelligence. You don't think I'd believe anything you ghost hunters might tell me." Luke notices the door to the nursery is open for the first time. Grace decides to spend the night in the room, despite everyone's warning not to. Markway insists he and the three researchers spend the night downstairs in the parlor.Later that night, Nell and Theo sleep together on the sofa by the fireplace as Markway sleeps in a chair. Luke finishes his tour upstairs and enters the parlor. He heads for a bottle on the mantle. Suddenly, the parlor door slams shut by itself and the others wake with a start. They hear a deep rhythmic banging outside the door. Markway is concerned about his wife upstairs. Next a very loud banging comes from just outside the door. The unseen phantom presses against the parlor door as it bows inward and out like breathing, creaking and crunching against the hinges. The sound moves to overhead towards the nursery. Markway is desperate to check on his wife.Unseen, Nell runs from the parlor, through the music room, and upstairs directly to the nursery room. The doors are open, but Grace Markway is nowhere to be seen. Her bed shows signs of being used. Markway and the others arrive and start the search. Nell wanders away. She finds herself in the greenhouse. Descending into her own little world, Nell dances out onto the verandah. When she hears the others calling to her, Nell runs into the Library. She is drawn to the spiral staircase and the balcony at the top. Before she reaches the top, the rickety staircase begins its swaying, the lateral support bolts pulling away from the wall. Markway calls to her, begging her to carefully walk back down. She ignores him and stands on the balcony. Markway carefully climbs the stairs and joins Nell on the iron balcony platform. Before they walk back down, Nell sees Grace Markway peer at her through a trap door in the ceiling.A little later, Markway is furious and now insists Eleanor leave the house for her own safety. Luke brings her car around and Theo packs her bag. Nell tries to talk them out of her dismissal, but the three insist she leave. They escort Eleanor out to her car. Luke gets back out of Nell's car to retrieve the gate key from Markway. She drives off without Luke. Before she reaches the gate she is distracted by the white-robed figure of Grace Markway and crashes into a tree.The three find Eleanor dead in the half overturned car. She crashed into the same tree that killed the first Mrs. Crain. Grace wanders over to the accident scene. She explains to her husband, "I didn't want any of this to happen. You must believe me, John." She explains that she woke and was frightened. She got lost looking for her husband and ended up in the attic. While Theo blames Grace for Eleanor's accident, Luke takes a different view. "Eleanor did it to herself. It looked to me, anyway, like she deliberately aimed the car at this tree." Markway blames the house. Luke stares at the house and remarks, "It ought to be burned down and the ground sowed with salt."We close with an evening shot of Hill House with Eleanor, now a ghost, narrating from beyond the grave about Hill House and that "we who walk here... walk alone." The end title comes up as well as the final title card 'The Haunting' followed by eerie piano music. | The Haunting | c93a366e-a66b-8875-fb8e-1dfa499a027b | What is the name of the caretakers? | [
"Mr and Mrs Dudley",
"Mr. and Mrs. Dudley",
"Mr and Mrs. Dudley"
] | false |
/m/03srb9 | The film opens with narration over a silhouette of Hill House at night. The narrator, Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) tells us, "An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House. Whatever walked there walked alone." Title and credits follow, then narration continues, "Scandal, murder, insanity, suicide: The history of Hill House was ideal. It had everything I wanted..." The house was built in New England by a man named Hugh Crain for his wife and young daughter. A horse and carriage accident took the life of the first Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Pamela Buckley) before she even saw the house. Hugh Crain (an uncredited Howard Lang) and young daughter, Abigail (an uncredited Janet Mansell) said a few words over the body, but Hugh was left an embittered man. Crain married again, and the second Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Freda Knorr) also died, falling down the main staircase. Hugh Crain left Abigail with a nurse (an uncredited Susan Richards) and went to England where he died in a drowning accident. Abigail kept the same nursery room her entire life. By the time she was eighty (an uncredited Amy Dalby) she was a bedridden invalid. Her nurse-companion (an uncredited Rosemary Dorken) was a local girl and, it is with this young companion the evil reputation of Hill House really begins. The old lady died while calling for help. The companion was trysting on the verandah with a farm hand. The companion inherited Hill House and occupied it for many years, but eventually hanged herself. The house then passed to a distant relative, named Mrs. Sanderson (Fay Compton).Markway visits Mrs. Sanderson where he convinces her to let him use the house for psychic research. He explains, "I shall occupy the house with a group of carefully selected assistants...I must have specially qualified help to take notes and document any evidence of the supernatural I may find." Eldridge Harper (Ronald Adam), Mrs. Sanderson's lawyer, voices his concern about publicity seekers and the propriety of having women in the house. Harper suggests to Mrs. Sanderson that her nephew, Luke, joins the doctor at Hill House, as he expects to inherit the property. Mrs. Sanderson asks point blank, "Exactly what do you and your assistants expect to find at Hill House?" Markway replies, "Maybe only a few loose floorboards, and maybe, I only say maybe, the key to another world."Dr. Markway, taking a leave of absence from his university professorship, finalizes his list of assistants. Only two end up accepting, Eleanor Lance and Theodora (no last name).Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris) is living with her sister. She is nearly broke and weary after looking after her invalid mother non-stop for eleven years. Mother is now dead, and she fights with her sister over just about everything. She begs to use the car, which is after all, half hers. Her brother-in-law, Bud Fredericks (an uncredited Paul Maxwell) tries to act as mediator between Eleanor and his wife, Carrie (Diane Clare). He is sympathetic to Eleanor's plight, but their daughter, Dora (an uncredited Verina Greenlaw) takes her cues from her mother, and taunts her Aunt Eleanor. On the vacation plan, Bud sides with Eleanor, "I think you should have a vacation, Nell." Carrie objects, but Eleanor is not to be deterred and she shows her family how she reacts when pushed to her breaking point. She is normally quiet and meek, but when pushed is loud and assertive.Nell decides to take the car and confronts the garage attendant (an uncredited Claude Jones) for the keys. She departs Boston along U.S. 50 and Route 238 to Hill House. We hear Nell thinking and she reveals she will never return to live with her sister. In fact, most of what we learn of Eleanor is hearing her thoughts.Eleanor arrives at Hill House. The property is surrounded by a stone wall and the entrance by a tall, iron spiked, gate. She honks the car horn, and Mr. Dudley (Valentine Dyall), the cranky caretaker, finally deigns to respond. "What do you want?" he asks. Eleanor explains that she is expected. After an impertinent exchange with Eleanor, Dudley finally opens the gate and allows her to enter the property. Eleanor is the first to arrive and drives up to the house. Along the way she stops to look at it. It is a huge, stone mansion with lots of detail on the façade and steep, pitched roofs. Her first reaction is that the house is vile and it is staring at her. She carries her suitcase to the front door and is greeted by Mrs. Dudley (Rosalie Crutchley). Mrs. Dudley reluctantly allows Eleanor to come inside, but does not utter a word to her.The inside of the house is dark and over-decorated, and Eleanor is escorted to her room. Mrs. Dudley explains the house rules about meals, and that she won't stay in the house after dark. Eleanor checks out the bathroom and hears the next guest arrive. Theodora (Claire Bloom) introduces herself. Eleanor explains they share a bathroom. Mrs. Dudley repeats her meal and departure rules by rote, but Theo and Nell ignore her. Theodora is a bit strange to Eleanor (Theo clearly flirts with Eleanor throughout the film) Theodora's sexual orientation is only hinted at, and we later learn she has the gift of ESP. Theo and Nell explore the house, but they get lost. Both women feel a chill, and Nell observes, "The house, it's alive." Theo seems to feel that the house wants Nell.Dr. Markway appears and explains he left the door opened, but it closed itself. Markway gives the women a tour of part of the house, starting with the main purple parlor, which they will use as an operations center. He explains that all the doors were set slightly off-center, so they close themselves. Despite studying plans to the house, even Markway gets lost on his way to the dining room. They hear a noise, but it turns out to be Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn) mixing a pitcher of martinis as he enters the dining room. Luke serves each person a martini. They sit down for dinner and discuss their duties and responsibilities. Markway explains that Theo was accepted because of her remarkable power of ESP and Eleanor had a poltergeist experience as a child, "showers of stone fell on your house for three days when you were 10 years old." Luke is a non-believer. His interest is to financially exploit Hill House, after he inherits it, of course.That evening, in the parlor, Markway works on his notes while Eleanor sits quietly on the couch. Theo and Luke play gin rummy at the game table. Theo's ability to see cards allows her to win five games in a row, much to Luke annoyance. She demands he pay her the $12 he owes, but he refuses because she cheated. The four decide to turn in for the night and continue the tour the next morning. Markway gives them papers and asks that they complete them with their observations each night.Sometime during the night, Eleanor wakes, and still in a near dream state, thinks she hears her mother knocking on the wall. Theo hears it from the next room also and calls to Nell. The two women are frightened and both hear the pounding noise. It comes and goes, but louder each time. They finally hear a woman shrieking and laughing that fades away. When Nell opens the door she sees Luke and Markway in the hall outside. The men explain they were chasing a dog and followed it outside, but they did not hear the loud noises the women heard. Markway concludes that something is trying to separate the men and women.The next morning, Markway and Nell join for breakfast. Nell is starting to develop romantic feelings for John Markway, unaware that he is married. She tells him that she spent eleven years taking care of her invalid mother. Nell also voices her fear that she will be turned out of Hill House with no where to go. Markway tells Nell how he came to do psychic research, and that his family disapproves. Theo joins the pair and warns the doctor, "If anyone gets hurt, it's going to be your fault, Markway." Markway explains that no one has ever been physically hurt by a ghost. Luke enters and directs his companions to something he saw in the hall. Someone or something has handwritten a message in chalk on the wall. It says, "Help Eleanor Come Home." Eleanor reacts strongly. She first accuses Theo of playing a cruel joke. The two women bicker and Markway postpones the tour and tells Theo to take Eleanor to her room.The tour starts with the greenhouse. A large stone sculpture sits in the center of the room. It is supposed to be St. Francis curing the lepers, but Luke thinks its a family portrait of Hugh Crain and his wives and daughter. Suddenly, the door slams open and a gust of wind moves the plants. They approach the library, but Nell refuses to enter. The smell reminds her of her mother's sick room. Prominent in the room is a very tall, wrought iron, spiral staircase. Markway points out that the balcony high above is where the companion to Abigail Crain hanged herself. Luke climbs up a few feet on the staircase, but jumps back to the ground when it starts to sway and shake.Eleanor ventures out to the verandah and nearly falls over the balcony as she looks up to the tower above the library. Markway threatens to send her home, but Nell begs to stay. Markway suggests Theo and Nell share a bedroom... "like sisters". That evening, the two women discuss their lives and plans for the future. Nell makes up a story about having an apartment of her own. Just when Theo is about to make a move onto Nell, Markway calls them and Luke into the hallway outside the Nursery. He has discovered a cold spot. He invites all to experience the phenomenon. He gleefully explains, "A cold spot, a genuine cold spot. I guarantee it won't register on any thermometer." Luke dismisses it as just a draft, but Markway says it is the heart of Hill House: The Nursery.In the middle of the night, Nell awakens. She hears a little girl laughing. She asks Theo to hold her hand, as their two beds are almost touching. The laughter continues and Nell complains, "Theo, you're breaking my hand." The laughs turn to wimpering and Nell complains that something is hurting a child and she won't allow that to happen. She yells, "Stop It!" Theo turns on the light and we see Nell is on a day bed about twenty feet from the bed Theo occupies. Nell stares at her hand and asks, "Whose hand was I holding?"The next morning, Markway is in the music room and checks his watch and makes a note about the harp playing itself. Nell enters the room and asks about how it could play itself. Markway explains that it may be preternatural: Something we don't have any natural explanation for right now, but probably will have some day. Nell voices her fear that it is all in her imagination and concludes she may be going insane. She is haunted by the circumstances of her mother's death and that she may somehow be responsible. They both hear the harp play a note and Markway again checks his watch and makes a note in his paperwork.That evening, Luke finds a disturbing book that Hugh Crain made for his daughter, Abigail. Nell and Theo bicker and Markway notes that everyone's nerves are on edge. Theo continues to flirt as well as needle Nell, this time about a budding romance she fantasizes about with John Markway. Nell runs away and Theo catches up to her, and tells Nell that is he is making a fool of herself in thinking that Dr. Markway will ever get involved with her. Nell accuses Theo of being an "unnatural thing" as well as a "nature's mistake."At that moment, a car horn honks and a taxi pulls up in front of the house. Grace Markway (Lois Maxwell), John's wife, arrives. She informs her husband, "A reporter's been telephoning all day. He's on your track. He's heard about you renting this place." Grace begs her husband to abandon the house and his research. When John refuses, Grace pays the driver, grabs her suitcase and announces she is staying at Hill House, "to join the ghost hunt." When Eleanor casually mentions the nursery as a place to stay, Grace quickly accepts the challenge, "Thank you, my dear. The nursery it is." Markway and Nell try to dissuade her, but Grace responds, "You insult my intelligence. You don't think I'd believe anything you ghost hunters might tell me." Luke notices the door to the nursery is open for the first time. Grace decides to spend the night in the room, despite everyone's warning not to. Markway insists he and the three researchers spend the night downstairs in the parlor.Later that night, Nell and Theo sleep together on the sofa by the fireplace as Markway sleeps in a chair. Luke finishes his tour upstairs and enters the parlor. He heads for a bottle on the mantle. Suddenly, the parlor door slams shut by itself and the others wake with a start. They hear a deep rhythmic banging outside the door. Markway is concerned about his wife upstairs. Next a very loud banging comes from just outside the door. The unseen phantom presses against the parlor door as it bows inward and out like breathing, creaking and crunching against the hinges. The sound moves to overhead towards the nursery. Markway is desperate to check on his wife.Unseen, Nell runs from the parlor, through the music room, and upstairs directly to the nursery room. The doors are open, but Grace Markway is nowhere to be seen. Her bed shows signs of being used. Markway and the others arrive and start the search. Nell wanders away. She finds herself in the greenhouse. Descending into her own little world, Nell dances out onto the verandah. When she hears the others calling to her, Nell runs into the Library. She is drawn to the spiral staircase and the balcony at the top. Before she reaches the top, the rickety staircase begins its swaying, the lateral support bolts pulling away from the wall. Markway calls to her, begging her to carefully walk back down. She ignores him and stands on the balcony. Markway carefully climbs the stairs and joins Nell on the iron balcony platform. Before they walk back down, Nell sees Grace Markway peer at her through a trap door in the ceiling.A little later, Markway is furious and now insists Eleanor leave the house for her own safety. Luke brings her car around and Theo packs her bag. Nell tries to talk them out of her dismissal, but the three insist she leave. They escort Eleanor out to her car. Luke gets back out of Nell's car to retrieve the gate key from Markway. She drives off without Luke. Before she reaches the gate she is distracted by the white-robed figure of Grace Markway and crashes into a tree.The three find Eleanor dead in the half overturned car. She crashed into the same tree that killed the first Mrs. Crain. Grace wanders over to the accident scene. She explains to her husband, "I didn't want any of this to happen. You must believe me, John." She explains that she woke and was frightened. She got lost looking for her husband and ended up in the attic. While Theo blames Grace for Eleanor's accident, Luke takes a different view. "Eleanor did it to herself. It looked to me, anyway, like she deliberately aimed the car at this tree." Markway blames the house. Luke stares at the house and remarks, "It ought to be burned down and the ground sowed with salt."We close with an evening shot of Hill House with Eleanor, now a ghost, narrating from beyond the grave about Hill House and that "we who walk here... walk alone." The end title comes up as well as the final title card 'The Haunting' followed by eerie piano music. | The Haunting | 00732c45-c295-e517-a181-9e8ca3e92106 | What is the ghost's name? | [
"The ghost's name is Hugh Crain",
"Nell",
"Hugh Crain"
] | false |
/m/03srb9 | The film opens with narration over a silhouette of Hill House at night. The narrator, Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) tells us, "An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House. Whatever walked there walked alone." Title and credits follow, then narration continues, "Scandal, murder, insanity, suicide: The history of Hill House was ideal. It had everything I wanted..." The house was built in New England by a man named Hugh Crain for his wife and young daughter. A horse and carriage accident took the life of the first Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Pamela Buckley) before she even saw the house. Hugh Crain (an uncredited Howard Lang) and young daughter, Abigail (an uncredited Janet Mansell) said a few words over the body, but Hugh was left an embittered man. Crain married again, and the second Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Freda Knorr) also died, falling down the main staircase. Hugh Crain left Abigail with a nurse (an uncredited Susan Richards) and went to England where he died in a drowning accident. Abigail kept the same nursery room her entire life. By the time she was eighty (an uncredited Amy Dalby) she was a bedridden invalid. Her nurse-companion (an uncredited Rosemary Dorken) was a local girl and, it is with this young companion the evil reputation of Hill House really begins. The old lady died while calling for help. The companion was trysting on the verandah with a farm hand. The companion inherited Hill House and occupied it for many years, but eventually hanged herself. The house then passed to a distant relative, named Mrs. Sanderson (Fay Compton).Markway visits Mrs. Sanderson where he convinces her to let him use the house for psychic research. He explains, "I shall occupy the house with a group of carefully selected assistants...I must have specially qualified help to take notes and document any evidence of the supernatural I may find." Eldridge Harper (Ronald Adam), Mrs. Sanderson's lawyer, voices his concern about publicity seekers and the propriety of having women in the house. Harper suggests to Mrs. Sanderson that her nephew, Luke, joins the doctor at Hill House, as he expects to inherit the property. Mrs. Sanderson asks point blank, "Exactly what do you and your assistants expect to find at Hill House?" Markway replies, "Maybe only a few loose floorboards, and maybe, I only say maybe, the key to another world."Dr. Markway, taking a leave of absence from his university professorship, finalizes his list of assistants. Only two end up accepting, Eleanor Lance and Theodora (no last name).Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris) is living with her sister. She is nearly broke and weary after looking after her invalid mother non-stop for eleven years. Mother is now dead, and she fights with her sister over just about everything. She begs to use the car, which is after all, half hers. Her brother-in-law, Bud Fredericks (an uncredited Paul Maxwell) tries to act as mediator between Eleanor and his wife, Carrie (Diane Clare). He is sympathetic to Eleanor's plight, but their daughter, Dora (an uncredited Verina Greenlaw) takes her cues from her mother, and taunts her Aunt Eleanor. On the vacation plan, Bud sides with Eleanor, "I think you should have a vacation, Nell." Carrie objects, but Eleanor is not to be deterred and she shows her family how she reacts when pushed to her breaking point. She is normally quiet and meek, but when pushed is loud and assertive.Nell decides to take the car and confronts the garage attendant (an uncredited Claude Jones) for the keys. She departs Boston along U.S. 50 and Route 238 to Hill House. We hear Nell thinking and she reveals she will never return to live with her sister. In fact, most of what we learn of Eleanor is hearing her thoughts.Eleanor arrives at Hill House. The property is surrounded by a stone wall and the entrance by a tall, iron spiked, gate. She honks the car horn, and Mr. Dudley (Valentine Dyall), the cranky caretaker, finally deigns to respond. "What do you want?" he asks. Eleanor explains that she is expected. After an impertinent exchange with Eleanor, Dudley finally opens the gate and allows her to enter the property. Eleanor is the first to arrive and drives up to the house. Along the way she stops to look at it. It is a huge, stone mansion with lots of detail on the façade and steep, pitched roofs. Her first reaction is that the house is vile and it is staring at her. She carries her suitcase to the front door and is greeted by Mrs. Dudley (Rosalie Crutchley). Mrs. Dudley reluctantly allows Eleanor to come inside, but does not utter a word to her.The inside of the house is dark and over-decorated, and Eleanor is escorted to her room. Mrs. Dudley explains the house rules about meals, and that she won't stay in the house after dark. Eleanor checks out the bathroom and hears the next guest arrive. Theodora (Claire Bloom) introduces herself. Eleanor explains they share a bathroom. Mrs. Dudley repeats her meal and departure rules by rote, but Theo and Nell ignore her. Theodora is a bit strange to Eleanor (Theo clearly flirts with Eleanor throughout the film) Theodora's sexual orientation is only hinted at, and we later learn she has the gift of ESP. Theo and Nell explore the house, but they get lost. Both women feel a chill, and Nell observes, "The house, it's alive." Theo seems to feel that the house wants Nell.Dr. Markway appears and explains he left the door opened, but it closed itself. Markway gives the women a tour of part of the house, starting with the main purple parlor, which they will use as an operations center. He explains that all the doors were set slightly off-center, so they close themselves. Despite studying plans to the house, even Markway gets lost on his way to the dining room. They hear a noise, but it turns out to be Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn) mixing a pitcher of martinis as he enters the dining room. Luke serves each person a martini. They sit down for dinner and discuss their duties and responsibilities. Markway explains that Theo was accepted because of her remarkable power of ESP and Eleanor had a poltergeist experience as a child, "showers of stone fell on your house for three days when you were 10 years old." Luke is a non-believer. His interest is to financially exploit Hill House, after he inherits it, of course.That evening, in the parlor, Markway works on his notes while Eleanor sits quietly on the couch. Theo and Luke play gin rummy at the game table. Theo's ability to see cards allows her to win five games in a row, much to Luke annoyance. She demands he pay her the $12 he owes, but he refuses because she cheated. The four decide to turn in for the night and continue the tour the next morning. Markway gives them papers and asks that they complete them with their observations each night.Sometime during the night, Eleanor wakes, and still in a near dream state, thinks she hears her mother knocking on the wall. Theo hears it from the next room also and calls to Nell. The two women are frightened and both hear the pounding noise. It comes and goes, but louder each time. They finally hear a woman shrieking and laughing that fades away. When Nell opens the door she sees Luke and Markway in the hall outside. The men explain they were chasing a dog and followed it outside, but they did not hear the loud noises the women heard. Markway concludes that something is trying to separate the men and women.The next morning, Markway and Nell join for breakfast. Nell is starting to develop romantic feelings for John Markway, unaware that he is married. She tells him that she spent eleven years taking care of her invalid mother. Nell also voices her fear that she will be turned out of Hill House with no where to go. Markway tells Nell how he came to do psychic research, and that his family disapproves. Theo joins the pair and warns the doctor, "If anyone gets hurt, it's going to be your fault, Markway." Markway explains that no one has ever been physically hurt by a ghost. Luke enters and directs his companions to something he saw in the hall. Someone or something has handwritten a message in chalk on the wall. It says, "Help Eleanor Come Home." Eleanor reacts strongly. She first accuses Theo of playing a cruel joke. The two women bicker and Markway postpones the tour and tells Theo to take Eleanor to her room.The tour starts with the greenhouse. A large stone sculpture sits in the center of the room. It is supposed to be St. Francis curing the lepers, but Luke thinks its a family portrait of Hugh Crain and his wives and daughter. Suddenly, the door slams open and a gust of wind moves the plants. They approach the library, but Nell refuses to enter. The smell reminds her of her mother's sick room. Prominent in the room is a very tall, wrought iron, spiral staircase. Markway points out that the balcony high above is where the companion to Abigail Crain hanged herself. Luke climbs up a few feet on the staircase, but jumps back to the ground when it starts to sway and shake.Eleanor ventures out to the verandah and nearly falls over the balcony as she looks up to the tower above the library. Markway threatens to send her home, but Nell begs to stay. Markway suggests Theo and Nell share a bedroom... "like sisters". That evening, the two women discuss their lives and plans for the future. Nell makes up a story about having an apartment of her own. Just when Theo is about to make a move onto Nell, Markway calls them and Luke into the hallway outside the Nursery. He has discovered a cold spot. He invites all to experience the phenomenon. He gleefully explains, "A cold spot, a genuine cold spot. I guarantee it won't register on any thermometer." Luke dismisses it as just a draft, but Markway says it is the heart of Hill House: The Nursery.In the middle of the night, Nell awakens. She hears a little girl laughing. She asks Theo to hold her hand, as their two beds are almost touching. The laughter continues and Nell complains, "Theo, you're breaking my hand." The laughs turn to wimpering and Nell complains that something is hurting a child and she won't allow that to happen. She yells, "Stop It!" Theo turns on the light and we see Nell is on a day bed about twenty feet from the bed Theo occupies. Nell stares at her hand and asks, "Whose hand was I holding?"The next morning, Markway is in the music room and checks his watch and makes a note about the harp playing itself. Nell enters the room and asks about how it could play itself. Markway explains that it may be preternatural: Something we don't have any natural explanation for right now, but probably will have some day. Nell voices her fear that it is all in her imagination and concludes she may be going insane. She is haunted by the circumstances of her mother's death and that she may somehow be responsible. They both hear the harp play a note and Markway again checks his watch and makes a note in his paperwork.That evening, Luke finds a disturbing book that Hugh Crain made for his daughter, Abigail. Nell and Theo bicker and Markway notes that everyone's nerves are on edge. Theo continues to flirt as well as needle Nell, this time about a budding romance she fantasizes about with John Markway. Nell runs away and Theo catches up to her, and tells Nell that is he is making a fool of herself in thinking that Dr. Markway will ever get involved with her. Nell accuses Theo of being an "unnatural thing" as well as a "nature's mistake."At that moment, a car horn honks and a taxi pulls up in front of the house. Grace Markway (Lois Maxwell), John's wife, arrives. She informs her husband, "A reporter's been telephoning all day. He's on your track. He's heard about you renting this place." Grace begs her husband to abandon the house and his research. When John refuses, Grace pays the driver, grabs her suitcase and announces she is staying at Hill House, "to join the ghost hunt." When Eleanor casually mentions the nursery as a place to stay, Grace quickly accepts the challenge, "Thank you, my dear. The nursery it is." Markway and Nell try to dissuade her, but Grace responds, "You insult my intelligence. You don't think I'd believe anything you ghost hunters might tell me." Luke notices the door to the nursery is open for the first time. Grace decides to spend the night in the room, despite everyone's warning not to. Markway insists he and the three researchers spend the night downstairs in the parlor.Later that night, Nell and Theo sleep together on the sofa by the fireplace as Markway sleeps in a chair. Luke finishes his tour upstairs and enters the parlor. He heads for a bottle on the mantle. Suddenly, the parlor door slams shut by itself and the others wake with a start. They hear a deep rhythmic banging outside the door. Markway is concerned about his wife upstairs. Next a very loud banging comes from just outside the door. The unseen phantom presses against the parlor door as it bows inward and out like breathing, creaking and crunching against the hinges. The sound moves to overhead towards the nursery. Markway is desperate to check on his wife.Unseen, Nell runs from the parlor, through the music room, and upstairs directly to the nursery room. The doors are open, but Grace Markway is nowhere to be seen. Her bed shows signs of being used. Markway and the others arrive and start the search. Nell wanders away. She finds herself in the greenhouse. Descending into her own little world, Nell dances out onto the verandah. When she hears the others calling to her, Nell runs into the Library. She is drawn to the spiral staircase and the balcony at the top. Before she reaches the top, the rickety staircase begins its swaying, the lateral support bolts pulling away from the wall. Markway calls to her, begging her to carefully walk back down. She ignores him and stands on the balcony. Markway carefully climbs the stairs and joins Nell on the iron balcony platform. Before they walk back down, Nell sees Grace Markway peer at her through a trap door in the ceiling.A little later, Markway is furious and now insists Eleanor leave the house for her own safety. Luke brings her car around and Theo packs her bag. Nell tries to talk them out of her dismissal, but the three insist she leave. They escort Eleanor out to her car. Luke gets back out of Nell's car to retrieve the gate key from Markway. She drives off without Luke. Before she reaches the gate she is distracted by the white-robed figure of Grace Markway and crashes into a tree.The three find Eleanor dead in the half overturned car. She crashed into the same tree that killed the first Mrs. Crain. Grace wanders over to the accident scene. She explains to her husband, "I didn't want any of this to happen. You must believe me, John." She explains that she woke and was frightened. She got lost looking for her husband and ended up in the attic. While Theo blames Grace for Eleanor's accident, Luke takes a different view. "Eleanor did it to herself. It looked to me, anyway, like she deliberately aimed the car at this tree." Markway blames the house. Luke stares at the house and remarks, "It ought to be burned down and the ground sowed with salt."We close with an evening shot of Hill House with Eleanor, now a ghost, narrating from beyond the grave about Hill House and that "we who walk here... walk alone." The end title comes up as well as the final title card 'The Haunting' followed by eerie piano music. | The Haunting | 9c45681f-4ad2-d0f1-8ed0-41b7b9e188e4 | Who is the current owner of Hill House? | [
"Nell's sister"
] | false |
/m/03srb9 | The film opens with narration over a silhouette of Hill House at night. The narrator, Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) tells us, "An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House. Whatever walked there walked alone." Title and credits follow, then narration continues, "Scandal, murder, insanity, suicide: The history of Hill House was ideal. It had everything I wanted..." The house was built in New England by a man named Hugh Crain for his wife and young daughter. A horse and carriage accident took the life of the first Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Pamela Buckley) before she even saw the house. Hugh Crain (an uncredited Howard Lang) and young daughter, Abigail (an uncredited Janet Mansell) said a few words over the body, but Hugh was left an embittered man. Crain married again, and the second Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Freda Knorr) also died, falling down the main staircase. Hugh Crain left Abigail with a nurse (an uncredited Susan Richards) and went to England where he died in a drowning accident. Abigail kept the same nursery room her entire life. By the time she was eighty (an uncredited Amy Dalby) she was a bedridden invalid. Her nurse-companion (an uncredited Rosemary Dorken) was a local girl and, it is with this young companion the evil reputation of Hill House really begins. The old lady died while calling for help. The companion was trysting on the verandah with a farm hand. The companion inherited Hill House and occupied it for many years, but eventually hanged herself. The house then passed to a distant relative, named Mrs. Sanderson (Fay Compton).Markway visits Mrs. Sanderson where he convinces her to let him use the house for psychic research. He explains, "I shall occupy the house with a group of carefully selected assistants...I must have specially qualified help to take notes and document any evidence of the supernatural I may find." Eldridge Harper (Ronald Adam), Mrs. Sanderson's lawyer, voices his concern about publicity seekers and the propriety of having women in the house. Harper suggests to Mrs. Sanderson that her nephew, Luke, joins the doctor at Hill House, as he expects to inherit the property. Mrs. Sanderson asks point blank, "Exactly what do you and your assistants expect to find at Hill House?" Markway replies, "Maybe only a few loose floorboards, and maybe, I only say maybe, the key to another world."Dr. Markway, taking a leave of absence from his university professorship, finalizes his list of assistants. Only two end up accepting, Eleanor Lance and Theodora (no last name).Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris) is living with her sister. She is nearly broke and weary after looking after her invalid mother non-stop for eleven years. Mother is now dead, and she fights with her sister over just about everything. She begs to use the car, which is after all, half hers. Her brother-in-law, Bud Fredericks (an uncredited Paul Maxwell) tries to act as mediator between Eleanor and his wife, Carrie (Diane Clare). He is sympathetic to Eleanor's plight, but their daughter, Dora (an uncredited Verina Greenlaw) takes her cues from her mother, and taunts her Aunt Eleanor. On the vacation plan, Bud sides with Eleanor, "I think you should have a vacation, Nell." Carrie objects, but Eleanor is not to be deterred and she shows her family how she reacts when pushed to her breaking point. She is normally quiet and meek, but when pushed is loud and assertive.Nell decides to take the car and confronts the garage attendant (an uncredited Claude Jones) for the keys. She departs Boston along U.S. 50 and Route 238 to Hill House. We hear Nell thinking and she reveals she will never return to live with her sister. In fact, most of what we learn of Eleanor is hearing her thoughts.Eleanor arrives at Hill House. The property is surrounded by a stone wall and the entrance by a tall, iron spiked, gate. She honks the car horn, and Mr. Dudley (Valentine Dyall), the cranky caretaker, finally deigns to respond. "What do you want?" he asks. Eleanor explains that she is expected. After an impertinent exchange with Eleanor, Dudley finally opens the gate and allows her to enter the property. Eleanor is the first to arrive and drives up to the house. Along the way she stops to look at it. It is a huge, stone mansion with lots of detail on the façade and steep, pitched roofs. Her first reaction is that the house is vile and it is staring at her. She carries her suitcase to the front door and is greeted by Mrs. Dudley (Rosalie Crutchley). Mrs. Dudley reluctantly allows Eleanor to come inside, but does not utter a word to her.The inside of the house is dark and over-decorated, and Eleanor is escorted to her room. Mrs. Dudley explains the house rules about meals, and that she won't stay in the house after dark. Eleanor checks out the bathroom and hears the next guest arrive. Theodora (Claire Bloom) introduces herself. Eleanor explains they share a bathroom. Mrs. Dudley repeats her meal and departure rules by rote, but Theo and Nell ignore her. Theodora is a bit strange to Eleanor (Theo clearly flirts with Eleanor throughout the film) Theodora's sexual orientation is only hinted at, and we later learn she has the gift of ESP. Theo and Nell explore the house, but they get lost. Both women feel a chill, and Nell observes, "The house, it's alive." Theo seems to feel that the house wants Nell.Dr. Markway appears and explains he left the door opened, but it closed itself. Markway gives the women a tour of part of the house, starting with the main purple parlor, which they will use as an operations center. He explains that all the doors were set slightly off-center, so they close themselves. Despite studying plans to the house, even Markway gets lost on his way to the dining room. They hear a noise, but it turns out to be Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn) mixing a pitcher of martinis as he enters the dining room. Luke serves each person a martini. They sit down for dinner and discuss their duties and responsibilities. Markway explains that Theo was accepted because of her remarkable power of ESP and Eleanor had a poltergeist experience as a child, "showers of stone fell on your house for three days when you were 10 years old." Luke is a non-believer. His interest is to financially exploit Hill House, after he inherits it, of course.That evening, in the parlor, Markway works on his notes while Eleanor sits quietly on the couch. Theo and Luke play gin rummy at the game table. Theo's ability to see cards allows her to win five games in a row, much to Luke annoyance. She demands he pay her the $12 he owes, but he refuses because she cheated. The four decide to turn in for the night and continue the tour the next morning. Markway gives them papers and asks that they complete them with their observations each night.Sometime during the night, Eleanor wakes, and still in a near dream state, thinks she hears her mother knocking on the wall. Theo hears it from the next room also and calls to Nell. The two women are frightened and both hear the pounding noise. It comes and goes, but louder each time. They finally hear a woman shrieking and laughing that fades away. When Nell opens the door she sees Luke and Markway in the hall outside. The men explain they were chasing a dog and followed it outside, but they did not hear the loud noises the women heard. Markway concludes that something is trying to separate the men and women.The next morning, Markway and Nell join for breakfast. Nell is starting to develop romantic feelings for John Markway, unaware that he is married. She tells him that she spent eleven years taking care of her invalid mother. Nell also voices her fear that she will be turned out of Hill House with no where to go. Markway tells Nell how he came to do psychic research, and that his family disapproves. Theo joins the pair and warns the doctor, "If anyone gets hurt, it's going to be your fault, Markway." Markway explains that no one has ever been physically hurt by a ghost. Luke enters and directs his companions to something he saw in the hall. Someone or something has handwritten a message in chalk on the wall. It says, "Help Eleanor Come Home." Eleanor reacts strongly. She first accuses Theo of playing a cruel joke. The two women bicker and Markway postpones the tour and tells Theo to take Eleanor to her room.The tour starts with the greenhouse. A large stone sculpture sits in the center of the room. It is supposed to be St. Francis curing the lepers, but Luke thinks its a family portrait of Hugh Crain and his wives and daughter. Suddenly, the door slams open and a gust of wind moves the plants. They approach the library, but Nell refuses to enter. The smell reminds her of her mother's sick room. Prominent in the room is a very tall, wrought iron, spiral staircase. Markway points out that the balcony high above is where the companion to Abigail Crain hanged herself. Luke climbs up a few feet on the staircase, but jumps back to the ground when it starts to sway and shake.Eleanor ventures out to the verandah and nearly falls over the balcony as she looks up to the tower above the library. Markway threatens to send her home, but Nell begs to stay. Markway suggests Theo and Nell share a bedroom... "like sisters". That evening, the two women discuss their lives and plans for the future. Nell makes up a story about having an apartment of her own. Just when Theo is about to make a move onto Nell, Markway calls them and Luke into the hallway outside the Nursery. He has discovered a cold spot. He invites all to experience the phenomenon. He gleefully explains, "A cold spot, a genuine cold spot. I guarantee it won't register on any thermometer." Luke dismisses it as just a draft, but Markway says it is the heart of Hill House: The Nursery.In the middle of the night, Nell awakens. She hears a little girl laughing. She asks Theo to hold her hand, as their two beds are almost touching. The laughter continues and Nell complains, "Theo, you're breaking my hand." The laughs turn to wimpering and Nell complains that something is hurting a child and she won't allow that to happen. She yells, "Stop It!" Theo turns on the light and we see Nell is on a day bed about twenty feet from the bed Theo occupies. Nell stares at her hand and asks, "Whose hand was I holding?"The next morning, Markway is in the music room and checks his watch and makes a note about the harp playing itself. Nell enters the room and asks about how it could play itself. Markway explains that it may be preternatural: Something we don't have any natural explanation for right now, but probably will have some day. Nell voices her fear that it is all in her imagination and concludes she may be going insane. She is haunted by the circumstances of her mother's death and that she may somehow be responsible. They both hear the harp play a note and Markway again checks his watch and makes a note in his paperwork.That evening, Luke finds a disturbing book that Hugh Crain made for his daughter, Abigail. Nell and Theo bicker and Markway notes that everyone's nerves are on edge. Theo continues to flirt as well as needle Nell, this time about a budding romance she fantasizes about with John Markway. Nell runs away and Theo catches up to her, and tells Nell that is he is making a fool of herself in thinking that Dr. Markway will ever get involved with her. Nell accuses Theo of being an "unnatural thing" as well as a "nature's mistake."At that moment, a car horn honks and a taxi pulls up in front of the house. Grace Markway (Lois Maxwell), John's wife, arrives. She informs her husband, "A reporter's been telephoning all day. He's on your track. He's heard about you renting this place." Grace begs her husband to abandon the house and his research. When John refuses, Grace pays the driver, grabs her suitcase and announces she is staying at Hill House, "to join the ghost hunt." When Eleanor casually mentions the nursery as a place to stay, Grace quickly accepts the challenge, "Thank you, my dear. The nursery it is." Markway and Nell try to dissuade her, but Grace responds, "You insult my intelligence. You don't think I'd believe anything you ghost hunters might tell me." Luke notices the door to the nursery is open for the first time. Grace decides to spend the night in the room, despite everyone's warning not to. Markway insists he and the three researchers spend the night downstairs in the parlor.Later that night, Nell and Theo sleep together on the sofa by the fireplace as Markway sleeps in a chair. Luke finishes his tour upstairs and enters the parlor. He heads for a bottle on the mantle. Suddenly, the parlor door slams shut by itself and the others wake with a start. They hear a deep rhythmic banging outside the door. Markway is concerned about his wife upstairs. Next a very loud banging comes from just outside the door. The unseen phantom presses against the parlor door as it bows inward and out like breathing, creaking and crunching against the hinges. The sound moves to overhead towards the nursery. Markway is desperate to check on his wife.Unseen, Nell runs from the parlor, through the music room, and upstairs directly to the nursery room. The doors are open, but Grace Markway is nowhere to be seen. Her bed shows signs of being used. Markway and the others arrive and start the search. Nell wanders away. She finds herself in the greenhouse. Descending into her own little world, Nell dances out onto the verandah. When she hears the others calling to her, Nell runs into the Library. She is drawn to the spiral staircase and the balcony at the top. Before she reaches the top, the rickety staircase begins its swaying, the lateral support bolts pulling away from the wall. Markway calls to her, begging her to carefully walk back down. She ignores him and stands on the balcony. Markway carefully climbs the stairs and joins Nell on the iron balcony platform. Before they walk back down, Nell sees Grace Markway peer at her through a trap door in the ceiling.A little later, Markway is furious and now insists Eleanor leave the house for her own safety. Luke brings her car around and Theo packs her bag. Nell tries to talk them out of her dismissal, but the three insist she leave. They escort Eleanor out to her car. Luke gets back out of Nell's car to retrieve the gate key from Markway. She drives off without Luke. Before she reaches the gate she is distracted by the white-robed figure of Grace Markway and crashes into a tree.The three find Eleanor dead in the half overturned car. She crashed into the same tree that killed the first Mrs. Crain. Grace wanders over to the accident scene. She explains to her husband, "I didn't want any of this to happen. You must believe me, John." She explains that she woke and was frightened. She got lost looking for her husband and ended up in the attic. While Theo blames Grace for Eleanor's accident, Luke takes a different view. "Eleanor did it to herself. It looked to me, anyway, like she deliberately aimed the car at this tree." Markway blames the house. Luke stares at the house and remarks, "It ought to be burned down and the ground sowed with salt."We close with an evening shot of Hill House with Eleanor, now a ghost, narrating from beyond the grave about Hill House and that "we who walk here... walk alone." The end title comes up as well as the final title card 'The Haunting' followed by eerie piano music. | The Haunting | 43c7f6a4-9670-5d2f-9163-53f478e33173 | Who did Eleanor care for? | [
"Her mother.",
"her invalid mother"
] | false |
/m/03srb9 | The film opens with narration over a silhouette of Hill House at night. The narrator, Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) tells us, "An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House. Whatever walked there walked alone." Title and credits follow, then narration continues, "Scandal, murder, insanity, suicide: The history of Hill House was ideal. It had everything I wanted..." The house was built in New England by a man named Hugh Crain for his wife and young daughter. A horse and carriage accident took the life of the first Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Pamela Buckley) before she even saw the house. Hugh Crain (an uncredited Howard Lang) and young daughter, Abigail (an uncredited Janet Mansell) said a few words over the body, but Hugh was left an embittered man. Crain married again, and the second Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Freda Knorr) also died, falling down the main staircase. Hugh Crain left Abigail with a nurse (an uncredited Susan Richards) and went to England where he died in a drowning accident. Abigail kept the same nursery room her entire life. By the time she was eighty (an uncredited Amy Dalby) she was a bedridden invalid. Her nurse-companion (an uncredited Rosemary Dorken) was a local girl and, it is with this young companion the evil reputation of Hill House really begins. The old lady died while calling for help. The companion was trysting on the verandah with a farm hand. The companion inherited Hill House and occupied it for many years, but eventually hanged herself. The house then passed to a distant relative, named Mrs. Sanderson (Fay Compton).Markway visits Mrs. Sanderson where he convinces her to let him use the house for psychic research. He explains, "I shall occupy the house with a group of carefully selected assistants...I must have specially qualified help to take notes and document any evidence of the supernatural I may find." Eldridge Harper (Ronald Adam), Mrs. Sanderson's lawyer, voices his concern about publicity seekers and the propriety of having women in the house. Harper suggests to Mrs. Sanderson that her nephew, Luke, joins the doctor at Hill House, as he expects to inherit the property. Mrs. Sanderson asks point blank, "Exactly what do you and your assistants expect to find at Hill House?" Markway replies, "Maybe only a few loose floorboards, and maybe, I only say maybe, the key to another world."Dr. Markway, taking a leave of absence from his university professorship, finalizes his list of assistants. Only two end up accepting, Eleanor Lance and Theodora (no last name).Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris) is living with her sister. She is nearly broke and weary after looking after her invalid mother non-stop for eleven years. Mother is now dead, and she fights with her sister over just about everything. She begs to use the car, which is after all, half hers. Her brother-in-law, Bud Fredericks (an uncredited Paul Maxwell) tries to act as mediator between Eleanor and his wife, Carrie (Diane Clare). He is sympathetic to Eleanor's plight, but their daughter, Dora (an uncredited Verina Greenlaw) takes her cues from her mother, and taunts her Aunt Eleanor. On the vacation plan, Bud sides with Eleanor, "I think you should have a vacation, Nell." Carrie objects, but Eleanor is not to be deterred and she shows her family how she reacts when pushed to her breaking point. She is normally quiet and meek, but when pushed is loud and assertive.Nell decides to take the car and confronts the garage attendant (an uncredited Claude Jones) for the keys. She departs Boston along U.S. 50 and Route 238 to Hill House. We hear Nell thinking and she reveals she will never return to live with her sister. In fact, most of what we learn of Eleanor is hearing her thoughts.Eleanor arrives at Hill House. The property is surrounded by a stone wall and the entrance by a tall, iron spiked, gate. She honks the car horn, and Mr. Dudley (Valentine Dyall), the cranky caretaker, finally deigns to respond. "What do you want?" he asks. Eleanor explains that she is expected. After an impertinent exchange with Eleanor, Dudley finally opens the gate and allows her to enter the property. Eleanor is the first to arrive and drives up to the house. Along the way she stops to look at it. It is a huge, stone mansion with lots of detail on the façade and steep, pitched roofs. Her first reaction is that the house is vile and it is staring at her. She carries her suitcase to the front door and is greeted by Mrs. Dudley (Rosalie Crutchley). Mrs. Dudley reluctantly allows Eleanor to come inside, but does not utter a word to her.The inside of the house is dark and over-decorated, and Eleanor is escorted to her room. Mrs. Dudley explains the house rules about meals, and that she won't stay in the house after dark. Eleanor checks out the bathroom and hears the next guest arrive. Theodora (Claire Bloom) introduces herself. Eleanor explains they share a bathroom. Mrs. Dudley repeats her meal and departure rules by rote, but Theo and Nell ignore her. Theodora is a bit strange to Eleanor (Theo clearly flirts with Eleanor throughout the film) Theodora's sexual orientation is only hinted at, and we later learn she has the gift of ESP. Theo and Nell explore the house, but they get lost. Both women feel a chill, and Nell observes, "The house, it's alive." Theo seems to feel that the house wants Nell.Dr. Markway appears and explains he left the door opened, but it closed itself. Markway gives the women a tour of part of the house, starting with the main purple parlor, which they will use as an operations center. He explains that all the doors were set slightly off-center, so they close themselves. Despite studying plans to the house, even Markway gets lost on his way to the dining room. They hear a noise, but it turns out to be Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn) mixing a pitcher of martinis as he enters the dining room. Luke serves each person a martini. They sit down for dinner and discuss their duties and responsibilities. Markway explains that Theo was accepted because of her remarkable power of ESP and Eleanor had a poltergeist experience as a child, "showers of stone fell on your house for three days when you were 10 years old." Luke is a non-believer. His interest is to financially exploit Hill House, after he inherits it, of course.That evening, in the parlor, Markway works on his notes while Eleanor sits quietly on the couch. Theo and Luke play gin rummy at the game table. Theo's ability to see cards allows her to win five games in a row, much to Luke annoyance. She demands he pay her the $12 he owes, but he refuses because she cheated. The four decide to turn in for the night and continue the tour the next morning. Markway gives them papers and asks that they complete them with their observations each night.Sometime during the night, Eleanor wakes, and still in a near dream state, thinks she hears her mother knocking on the wall. Theo hears it from the next room also and calls to Nell. The two women are frightened and both hear the pounding noise. It comes and goes, but louder each time. They finally hear a woman shrieking and laughing that fades away. When Nell opens the door she sees Luke and Markway in the hall outside. The men explain they were chasing a dog and followed it outside, but they did not hear the loud noises the women heard. Markway concludes that something is trying to separate the men and women.The next morning, Markway and Nell join for breakfast. Nell is starting to develop romantic feelings for John Markway, unaware that he is married. She tells him that she spent eleven years taking care of her invalid mother. Nell also voices her fear that she will be turned out of Hill House with no where to go. Markway tells Nell how he came to do psychic research, and that his family disapproves. Theo joins the pair and warns the doctor, "If anyone gets hurt, it's going to be your fault, Markway." Markway explains that no one has ever been physically hurt by a ghost. Luke enters and directs his companions to something he saw in the hall. Someone or something has handwritten a message in chalk on the wall. It says, "Help Eleanor Come Home." Eleanor reacts strongly. She first accuses Theo of playing a cruel joke. The two women bicker and Markway postpones the tour and tells Theo to take Eleanor to her room.The tour starts with the greenhouse. A large stone sculpture sits in the center of the room. It is supposed to be St. Francis curing the lepers, but Luke thinks its a family portrait of Hugh Crain and his wives and daughter. Suddenly, the door slams open and a gust of wind moves the plants. They approach the library, but Nell refuses to enter. The smell reminds her of her mother's sick room. Prominent in the room is a very tall, wrought iron, spiral staircase. Markway points out that the balcony high above is where the companion to Abigail Crain hanged herself. Luke climbs up a few feet on the staircase, but jumps back to the ground when it starts to sway and shake.Eleanor ventures out to the verandah and nearly falls over the balcony as she looks up to the tower above the library. Markway threatens to send her home, but Nell begs to stay. Markway suggests Theo and Nell share a bedroom... "like sisters". That evening, the two women discuss their lives and plans for the future. Nell makes up a story about having an apartment of her own. Just when Theo is about to make a move onto Nell, Markway calls them and Luke into the hallway outside the Nursery. He has discovered a cold spot. He invites all to experience the phenomenon. He gleefully explains, "A cold spot, a genuine cold spot. I guarantee it won't register on any thermometer." Luke dismisses it as just a draft, but Markway says it is the heart of Hill House: The Nursery.In the middle of the night, Nell awakens. She hears a little girl laughing. She asks Theo to hold her hand, as their two beds are almost touching. The laughter continues and Nell complains, "Theo, you're breaking my hand." The laughs turn to wimpering and Nell complains that something is hurting a child and she won't allow that to happen. She yells, "Stop It!" Theo turns on the light and we see Nell is on a day bed about twenty feet from the bed Theo occupies. Nell stares at her hand and asks, "Whose hand was I holding?"The next morning, Markway is in the music room and checks his watch and makes a note about the harp playing itself. Nell enters the room and asks about how it could play itself. Markway explains that it may be preternatural: Something we don't have any natural explanation for right now, but probably will have some day. Nell voices her fear that it is all in her imagination and concludes she may be going insane. She is haunted by the circumstances of her mother's death and that she may somehow be responsible. They both hear the harp play a note and Markway again checks his watch and makes a note in his paperwork.That evening, Luke finds a disturbing book that Hugh Crain made for his daughter, Abigail. Nell and Theo bicker and Markway notes that everyone's nerves are on edge. Theo continues to flirt as well as needle Nell, this time about a budding romance she fantasizes about with John Markway. Nell runs away and Theo catches up to her, and tells Nell that is he is making a fool of herself in thinking that Dr. Markway will ever get involved with her. Nell accuses Theo of being an "unnatural thing" as well as a "nature's mistake."At that moment, a car horn honks and a taxi pulls up in front of the house. Grace Markway (Lois Maxwell), John's wife, arrives. She informs her husband, "A reporter's been telephoning all day. He's on your track. He's heard about you renting this place." Grace begs her husband to abandon the house and his research. When John refuses, Grace pays the driver, grabs her suitcase and announces she is staying at Hill House, "to join the ghost hunt." When Eleanor casually mentions the nursery as a place to stay, Grace quickly accepts the challenge, "Thank you, my dear. The nursery it is." Markway and Nell try to dissuade her, but Grace responds, "You insult my intelligence. You don't think I'd believe anything you ghost hunters might tell me." Luke notices the door to the nursery is open for the first time. Grace decides to spend the night in the room, despite everyone's warning not to. Markway insists he and the three researchers spend the night downstairs in the parlor.Later that night, Nell and Theo sleep together on the sofa by the fireplace as Markway sleeps in a chair. Luke finishes his tour upstairs and enters the parlor. He heads for a bottle on the mantle. Suddenly, the parlor door slams shut by itself and the others wake with a start. They hear a deep rhythmic banging outside the door. Markway is concerned about his wife upstairs. Next a very loud banging comes from just outside the door. The unseen phantom presses against the parlor door as it bows inward and out like breathing, creaking and crunching against the hinges. The sound moves to overhead towards the nursery. Markway is desperate to check on his wife.Unseen, Nell runs from the parlor, through the music room, and upstairs directly to the nursery room. The doors are open, but Grace Markway is nowhere to be seen. Her bed shows signs of being used. Markway and the others arrive and start the search. Nell wanders away. She finds herself in the greenhouse. Descending into her own little world, Nell dances out onto the verandah. When she hears the others calling to her, Nell runs into the Library. She is drawn to the spiral staircase and the balcony at the top. Before she reaches the top, the rickety staircase begins its swaying, the lateral support bolts pulling away from the wall. Markway calls to her, begging her to carefully walk back down. She ignores him and stands on the balcony. Markway carefully climbs the stairs and joins Nell on the iron balcony platform. Before they walk back down, Nell sees Grace Markway peer at her through a trap door in the ceiling.A little later, Markway is furious and now insists Eleanor leave the house for her own safety. Luke brings her car around and Theo packs her bag. Nell tries to talk them out of her dismissal, but the three insist she leave. They escort Eleanor out to her car. Luke gets back out of Nell's car to retrieve the gate key from Markway. She drives off without Luke. Before she reaches the gate she is distracted by the white-robed figure of Grace Markway and crashes into a tree.The three find Eleanor dead in the half overturned car. She crashed into the same tree that killed the first Mrs. Crain. Grace wanders over to the accident scene. She explains to her husband, "I didn't want any of this to happen. You must believe me, John." She explains that she woke and was frightened. She got lost looking for her husband and ended up in the attic. While Theo blames Grace for Eleanor's accident, Luke takes a different view. "Eleanor did it to herself. It looked to me, anyway, like she deliberately aimed the car at this tree." Markway blames the house. Luke stares at the house and remarks, "It ought to be burned down and the ground sowed with salt."We close with an evening shot of Hill House with Eleanor, now a ghost, narrating from beyond the grave about Hill House and that "we who walk here... walk alone." The end title comes up as well as the final title card 'The Haunting' followed by eerie piano music. | The Haunting | 40cf81a8-2e72-f2d8-b5fc-26b8ad7f4483 | What was Crain hoping for when he built the house? | [
"He was hoping to populate it with a large family of children.",
"He was hoping for children"
] | false |
/m/03srb9 | The film opens with narration over a silhouette of Hill House at night. The narrator, Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) tells us, "An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House. Whatever walked there walked alone." Title and credits follow, then narration continues, "Scandal, murder, insanity, suicide: The history of Hill House was ideal. It had everything I wanted..." The house was built in New England by a man named Hugh Crain for his wife and young daughter. A horse and carriage accident took the life of the first Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Pamela Buckley) before she even saw the house. Hugh Crain (an uncredited Howard Lang) and young daughter, Abigail (an uncredited Janet Mansell) said a few words over the body, but Hugh was left an embittered man. Crain married again, and the second Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Freda Knorr) also died, falling down the main staircase. Hugh Crain left Abigail with a nurse (an uncredited Susan Richards) and went to England where he died in a drowning accident. Abigail kept the same nursery room her entire life. By the time she was eighty (an uncredited Amy Dalby) she was a bedridden invalid. Her nurse-companion (an uncredited Rosemary Dorken) was a local girl and, it is with this young companion the evil reputation of Hill House really begins. The old lady died while calling for help. The companion was trysting on the verandah with a farm hand. The companion inherited Hill House and occupied it for many years, but eventually hanged herself. The house then passed to a distant relative, named Mrs. Sanderson (Fay Compton).Markway visits Mrs. Sanderson where he convinces her to let him use the house for psychic research. He explains, "I shall occupy the house with a group of carefully selected assistants...I must have specially qualified help to take notes and document any evidence of the supernatural I may find." Eldridge Harper (Ronald Adam), Mrs. Sanderson's lawyer, voices his concern about publicity seekers and the propriety of having women in the house. Harper suggests to Mrs. Sanderson that her nephew, Luke, joins the doctor at Hill House, as he expects to inherit the property. Mrs. Sanderson asks point blank, "Exactly what do you and your assistants expect to find at Hill House?" Markway replies, "Maybe only a few loose floorboards, and maybe, I only say maybe, the key to another world."Dr. Markway, taking a leave of absence from his university professorship, finalizes his list of assistants. Only two end up accepting, Eleanor Lance and Theodora (no last name).Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris) is living with her sister. She is nearly broke and weary after looking after her invalid mother non-stop for eleven years. Mother is now dead, and she fights with her sister over just about everything. She begs to use the car, which is after all, half hers. Her brother-in-law, Bud Fredericks (an uncredited Paul Maxwell) tries to act as mediator between Eleanor and his wife, Carrie (Diane Clare). He is sympathetic to Eleanor's plight, but their daughter, Dora (an uncredited Verina Greenlaw) takes her cues from her mother, and taunts her Aunt Eleanor. On the vacation plan, Bud sides with Eleanor, "I think you should have a vacation, Nell." Carrie objects, but Eleanor is not to be deterred and she shows her family how she reacts when pushed to her breaking point. She is normally quiet and meek, but when pushed is loud and assertive.Nell decides to take the car and confronts the garage attendant (an uncredited Claude Jones) for the keys. She departs Boston along U.S. 50 and Route 238 to Hill House. We hear Nell thinking and she reveals she will never return to live with her sister. In fact, most of what we learn of Eleanor is hearing her thoughts.Eleanor arrives at Hill House. The property is surrounded by a stone wall and the entrance by a tall, iron spiked, gate. She honks the car horn, and Mr. Dudley (Valentine Dyall), the cranky caretaker, finally deigns to respond. "What do you want?" he asks. Eleanor explains that she is expected. After an impertinent exchange with Eleanor, Dudley finally opens the gate and allows her to enter the property. Eleanor is the first to arrive and drives up to the house. Along the way she stops to look at it. It is a huge, stone mansion with lots of detail on the façade and steep, pitched roofs. Her first reaction is that the house is vile and it is staring at her. She carries her suitcase to the front door and is greeted by Mrs. Dudley (Rosalie Crutchley). Mrs. Dudley reluctantly allows Eleanor to come inside, but does not utter a word to her.The inside of the house is dark and over-decorated, and Eleanor is escorted to her room. Mrs. Dudley explains the house rules about meals, and that she won't stay in the house after dark. Eleanor checks out the bathroom and hears the next guest arrive. Theodora (Claire Bloom) introduces herself. Eleanor explains they share a bathroom. Mrs. Dudley repeats her meal and departure rules by rote, but Theo and Nell ignore her. Theodora is a bit strange to Eleanor (Theo clearly flirts with Eleanor throughout the film) Theodora's sexual orientation is only hinted at, and we later learn she has the gift of ESP. Theo and Nell explore the house, but they get lost. Both women feel a chill, and Nell observes, "The house, it's alive." Theo seems to feel that the house wants Nell.Dr. Markway appears and explains he left the door opened, but it closed itself. Markway gives the women a tour of part of the house, starting with the main purple parlor, which they will use as an operations center. He explains that all the doors were set slightly off-center, so they close themselves. Despite studying plans to the house, even Markway gets lost on his way to the dining room. They hear a noise, but it turns out to be Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn) mixing a pitcher of martinis as he enters the dining room. Luke serves each person a martini. They sit down for dinner and discuss their duties and responsibilities. Markway explains that Theo was accepted because of her remarkable power of ESP and Eleanor had a poltergeist experience as a child, "showers of stone fell on your house for three days when you were 10 years old." Luke is a non-believer. His interest is to financially exploit Hill House, after he inherits it, of course.That evening, in the parlor, Markway works on his notes while Eleanor sits quietly on the couch. Theo and Luke play gin rummy at the game table. Theo's ability to see cards allows her to win five games in a row, much to Luke annoyance. She demands he pay her the $12 he owes, but he refuses because she cheated. The four decide to turn in for the night and continue the tour the next morning. Markway gives them papers and asks that they complete them with their observations each night.Sometime during the night, Eleanor wakes, and still in a near dream state, thinks she hears her mother knocking on the wall. Theo hears it from the next room also and calls to Nell. The two women are frightened and both hear the pounding noise. It comes and goes, but louder each time. They finally hear a woman shrieking and laughing that fades away. When Nell opens the door she sees Luke and Markway in the hall outside. The men explain they were chasing a dog and followed it outside, but they did not hear the loud noises the women heard. Markway concludes that something is trying to separate the men and women.The next morning, Markway and Nell join for breakfast. Nell is starting to develop romantic feelings for John Markway, unaware that he is married. She tells him that she spent eleven years taking care of her invalid mother. Nell also voices her fear that she will be turned out of Hill House with no where to go. Markway tells Nell how he came to do psychic research, and that his family disapproves. Theo joins the pair and warns the doctor, "If anyone gets hurt, it's going to be your fault, Markway." Markway explains that no one has ever been physically hurt by a ghost. Luke enters and directs his companions to something he saw in the hall. Someone or something has handwritten a message in chalk on the wall. It says, "Help Eleanor Come Home." Eleanor reacts strongly. She first accuses Theo of playing a cruel joke. The two women bicker and Markway postpones the tour and tells Theo to take Eleanor to her room.The tour starts with the greenhouse. A large stone sculpture sits in the center of the room. It is supposed to be St. Francis curing the lepers, but Luke thinks its a family portrait of Hugh Crain and his wives and daughter. Suddenly, the door slams open and a gust of wind moves the plants. They approach the library, but Nell refuses to enter. The smell reminds her of her mother's sick room. Prominent in the room is a very tall, wrought iron, spiral staircase. Markway points out that the balcony high above is where the companion to Abigail Crain hanged herself. Luke climbs up a few feet on the staircase, but jumps back to the ground when it starts to sway and shake.Eleanor ventures out to the verandah and nearly falls over the balcony as she looks up to the tower above the library. Markway threatens to send her home, but Nell begs to stay. Markway suggests Theo and Nell share a bedroom... "like sisters". That evening, the two women discuss their lives and plans for the future. Nell makes up a story about having an apartment of her own. Just when Theo is about to make a move onto Nell, Markway calls them and Luke into the hallway outside the Nursery. He has discovered a cold spot. He invites all to experience the phenomenon. He gleefully explains, "A cold spot, a genuine cold spot. I guarantee it won't register on any thermometer." Luke dismisses it as just a draft, but Markway says it is the heart of Hill House: The Nursery.In the middle of the night, Nell awakens. She hears a little girl laughing. She asks Theo to hold her hand, as their two beds are almost touching. The laughter continues and Nell complains, "Theo, you're breaking my hand." The laughs turn to wimpering and Nell complains that something is hurting a child and she won't allow that to happen. She yells, "Stop It!" Theo turns on the light and we see Nell is on a day bed about twenty feet from the bed Theo occupies. Nell stares at her hand and asks, "Whose hand was I holding?"The next morning, Markway is in the music room and checks his watch and makes a note about the harp playing itself. Nell enters the room and asks about how it could play itself. Markway explains that it may be preternatural: Something we don't have any natural explanation for right now, but probably will have some day. Nell voices her fear that it is all in her imagination and concludes she may be going insane. She is haunted by the circumstances of her mother's death and that she may somehow be responsible. They both hear the harp play a note and Markway again checks his watch and makes a note in his paperwork.That evening, Luke finds a disturbing book that Hugh Crain made for his daughter, Abigail. Nell and Theo bicker and Markway notes that everyone's nerves are on edge. Theo continues to flirt as well as needle Nell, this time about a budding romance she fantasizes about with John Markway. Nell runs away and Theo catches up to her, and tells Nell that is he is making a fool of herself in thinking that Dr. Markway will ever get involved with her. Nell accuses Theo of being an "unnatural thing" as well as a "nature's mistake."At that moment, a car horn honks and a taxi pulls up in front of the house. Grace Markway (Lois Maxwell), John's wife, arrives. She informs her husband, "A reporter's been telephoning all day. He's on your track. He's heard about you renting this place." Grace begs her husband to abandon the house and his research. When John refuses, Grace pays the driver, grabs her suitcase and announces she is staying at Hill House, "to join the ghost hunt." When Eleanor casually mentions the nursery as a place to stay, Grace quickly accepts the challenge, "Thank you, my dear. The nursery it is." Markway and Nell try to dissuade her, but Grace responds, "You insult my intelligence. You don't think I'd believe anything you ghost hunters might tell me." Luke notices the door to the nursery is open for the first time. Grace decides to spend the night in the room, despite everyone's warning not to. Markway insists he and the three researchers spend the night downstairs in the parlor.Later that night, Nell and Theo sleep together on the sofa by the fireplace as Markway sleeps in a chair. Luke finishes his tour upstairs and enters the parlor. He heads for a bottle on the mantle. Suddenly, the parlor door slams shut by itself and the others wake with a start. They hear a deep rhythmic banging outside the door. Markway is concerned about his wife upstairs. Next a very loud banging comes from just outside the door. The unseen phantom presses against the parlor door as it bows inward and out like breathing, creaking and crunching against the hinges. The sound moves to overhead towards the nursery. Markway is desperate to check on his wife.Unseen, Nell runs from the parlor, through the music room, and upstairs directly to the nursery room. The doors are open, but Grace Markway is nowhere to be seen. Her bed shows signs of being used. Markway and the others arrive and start the search. Nell wanders away. She finds herself in the greenhouse. Descending into her own little world, Nell dances out onto the verandah. When she hears the others calling to her, Nell runs into the Library. She is drawn to the spiral staircase and the balcony at the top. Before she reaches the top, the rickety staircase begins its swaying, the lateral support bolts pulling away from the wall. Markway calls to her, begging her to carefully walk back down. She ignores him and stands on the balcony. Markway carefully climbs the stairs and joins Nell on the iron balcony platform. Before they walk back down, Nell sees Grace Markway peer at her through a trap door in the ceiling.A little later, Markway is furious and now insists Eleanor leave the house for her own safety. Luke brings her car around and Theo packs her bag. Nell tries to talk them out of her dismissal, but the three insist she leave. They escort Eleanor out to her car. Luke gets back out of Nell's car to retrieve the gate key from Markway. She drives off without Luke. Before she reaches the gate she is distracted by the white-robed figure of Grace Markway and crashes into a tree.The three find Eleanor dead in the half overturned car. She crashed into the same tree that killed the first Mrs. Crain. Grace wanders over to the accident scene. She explains to her husband, "I didn't want any of this to happen. You must believe me, John." She explains that she woke and was frightened. She got lost looking for her husband and ended up in the attic. While Theo blames Grace for Eleanor's accident, Luke takes a different view. "Eleanor did it to herself. It looked to me, anyway, like she deliberately aimed the car at this tree." Markway blames the house. Luke stares at the house and remarks, "It ought to be burned down and the ground sowed with salt."We close with an evening shot of Hill House with Eleanor, now a ghost, narrating from beyond the grave about Hill House and that "we who walk here... walk alone." The end title comes up as well as the final title card 'The Haunting' followed by eerie piano music. | The Haunting | 020155c5-89b4-8863-2944-bd3ad186a874 | when the team explores the house? | [
"the next day"
] | false |
/m/03srb9 | The film opens with narration over a silhouette of Hill House at night. The narrator, Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) tells us, "An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House. Whatever walked there walked alone." Title and credits follow, then narration continues, "Scandal, murder, insanity, suicide: The history of Hill House was ideal. It had everything I wanted..." The house was built in New England by a man named Hugh Crain for his wife and young daughter. A horse and carriage accident took the life of the first Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Pamela Buckley) before she even saw the house. Hugh Crain (an uncredited Howard Lang) and young daughter, Abigail (an uncredited Janet Mansell) said a few words over the body, but Hugh was left an embittered man. Crain married again, and the second Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Freda Knorr) also died, falling down the main staircase. Hugh Crain left Abigail with a nurse (an uncredited Susan Richards) and went to England where he died in a drowning accident. Abigail kept the same nursery room her entire life. By the time she was eighty (an uncredited Amy Dalby) she was a bedridden invalid. Her nurse-companion (an uncredited Rosemary Dorken) was a local girl and, it is with this young companion the evil reputation of Hill House really begins. The old lady died while calling for help. The companion was trysting on the verandah with a farm hand. The companion inherited Hill House and occupied it for many years, but eventually hanged herself. The house then passed to a distant relative, named Mrs. Sanderson (Fay Compton).Markway visits Mrs. Sanderson where he convinces her to let him use the house for psychic research. He explains, "I shall occupy the house with a group of carefully selected assistants...I must have specially qualified help to take notes and document any evidence of the supernatural I may find." Eldridge Harper (Ronald Adam), Mrs. Sanderson's lawyer, voices his concern about publicity seekers and the propriety of having women in the house. Harper suggests to Mrs. Sanderson that her nephew, Luke, joins the doctor at Hill House, as he expects to inherit the property. Mrs. Sanderson asks point blank, "Exactly what do you and your assistants expect to find at Hill House?" Markway replies, "Maybe only a few loose floorboards, and maybe, I only say maybe, the key to another world."Dr. Markway, taking a leave of absence from his university professorship, finalizes his list of assistants. Only two end up accepting, Eleanor Lance and Theodora (no last name).Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris) is living with her sister. She is nearly broke and weary after looking after her invalid mother non-stop for eleven years. Mother is now dead, and she fights with her sister over just about everything. She begs to use the car, which is after all, half hers. Her brother-in-law, Bud Fredericks (an uncredited Paul Maxwell) tries to act as mediator between Eleanor and his wife, Carrie (Diane Clare). He is sympathetic to Eleanor's plight, but their daughter, Dora (an uncredited Verina Greenlaw) takes her cues from her mother, and taunts her Aunt Eleanor. On the vacation plan, Bud sides with Eleanor, "I think you should have a vacation, Nell." Carrie objects, but Eleanor is not to be deterred and she shows her family how she reacts when pushed to her breaking point. She is normally quiet and meek, but when pushed is loud and assertive.Nell decides to take the car and confronts the garage attendant (an uncredited Claude Jones) for the keys. She departs Boston along U.S. 50 and Route 238 to Hill House. We hear Nell thinking and she reveals she will never return to live with her sister. In fact, most of what we learn of Eleanor is hearing her thoughts.Eleanor arrives at Hill House. The property is surrounded by a stone wall and the entrance by a tall, iron spiked, gate. She honks the car horn, and Mr. Dudley (Valentine Dyall), the cranky caretaker, finally deigns to respond. "What do you want?" he asks. Eleanor explains that she is expected. After an impertinent exchange with Eleanor, Dudley finally opens the gate and allows her to enter the property. Eleanor is the first to arrive and drives up to the house. Along the way she stops to look at it. It is a huge, stone mansion with lots of detail on the façade and steep, pitched roofs. Her first reaction is that the house is vile and it is staring at her. She carries her suitcase to the front door and is greeted by Mrs. Dudley (Rosalie Crutchley). Mrs. Dudley reluctantly allows Eleanor to come inside, but does not utter a word to her.The inside of the house is dark and over-decorated, and Eleanor is escorted to her room. Mrs. Dudley explains the house rules about meals, and that she won't stay in the house after dark. Eleanor checks out the bathroom and hears the next guest arrive. Theodora (Claire Bloom) introduces herself. Eleanor explains they share a bathroom. Mrs. Dudley repeats her meal and departure rules by rote, but Theo and Nell ignore her. Theodora is a bit strange to Eleanor (Theo clearly flirts with Eleanor throughout the film) Theodora's sexual orientation is only hinted at, and we later learn she has the gift of ESP. Theo and Nell explore the house, but they get lost. Both women feel a chill, and Nell observes, "The house, it's alive." Theo seems to feel that the house wants Nell.Dr. Markway appears and explains he left the door opened, but it closed itself. Markway gives the women a tour of part of the house, starting with the main purple parlor, which they will use as an operations center. He explains that all the doors were set slightly off-center, so they close themselves. Despite studying plans to the house, even Markway gets lost on his way to the dining room. They hear a noise, but it turns out to be Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn) mixing a pitcher of martinis as he enters the dining room. Luke serves each person a martini. They sit down for dinner and discuss their duties and responsibilities. Markway explains that Theo was accepted because of her remarkable power of ESP and Eleanor had a poltergeist experience as a child, "showers of stone fell on your house for three days when you were 10 years old." Luke is a non-believer. His interest is to financially exploit Hill House, after he inherits it, of course.That evening, in the parlor, Markway works on his notes while Eleanor sits quietly on the couch. Theo and Luke play gin rummy at the game table. Theo's ability to see cards allows her to win five games in a row, much to Luke annoyance. She demands he pay her the $12 he owes, but he refuses because she cheated. The four decide to turn in for the night and continue the tour the next morning. Markway gives them papers and asks that they complete them with their observations each night.Sometime during the night, Eleanor wakes, and still in a near dream state, thinks she hears her mother knocking on the wall. Theo hears it from the next room also and calls to Nell. The two women are frightened and both hear the pounding noise. It comes and goes, but louder each time. They finally hear a woman shrieking and laughing that fades away. When Nell opens the door she sees Luke and Markway in the hall outside. The men explain they were chasing a dog and followed it outside, but they did not hear the loud noises the women heard. Markway concludes that something is trying to separate the men and women.The next morning, Markway and Nell join for breakfast. Nell is starting to develop romantic feelings for John Markway, unaware that he is married. She tells him that she spent eleven years taking care of her invalid mother. Nell also voices her fear that she will be turned out of Hill House with no where to go. Markway tells Nell how he came to do psychic research, and that his family disapproves. Theo joins the pair and warns the doctor, "If anyone gets hurt, it's going to be your fault, Markway." Markway explains that no one has ever been physically hurt by a ghost. Luke enters and directs his companions to something he saw in the hall. Someone or something has handwritten a message in chalk on the wall. It says, "Help Eleanor Come Home." Eleanor reacts strongly. She first accuses Theo of playing a cruel joke. The two women bicker and Markway postpones the tour and tells Theo to take Eleanor to her room.The tour starts with the greenhouse. A large stone sculpture sits in the center of the room. It is supposed to be St. Francis curing the lepers, but Luke thinks its a family portrait of Hugh Crain and his wives and daughter. Suddenly, the door slams open and a gust of wind moves the plants. They approach the library, but Nell refuses to enter. The smell reminds her of her mother's sick room. Prominent in the room is a very tall, wrought iron, spiral staircase. Markway points out that the balcony high above is where the companion to Abigail Crain hanged herself. Luke climbs up a few feet on the staircase, but jumps back to the ground when it starts to sway and shake.Eleanor ventures out to the verandah and nearly falls over the balcony as she looks up to the tower above the library. Markway threatens to send her home, but Nell begs to stay. Markway suggests Theo and Nell share a bedroom... "like sisters". That evening, the two women discuss their lives and plans for the future. Nell makes up a story about having an apartment of her own. Just when Theo is about to make a move onto Nell, Markway calls them and Luke into the hallway outside the Nursery. He has discovered a cold spot. He invites all to experience the phenomenon. He gleefully explains, "A cold spot, a genuine cold spot. I guarantee it won't register on any thermometer." Luke dismisses it as just a draft, but Markway says it is the heart of Hill House: The Nursery.In the middle of the night, Nell awakens. She hears a little girl laughing. She asks Theo to hold her hand, as their two beds are almost touching. The laughter continues and Nell complains, "Theo, you're breaking my hand." The laughs turn to wimpering and Nell complains that something is hurting a child and she won't allow that to happen. She yells, "Stop It!" Theo turns on the light and we see Nell is on a day bed about twenty feet from the bed Theo occupies. Nell stares at her hand and asks, "Whose hand was I holding?"The next morning, Markway is in the music room and checks his watch and makes a note about the harp playing itself. Nell enters the room and asks about how it could play itself. Markway explains that it may be preternatural: Something we don't have any natural explanation for right now, but probably will have some day. Nell voices her fear that it is all in her imagination and concludes she may be going insane. She is haunted by the circumstances of her mother's death and that she may somehow be responsible. They both hear the harp play a note and Markway again checks his watch and makes a note in his paperwork.That evening, Luke finds a disturbing book that Hugh Crain made for his daughter, Abigail. Nell and Theo bicker and Markway notes that everyone's nerves are on edge. Theo continues to flirt as well as needle Nell, this time about a budding romance she fantasizes about with John Markway. Nell runs away and Theo catches up to her, and tells Nell that is he is making a fool of herself in thinking that Dr. Markway will ever get involved with her. Nell accuses Theo of being an "unnatural thing" as well as a "nature's mistake."At that moment, a car horn honks and a taxi pulls up in front of the house. Grace Markway (Lois Maxwell), John's wife, arrives. She informs her husband, "A reporter's been telephoning all day. He's on your track. He's heard about you renting this place." Grace begs her husband to abandon the house and his research. When John refuses, Grace pays the driver, grabs her suitcase and announces she is staying at Hill House, "to join the ghost hunt." When Eleanor casually mentions the nursery as a place to stay, Grace quickly accepts the challenge, "Thank you, my dear. The nursery it is." Markway and Nell try to dissuade her, but Grace responds, "You insult my intelligence. You don't think I'd believe anything you ghost hunters might tell me." Luke notices the door to the nursery is open for the first time. Grace decides to spend the night in the room, despite everyone's warning not to. Markway insists he and the three researchers spend the night downstairs in the parlor.Later that night, Nell and Theo sleep together on the sofa by the fireplace as Markway sleeps in a chair. Luke finishes his tour upstairs and enters the parlor. He heads for a bottle on the mantle. Suddenly, the parlor door slams shut by itself and the others wake with a start. They hear a deep rhythmic banging outside the door. Markway is concerned about his wife upstairs. Next a very loud banging comes from just outside the door. The unseen phantom presses against the parlor door as it bows inward and out like breathing, creaking and crunching against the hinges. The sound moves to overhead towards the nursery. Markway is desperate to check on his wife.Unseen, Nell runs from the parlor, through the music room, and upstairs directly to the nursery room. The doors are open, but Grace Markway is nowhere to be seen. Her bed shows signs of being used. Markway and the others arrive and start the search. Nell wanders away. She finds herself in the greenhouse. Descending into her own little world, Nell dances out onto the verandah. When she hears the others calling to her, Nell runs into the Library. She is drawn to the spiral staircase and the balcony at the top. Before she reaches the top, the rickety staircase begins its swaying, the lateral support bolts pulling away from the wall. Markway calls to her, begging her to carefully walk back down. She ignores him and stands on the balcony. Markway carefully climbs the stairs and joins Nell on the iron balcony platform. Before they walk back down, Nell sees Grace Markway peer at her through a trap door in the ceiling.A little later, Markway is furious and now insists Eleanor leave the house for her own safety. Luke brings her car around and Theo packs her bag. Nell tries to talk them out of her dismissal, but the three insist she leave. They escort Eleanor out to her car. Luke gets back out of Nell's car to retrieve the gate key from Markway. She drives off without Luke. Before she reaches the gate she is distracted by the white-robed figure of Grace Markway and crashes into a tree.The three find Eleanor dead in the half overturned car. She crashed into the same tree that killed the first Mrs. Crain. Grace wanders over to the accident scene. She explains to her husband, "I didn't want any of this to happen. You must believe me, John." She explains that she woke and was frightened. She got lost looking for her husband and ended up in the attic. While Theo blames Grace for Eleanor's accident, Luke takes a different view. "Eleanor did it to herself. It looked to me, anyway, like she deliberately aimed the car at this tree." Markway blames the house. Luke stares at the house and remarks, "It ought to be burned down and the ground sowed with salt."We close with an evening shot of Hill House with Eleanor, now a ghost, narrating from beyond the grave about Hill House and that "we who walk here... walk alone." The end title comes up as well as the final title card 'The Haunting' followed by eerie piano music. | The Haunting | d1aa6454-19ea-1df0-8ae2-8afba453fad0 | What do Theo and Eleonor do that night? | [
"Fall asleep in the same bed"
] | false |
/m/03srb9 | The film opens with narration over a silhouette of Hill House at night. The narrator, Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) tells us, "An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House. Whatever walked there walked alone." Title and credits follow, then narration continues, "Scandal, murder, insanity, suicide: The history of Hill House was ideal. It had everything I wanted..." The house was built in New England by a man named Hugh Crain for his wife and young daughter. A horse and carriage accident took the life of the first Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Pamela Buckley) before she even saw the house. Hugh Crain (an uncredited Howard Lang) and young daughter, Abigail (an uncredited Janet Mansell) said a few words over the body, but Hugh was left an embittered man. Crain married again, and the second Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Freda Knorr) also died, falling down the main staircase. Hugh Crain left Abigail with a nurse (an uncredited Susan Richards) and went to England where he died in a drowning accident. Abigail kept the same nursery room her entire life. By the time she was eighty (an uncredited Amy Dalby) she was a bedridden invalid. Her nurse-companion (an uncredited Rosemary Dorken) was a local girl and, it is with this young companion the evil reputation of Hill House really begins. The old lady died while calling for help. The companion was trysting on the verandah with a farm hand. The companion inherited Hill House and occupied it for many years, but eventually hanged herself. The house then passed to a distant relative, named Mrs. Sanderson (Fay Compton).Markway visits Mrs. Sanderson where he convinces her to let him use the house for psychic research. He explains, "I shall occupy the house with a group of carefully selected assistants...I must have specially qualified help to take notes and document any evidence of the supernatural I may find." Eldridge Harper (Ronald Adam), Mrs. Sanderson's lawyer, voices his concern about publicity seekers and the propriety of having women in the house. Harper suggests to Mrs. Sanderson that her nephew, Luke, joins the doctor at Hill House, as he expects to inherit the property. Mrs. Sanderson asks point blank, "Exactly what do you and your assistants expect to find at Hill House?" Markway replies, "Maybe only a few loose floorboards, and maybe, I only say maybe, the key to another world."Dr. Markway, taking a leave of absence from his university professorship, finalizes his list of assistants. Only two end up accepting, Eleanor Lance and Theodora (no last name).Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris) is living with her sister. She is nearly broke and weary after looking after her invalid mother non-stop for eleven years. Mother is now dead, and she fights with her sister over just about everything. She begs to use the car, which is after all, half hers. Her brother-in-law, Bud Fredericks (an uncredited Paul Maxwell) tries to act as mediator between Eleanor and his wife, Carrie (Diane Clare). He is sympathetic to Eleanor's plight, but their daughter, Dora (an uncredited Verina Greenlaw) takes her cues from her mother, and taunts her Aunt Eleanor. On the vacation plan, Bud sides with Eleanor, "I think you should have a vacation, Nell." Carrie objects, but Eleanor is not to be deterred and she shows her family how she reacts when pushed to her breaking point. She is normally quiet and meek, but when pushed is loud and assertive.Nell decides to take the car and confronts the garage attendant (an uncredited Claude Jones) for the keys. She departs Boston along U.S. 50 and Route 238 to Hill House. We hear Nell thinking and she reveals she will never return to live with her sister. In fact, most of what we learn of Eleanor is hearing her thoughts.Eleanor arrives at Hill House. The property is surrounded by a stone wall and the entrance by a tall, iron spiked, gate. She honks the car horn, and Mr. Dudley (Valentine Dyall), the cranky caretaker, finally deigns to respond. "What do you want?" he asks. Eleanor explains that she is expected. After an impertinent exchange with Eleanor, Dudley finally opens the gate and allows her to enter the property. Eleanor is the first to arrive and drives up to the house. Along the way she stops to look at it. It is a huge, stone mansion with lots of detail on the façade and steep, pitched roofs. Her first reaction is that the house is vile and it is staring at her. She carries her suitcase to the front door and is greeted by Mrs. Dudley (Rosalie Crutchley). Mrs. Dudley reluctantly allows Eleanor to come inside, but does not utter a word to her.The inside of the house is dark and over-decorated, and Eleanor is escorted to her room. Mrs. Dudley explains the house rules about meals, and that she won't stay in the house after dark. Eleanor checks out the bathroom and hears the next guest arrive. Theodora (Claire Bloom) introduces herself. Eleanor explains they share a bathroom. Mrs. Dudley repeats her meal and departure rules by rote, but Theo and Nell ignore her. Theodora is a bit strange to Eleanor (Theo clearly flirts with Eleanor throughout the film) Theodora's sexual orientation is only hinted at, and we later learn she has the gift of ESP. Theo and Nell explore the house, but they get lost. Both women feel a chill, and Nell observes, "The house, it's alive." Theo seems to feel that the house wants Nell.Dr. Markway appears and explains he left the door opened, but it closed itself. Markway gives the women a tour of part of the house, starting with the main purple parlor, which they will use as an operations center. He explains that all the doors were set slightly off-center, so they close themselves. Despite studying plans to the house, even Markway gets lost on his way to the dining room. They hear a noise, but it turns out to be Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn) mixing a pitcher of martinis as he enters the dining room. Luke serves each person a martini. They sit down for dinner and discuss their duties and responsibilities. Markway explains that Theo was accepted because of her remarkable power of ESP and Eleanor had a poltergeist experience as a child, "showers of stone fell on your house for three days when you were 10 years old." Luke is a non-believer. His interest is to financially exploit Hill House, after he inherits it, of course.That evening, in the parlor, Markway works on his notes while Eleanor sits quietly on the couch. Theo and Luke play gin rummy at the game table. Theo's ability to see cards allows her to win five games in a row, much to Luke annoyance. She demands he pay her the $12 he owes, but he refuses because she cheated. The four decide to turn in for the night and continue the tour the next morning. Markway gives them papers and asks that they complete them with their observations each night.Sometime during the night, Eleanor wakes, and still in a near dream state, thinks she hears her mother knocking on the wall. Theo hears it from the next room also and calls to Nell. The two women are frightened and both hear the pounding noise. It comes and goes, but louder each time. They finally hear a woman shrieking and laughing that fades away. When Nell opens the door she sees Luke and Markway in the hall outside. The men explain they were chasing a dog and followed it outside, but they did not hear the loud noises the women heard. Markway concludes that something is trying to separate the men and women.The next morning, Markway and Nell join for breakfast. Nell is starting to develop romantic feelings for John Markway, unaware that he is married. She tells him that she spent eleven years taking care of her invalid mother. Nell also voices her fear that she will be turned out of Hill House with no where to go. Markway tells Nell how he came to do psychic research, and that his family disapproves. Theo joins the pair and warns the doctor, "If anyone gets hurt, it's going to be your fault, Markway." Markway explains that no one has ever been physically hurt by a ghost. Luke enters and directs his companions to something he saw in the hall. Someone or something has handwritten a message in chalk on the wall. It says, "Help Eleanor Come Home." Eleanor reacts strongly. She first accuses Theo of playing a cruel joke. The two women bicker and Markway postpones the tour and tells Theo to take Eleanor to her room.The tour starts with the greenhouse. A large stone sculpture sits in the center of the room. It is supposed to be St. Francis curing the lepers, but Luke thinks its a family portrait of Hugh Crain and his wives and daughter. Suddenly, the door slams open and a gust of wind moves the plants. They approach the library, but Nell refuses to enter. The smell reminds her of her mother's sick room. Prominent in the room is a very tall, wrought iron, spiral staircase. Markway points out that the balcony high above is where the companion to Abigail Crain hanged herself. Luke climbs up a few feet on the staircase, but jumps back to the ground when it starts to sway and shake.Eleanor ventures out to the verandah and nearly falls over the balcony as she looks up to the tower above the library. Markway threatens to send her home, but Nell begs to stay. Markway suggests Theo and Nell share a bedroom... "like sisters". That evening, the two women discuss their lives and plans for the future. Nell makes up a story about having an apartment of her own. Just when Theo is about to make a move onto Nell, Markway calls them and Luke into the hallway outside the Nursery. He has discovered a cold spot. He invites all to experience the phenomenon. He gleefully explains, "A cold spot, a genuine cold spot. I guarantee it won't register on any thermometer." Luke dismisses it as just a draft, but Markway says it is the heart of Hill House: The Nursery.In the middle of the night, Nell awakens. She hears a little girl laughing. She asks Theo to hold her hand, as their two beds are almost touching. The laughter continues and Nell complains, "Theo, you're breaking my hand." The laughs turn to wimpering and Nell complains that something is hurting a child and she won't allow that to happen. She yells, "Stop It!" Theo turns on the light and we see Nell is on a day bed about twenty feet from the bed Theo occupies. Nell stares at her hand and asks, "Whose hand was I holding?"The next morning, Markway is in the music room and checks his watch and makes a note about the harp playing itself. Nell enters the room and asks about how it could play itself. Markway explains that it may be preternatural: Something we don't have any natural explanation for right now, but probably will have some day. Nell voices her fear that it is all in her imagination and concludes she may be going insane. She is haunted by the circumstances of her mother's death and that she may somehow be responsible. They both hear the harp play a note and Markway again checks his watch and makes a note in his paperwork.That evening, Luke finds a disturbing book that Hugh Crain made for his daughter, Abigail. Nell and Theo bicker and Markway notes that everyone's nerves are on edge. Theo continues to flirt as well as needle Nell, this time about a budding romance she fantasizes about with John Markway. Nell runs away and Theo catches up to her, and tells Nell that is he is making a fool of herself in thinking that Dr. Markway will ever get involved with her. Nell accuses Theo of being an "unnatural thing" as well as a "nature's mistake."At that moment, a car horn honks and a taxi pulls up in front of the house. Grace Markway (Lois Maxwell), John's wife, arrives. She informs her husband, "A reporter's been telephoning all day. He's on your track. He's heard about you renting this place." Grace begs her husband to abandon the house and his research. When John refuses, Grace pays the driver, grabs her suitcase and announces she is staying at Hill House, "to join the ghost hunt." When Eleanor casually mentions the nursery as a place to stay, Grace quickly accepts the challenge, "Thank you, my dear. The nursery it is." Markway and Nell try to dissuade her, but Grace responds, "You insult my intelligence. You don't think I'd believe anything you ghost hunters might tell me." Luke notices the door to the nursery is open for the first time. Grace decides to spend the night in the room, despite everyone's warning not to. Markway insists he and the three researchers spend the night downstairs in the parlor.Later that night, Nell and Theo sleep together on the sofa by the fireplace as Markway sleeps in a chair. Luke finishes his tour upstairs and enters the parlor. He heads for a bottle on the mantle. Suddenly, the parlor door slams shut by itself and the others wake with a start. They hear a deep rhythmic banging outside the door. Markway is concerned about his wife upstairs. Next a very loud banging comes from just outside the door. The unseen phantom presses against the parlor door as it bows inward and out like breathing, creaking and crunching against the hinges. The sound moves to overhead towards the nursery. Markway is desperate to check on his wife.Unseen, Nell runs from the parlor, through the music room, and upstairs directly to the nursery room. The doors are open, but Grace Markway is nowhere to be seen. Her bed shows signs of being used. Markway and the others arrive and start the search. Nell wanders away. She finds herself in the greenhouse. Descending into her own little world, Nell dances out onto the verandah. When she hears the others calling to her, Nell runs into the Library. She is drawn to the spiral staircase and the balcony at the top. Before she reaches the top, the rickety staircase begins its swaying, the lateral support bolts pulling away from the wall. Markway calls to her, begging her to carefully walk back down. She ignores him and stands on the balcony. Markway carefully climbs the stairs and joins Nell on the iron balcony platform. Before they walk back down, Nell sees Grace Markway peer at her through a trap door in the ceiling.A little later, Markway is furious and now insists Eleanor leave the house for her own safety. Luke brings her car around and Theo packs her bag. Nell tries to talk them out of her dismissal, but the three insist she leave. They escort Eleanor out to her car. Luke gets back out of Nell's car to retrieve the gate key from Markway. She drives off without Luke. Before she reaches the gate she is distracted by the white-robed figure of Grace Markway and crashes into a tree.The three find Eleanor dead in the half overturned car. She crashed into the same tree that killed the first Mrs. Crain. Grace wanders over to the accident scene. She explains to her husband, "I didn't want any of this to happen. You must believe me, John." She explains that she woke and was frightened. She got lost looking for her husband and ended up in the attic. While Theo blames Grace for Eleanor's accident, Luke takes a different view. "Eleanor did it to herself. It looked to me, anyway, like she deliberately aimed the car at this tree." Markway blames the house. Luke stares at the house and remarks, "It ought to be burned down and the ground sowed with salt."We close with an evening shot of Hill House with Eleanor, now a ghost, narrating from beyond the grave about Hill House and that "we who walk here... walk alone." The end title comes up as well as the final title card 'The Haunting' followed by eerie piano music. | The Haunting | 24411d62-c1bf-9dfe-9e6f-0f9c26a0195e | who crashes into the tree and is killed? | [
"Eleanor"
] | false |
/m/03srb9 | The film opens with narration over a silhouette of Hill House at night. The narrator, Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) tells us, "An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House. Whatever walked there walked alone." Title and credits follow, then narration continues, "Scandal, murder, insanity, suicide: The history of Hill House was ideal. It had everything I wanted..." The house was built in New England by a man named Hugh Crain for his wife and young daughter. A horse and carriage accident took the life of the first Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Pamela Buckley) before she even saw the house. Hugh Crain (an uncredited Howard Lang) and young daughter, Abigail (an uncredited Janet Mansell) said a few words over the body, but Hugh was left an embittered man. Crain married again, and the second Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Freda Knorr) also died, falling down the main staircase. Hugh Crain left Abigail with a nurse (an uncredited Susan Richards) and went to England where he died in a drowning accident. Abigail kept the same nursery room her entire life. By the time she was eighty (an uncredited Amy Dalby) she was a bedridden invalid. Her nurse-companion (an uncredited Rosemary Dorken) was a local girl and, it is with this young companion the evil reputation of Hill House really begins. The old lady died while calling for help. The companion was trysting on the verandah with a farm hand. The companion inherited Hill House and occupied it for many years, but eventually hanged herself. The house then passed to a distant relative, named Mrs. Sanderson (Fay Compton).Markway visits Mrs. Sanderson where he convinces her to let him use the house for psychic research. He explains, "I shall occupy the house with a group of carefully selected assistants...I must have specially qualified help to take notes and document any evidence of the supernatural I may find." Eldridge Harper (Ronald Adam), Mrs. Sanderson's lawyer, voices his concern about publicity seekers and the propriety of having women in the house. Harper suggests to Mrs. Sanderson that her nephew, Luke, joins the doctor at Hill House, as he expects to inherit the property. Mrs. Sanderson asks point blank, "Exactly what do you and your assistants expect to find at Hill House?" Markway replies, "Maybe only a few loose floorboards, and maybe, I only say maybe, the key to another world."Dr. Markway, taking a leave of absence from his university professorship, finalizes his list of assistants. Only two end up accepting, Eleanor Lance and Theodora (no last name).Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris) is living with her sister. She is nearly broke and weary after looking after her invalid mother non-stop for eleven years. Mother is now dead, and she fights with her sister over just about everything. She begs to use the car, which is after all, half hers. Her brother-in-law, Bud Fredericks (an uncredited Paul Maxwell) tries to act as mediator between Eleanor and his wife, Carrie (Diane Clare). He is sympathetic to Eleanor's plight, but their daughter, Dora (an uncredited Verina Greenlaw) takes her cues from her mother, and taunts her Aunt Eleanor. On the vacation plan, Bud sides with Eleanor, "I think you should have a vacation, Nell." Carrie objects, but Eleanor is not to be deterred and she shows her family how she reacts when pushed to her breaking point. She is normally quiet and meek, but when pushed is loud and assertive.Nell decides to take the car and confronts the garage attendant (an uncredited Claude Jones) for the keys. She departs Boston along U.S. 50 and Route 238 to Hill House. We hear Nell thinking and she reveals she will never return to live with her sister. In fact, most of what we learn of Eleanor is hearing her thoughts.Eleanor arrives at Hill House. The property is surrounded by a stone wall and the entrance by a tall, iron spiked, gate. She honks the car horn, and Mr. Dudley (Valentine Dyall), the cranky caretaker, finally deigns to respond. "What do you want?" he asks. Eleanor explains that she is expected. After an impertinent exchange with Eleanor, Dudley finally opens the gate and allows her to enter the property. Eleanor is the first to arrive and drives up to the house. Along the way she stops to look at it. It is a huge, stone mansion with lots of detail on the façade and steep, pitched roofs. Her first reaction is that the house is vile and it is staring at her. She carries her suitcase to the front door and is greeted by Mrs. Dudley (Rosalie Crutchley). Mrs. Dudley reluctantly allows Eleanor to come inside, but does not utter a word to her.The inside of the house is dark and over-decorated, and Eleanor is escorted to her room. Mrs. Dudley explains the house rules about meals, and that she won't stay in the house after dark. Eleanor checks out the bathroom and hears the next guest arrive. Theodora (Claire Bloom) introduces herself. Eleanor explains they share a bathroom. Mrs. Dudley repeats her meal and departure rules by rote, but Theo and Nell ignore her. Theodora is a bit strange to Eleanor (Theo clearly flirts with Eleanor throughout the film) Theodora's sexual orientation is only hinted at, and we later learn she has the gift of ESP. Theo and Nell explore the house, but they get lost. Both women feel a chill, and Nell observes, "The house, it's alive." Theo seems to feel that the house wants Nell.Dr. Markway appears and explains he left the door opened, but it closed itself. Markway gives the women a tour of part of the house, starting with the main purple parlor, which they will use as an operations center. He explains that all the doors were set slightly off-center, so they close themselves. Despite studying plans to the house, even Markway gets lost on his way to the dining room. They hear a noise, but it turns out to be Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn) mixing a pitcher of martinis as he enters the dining room. Luke serves each person a martini. They sit down for dinner and discuss their duties and responsibilities. Markway explains that Theo was accepted because of her remarkable power of ESP and Eleanor had a poltergeist experience as a child, "showers of stone fell on your house for three days when you were 10 years old." Luke is a non-believer. His interest is to financially exploit Hill House, after he inherits it, of course.That evening, in the parlor, Markway works on his notes while Eleanor sits quietly on the couch. Theo and Luke play gin rummy at the game table. Theo's ability to see cards allows her to win five games in a row, much to Luke annoyance. She demands he pay her the $12 he owes, but he refuses because she cheated. The four decide to turn in for the night and continue the tour the next morning. Markway gives them papers and asks that they complete them with their observations each night.Sometime during the night, Eleanor wakes, and still in a near dream state, thinks she hears her mother knocking on the wall. Theo hears it from the next room also and calls to Nell. The two women are frightened and both hear the pounding noise. It comes and goes, but louder each time. They finally hear a woman shrieking and laughing that fades away. When Nell opens the door she sees Luke and Markway in the hall outside. The men explain they were chasing a dog and followed it outside, but they did not hear the loud noises the women heard. Markway concludes that something is trying to separate the men and women.The next morning, Markway and Nell join for breakfast. Nell is starting to develop romantic feelings for John Markway, unaware that he is married. She tells him that she spent eleven years taking care of her invalid mother. Nell also voices her fear that she will be turned out of Hill House with no where to go. Markway tells Nell how he came to do psychic research, and that his family disapproves. Theo joins the pair and warns the doctor, "If anyone gets hurt, it's going to be your fault, Markway." Markway explains that no one has ever been physically hurt by a ghost. Luke enters and directs his companions to something he saw in the hall. Someone or something has handwritten a message in chalk on the wall. It says, "Help Eleanor Come Home." Eleanor reacts strongly. She first accuses Theo of playing a cruel joke. The two women bicker and Markway postpones the tour and tells Theo to take Eleanor to her room.The tour starts with the greenhouse. A large stone sculpture sits in the center of the room. It is supposed to be St. Francis curing the lepers, but Luke thinks its a family portrait of Hugh Crain and his wives and daughter. Suddenly, the door slams open and a gust of wind moves the plants. They approach the library, but Nell refuses to enter. The smell reminds her of her mother's sick room. Prominent in the room is a very tall, wrought iron, spiral staircase. Markway points out that the balcony high above is where the companion to Abigail Crain hanged herself. Luke climbs up a few feet on the staircase, but jumps back to the ground when it starts to sway and shake.Eleanor ventures out to the verandah and nearly falls over the balcony as she looks up to the tower above the library. Markway threatens to send her home, but Nell begs to stay. Markway suggests Theo and Nell share a bedroom... "like sisters". That evening, the two women discuss their lives and plans for the future. Nell makes up a story about having an apartment of her own. Just when Theo is about to make a move onto Nell, Markway calls them and Luke into the hallway outside the Nursery. He has discovered a cold spot. He invites all to experience the phenomenon. He gleefully explains, "A cold spot, a genuine cold spot. I guarantee it won't register on any thermometer." Luke dismisses it as just a draft, but Markway says it is the heart of Hill House: The Nursery.In the middle of the night, Nell awakens. She hears a little girl laughing. She asks Theo to hold her hand, as their two beds are almost touching. The laughter continues and Nell complains, "Theo, you're breaking my hand." The laughs turn to wimpering and Nell complains that something is hurting a child and she won't allow that to happen. She yells, "Stop It!" Theo turns on the light and we see Nell is on a day bed about twenty feet from the bed Theo occupies. Nell stares at her hand and asks, "Whose hand was I holding?"The next morning, Markway is in the music room and checks his watch and makes a note about the harp playing itself. Nell enters the room and asks about how it could play itself. Markway explains that it may be preternatural: Something we don't have any natural explanation for right now, but probably will have some day. Nell voices her fear that it is all in her imagination and concludes she may be going insane. She is haunted by the circumstances of her mother's death and that she may somehow be responsible. They both hear the harp play a note and Markway again checks his watch and makes a note in his paperwork.That evening, Luke finds a disturbing book that Hugh Crain made for his daughter, Abigail. Nell and Theo bicker and Markway notes that everyone's nerves are on edge. Theo continues to flirt as well as needle Nell, this time about a budding romance she fantasizes about with John Markway. Nell runs away and Theo catches up to her, and tells Nell that is he is making a fool of herself in thinking that Dr. Markway will ever get involved with her. Nell accuses Theo of being an "unnatural thing" as well as a "nature's mistake."At that moment, a car horn honks and a taxi pulls up in front of the house. Grace Markway (Lois Maxwell), John's wife, arrives. She informs her husband, "A reporter's been telephoning all day. He's on your track. He's heard about you renting this place." Grace begs her husband to abandon the house and his research. When John refuses, Grace pays the driver, grabs her suitcase and announces she is staying at Hill House, "to join the ghost hunt." When Eleanor casually mentions the nursery as a place to stay, Grace quickly accepts the challenge, "Thank you, my dear. The nursery it is." Markway and Nell try to dissuade her, but Grace responds, "You insult my intelligence. You don't think I'd believe anything you ghost hunters might tell me." Luke notices the door to the nursery is open for the first time. Grace decides to spend the night in the room, despite everyone's warning not to. Markway insists he and the three researchers spend the night downstairs in the parlor.Later that night, Nell and Theo sleep together on the sofa by the fireplace as Markway sleeps in a chair. Luke finishes his tour upstairs and enters the parlor. He heads for a bottle on the mantle. Suddenly, the parlor door slams shut by itself and the others wake with a start. They hear a deep rhythmic banging outside the door. Markway is concerned about his wife upstairs. Next a very loud banging comes from just outside the door. The unseen phantom presses against the parlor door as it bows inward and out like breathing, creaking and crunching against the hinges. The sound moves to overhead towards the nursery. Markway is desperate to check on his wife.Unseen, Nell runs from the parlor, through the music room, and upstairs directly to the nursery room. The doors are open, but Grace Markway is nowhere to be seen. Her bed shows signs of being used. Markway and the others arrive and start the search. Nell wanders away. She finds herself in the greenhouse. Descending into her own little world, Nell dances out onto the verandah. When she hears the others calling to her, Nell runs into the Library. She is drawn to the spiral staircase and the balcony at the top. Before she reaches the top, the rickety staircase begins its swaying, the lateral support bolts pulling away from the wall. Markway calls to her, begging her to carefully walk back down. She ignores him and stands on the balcony. Markway carefully climbs the stairs and joins Nell on the iron balcony platform. Before they walk back down, Nell sees Grace Markway peer at her through a trap door in the ceiling.A little later, Markway is furious and now insists Eleanor leave the house for her own safety. Luke brings her car around and Theo packs her bag. Nell tries to talk them out of her dismissal, but the three insist she leave. They escort Eleanor out to her car. Luke gets back out of Nell's car to retrieve the gate key from Markway. She drives off without Luke. Before she reaches the gate she is distracted by the white-robed figure of Grace Markway and crashes into a tree.The three find Eleanor dead in the half overturned car. She crashed into the same tree that killed the first Mrs. Crain. Grace wanders over to the accident scene. She explains to her husband, "I didn't want any of this to happen. You must believe me, John." She explains that she woke and was frightened. She got lost looking for her husband and ended up in the attic. While Theo blames Grace for Eleanor's accident, Luke takes a different view. "Eleanor did it to herself. It looked to me, anyway, like she deliberately aimed the car at this tree." Markway blames the house. Luke stares at the house and remarks, "It ought to be burned down and the ground sowed with salt."We close with an evening shot of Hill House with Eleanor, now a ghost, narrating from beyond the grave about Hill House and that "we who walk here... walk alone." The end title comes up as well as the final title card 'The Haunting' followed by eerie piano music. | The Haunting | 32fd47c0-6200-b0ac-0641-659ab652b04a | Who is Eleanor's sister? | [
"Jane"
] | false |
/m/03srb9 | The film opens with narration over a silhouette of Hill House at night. The narrator, Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) tells us, "An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House. Whatever walked there walked alone." Title and credits follow, then narration continues, "Scandal, murder, insanity, suicide: The history of Hill House was ideal. It had everything I wanted..." The house was built in New England by a man named Hugh Crain for his wife and young daughter. A horse and carriage accident took the life of the first Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Pamela Buckley) before she even saw the house. Hugh Crain (an uncredited Howard Lang) and young daughter, Abigail (an uncredited Janet Mansell) said a few words over the body, but Hugh was left an embittered man. Crain married again, and the second Mrs. Crain (an uncredited Freda Knorr) also died, falling down the main staircase. Hugh Crain left Abigail with a nurse (an uncredited Susan Richards) and went to England where he died in a drowning accident. Abigail kept the same nursery room her entire life. By the time she was eighty (an uncredited Amy Dalby) she was a bedridden invalid. Her nurse-companion (an uncredited Rosemary Dorken) was a local girl and, it is with this young companion the evil reputation of Hill House really begins. The old lady died while calling for help. The companion was trysting on the verandah with a farm hand. The companion inherited Hill House and occupied it for many years, but eventually hanged herself. The house then passed to a distant relative, named Mrs. Sanderson (Fay Compton).Markway visits Mrs. Sanderson where he convinces her to let him use the house for psychic research. He explains, "I shall occupy the house with a group of carefully selected assistants...I must have specially qualified help to take notes and document any evidence of the supernatural I may find." Eldridge Harper (Ronald Adam), Mrs. Sanderson's lawyer, voices his concern about publicity seekers and the propriety of having women in the house. Harper suggests to Mrs. Sanderson that her nephew, Luke, joins the doctor at Hill House, as he expects to inherit the property. Mrs. Sanderson asks point blank, "Exactly what do you and your assistants expect to find at Hill House?" Markway replies, "Maybe only a few loose floorboards, and maybe, I only say maybe, the key to another world."Dr. Markway, taking a leave of absence from his university professorship, finalizes his list of assistants. Only two end up accepting, Eleanor Lance and Theodora (no last name).Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris) is living with her sister. She is nearly broke and weary after looking after her invalid mother non-stop for eleven years. Mother is now dead, and she fights with her sister over just about everything. She begs to use the car, which is after all, half hers. Her brother-in-law, Bud Fredericks (an uncredited Paul Maxwell) tries to act as mediator between Eleanor and his wife, Carrie (Diane Clare). He is sympathetic to Eleanor's plight, but their daughter, Dora (an uncredited Verina Greenlaw) takes her cues from her mother, and taunts her Aunt Eleanor. On the vacation plan, Bud sides with Eleanor, "I think you should have a vacation, Nell." Carrie objects, but Eleanor is not to be deterred and she shows her family how she reacts when pushed to her breaking point. She is normally quiet and meek, but when pushed is loud and assertive.Nell decides to take the car and confronts the garage attendant (an uncredited Claude Jones) for the keys. She departs Boston along U.S. 50 and Route 238 to Hill House. We hear Nell thinking and she reveals she will never return to live with her sister. In fact, most of what we learn of Eleanor is hearing her thoughts.Eleanor arrives at Hill House. The property is surrounded by a stone wall and the entrance by a tall, iron spiked, gate. She honks the car horn, and Mr. Dudley (Valentine Dyall), the cranky caretaker, finally deigns to respond. "What do you want?" he asks. Eleanor explains that she is expected. After an impertinent exchange with Eleanor, Dudley finally opens the gate and allows her to enter the property. Eleanor is the first to arrive and drives up to the house. Along the way she stops to look at it. It is a huge, stone mansion with lots of detail on the façade and steep, pitched roofs. Her first reaction is that the house is vile and it is staring at her. She carries her suitcase to the front door and is greeted by Mrs. Dudley (Rosalie Crutchley). Mrs. Dudley reluctantly allows Eleanor to come inside, but does not utter a word to her.The inside of the house is dark and over-decorated, and Eleanor is escorted to her room. Mrs. Dudley explains the house rules about meals, and that she won't stay in the house after dark. Eleanor checks out the bathroom and hears the next guest arrive. Theodora (Claire Bloom) introduces herself. Eleanor explains they share a bathroom. Mrs. Dudley repeats her meal and departure rules by rote, but Theo and Nell ignore her. Theodora is a bit strange to Eleanor (Theo clearly flirts with Eleanor throughout the film) Theodora's sexual orientation is only hinted at, and we later learn she has the gift of ESP. Theo and Nell explore the house, but they get lost. Both women feel a chill, and Nell observes, "The house, it's alive." Theo seems to feel that the house wants Nell.Dr. Markway appears and explains he left the door opened, but it closed itself. Markway gives the women a tour of part of the house, starting with the main purple parlor, which they will use as an operations center. He explains that all the doors were set slightly off-center, so they close themselves. Despite studying plans to the house, even Markway gets lost on his way to the dining room. They hear a noise, but it turns out to be Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn) mixing a pitcher of martinis as he enters the dining room. Luke serves each person a martini. They sit down for dinner and discuss their duties and responsibilities. Markway explains that Theo was accepted because of her remarkable power of ESP and Eleanor had a poltergeist experience as a child, "showers of stone fell on your house for three days when you were 10 years old." Luke is a non-believer. His interest is to financially exploit Hill House, after he inherits it, of course.That evening, in the parlor, Markway works on his notes while Eleanor sits quietly on the couch. Theo and Luke play gin rummy at the game table. Theo's ability to see cards allows her to win five games in a row, much to Luke annoyance. She demands he pay her the $12 he owes, but he refuses because she cheated. The four decide to turn in for the night and continue the tour the next morning. Markway gives them papers and asks that they complete them with their observations each night.Sometime during the night, Eleanor wakes, and still in a near dream state, thinks she hears her mother knocking on the wall. Theo hears it from the next room also and calls to Nell. The two women are frightened and both hear the pounding noise. It comes and goes, but louder each time. They finally hear a woman shrieking and laughing that fades away. When Nell opens the door she sees Luke and Markway in the hall outside. The men explain they were chasing a dog and followed it outside, but they did not hear the loud noises the women heard. Markway concludes that something is trying to separate the men and women.The next morning, Markway and Nell join for breakfast. Nell is starting to develop romantic feelings for John Markway, unaware that he is married. She tells him that she spent eleven years taking care of her invalid mother. Nell also voices her fear that she will be turned out of Hill House with no where to go. Markway tells Nell how he came to do psychic research, and that his family disapproves. Theo joins the pair and warns the doctor, "If anyone gets hurt, it's going to be your fault, Markway." Markway explains that no one has ever been physically hurt by a ghost. Luke enters and directs his companions to something he saw in the hall. Someone or something has handwritten a message in chalk on the wall. It says, "Help Eleanor Come Home." Eleanor reacts strongly. She first accuses Theo of playing a cruel joke. The two women bicker and Markway postpones the tour and tells Theo to take Eleanor to her room.The tour starts with the greenhouse. A large stone sculpture sits in the center of the room. It is supposed to be St. Francis curing the lepers, but Luke thinks its a family portrait of Hugh Crain and his wives and daughter. Suddenly, the door slams open and a gust of wind moves the plants. They approach the library, but Nell refuses to enter. The smell reminds her of her mother's sick room. Prominent in the room is a very tall, wrought iron, spiral staircase. Markway points out that the balcony high above is where the companion to Abigail Crain hanged herself. Luke climbs up a few feet on the staircase, but jumps back to the ground when it starts to sway and shake.Eleanor ventures out to the verandah and nearly falls over the balcony as she looks up to the tower above the library. Markway threatens to send her home, but Nell begs to stay. Markway suggests Theo and Nell share a bedroom... "like sisters". That evening, the two women discuss their lives and plans for the future. Nell makes up a story about having an apartment of her own. Just when Theo is about to make a move onto Nell, Markway calls them and Luke into the hallway outside the Nursery. He has discovered a cold spot. He invites all to experience the phenomenon. He gleefully explains, "A cold spot, a genuine cold spot. I guarantee it won't register on any thermometer." Luke dismisses it as just a draft, but Markway says it is the heart of Hill House: The Nursery.In the middle of the night, Nell awakens. She hears a little girl laughing. She asks Theo to hold her hand, as their two beds are almost touching. The laughter continues and Nell complains, "Theo, you're breaking my hand." The laughs turn to wimpering and Nell complains that something is hurting a child and she won't allow that to happen. She yells, "Stop It!" Theo turns on the light and we see Nell is on a day bed about twenty feet from the bed Theo occupies. Nell stares at her hand and asks, "Whose hand was I holding?"The next morning, Markway is in the music room and checks his watch and makes a note about the harp playing itself. Nell enters the room and asks about how it could play itself. Markway explains that it may be preternatural: Something we don't have any natural explanation for right now, but probably will have some day. Nell voices her fear that it is all in her imagination and concludes she may be going insane. She is haunted by the circumstances of her mother's death and that she may somehow be responsible. They both hear the harp play a note and Markway again checks his watch and makes a note in his paperwork.That evening, Luke finds a disturbing book that Hugh Crain made for his daughter, Abigail. Nell and Theo bicker and Markway notes that everyone's nerves are on edge. Theo continues to flirt as well as needle Nell, this time about a budding romance she fantasizes about with John Markway. Nell runs away and Theo catches up to her, and tells Nell that is he is making a fool of herself in thinking that Dr. Markway will ever get involved with her. Nell accuses Theo of being an "unnatural thing" as well as a "nature's mistake."At that moment, a car horn honks and a taxi pulls up in front of the house. Grace Markway (Lois Maxwell), John's wife, arrives. She informs her husband, "A reporter's been telephoning all day. He's on your track. He's heard about you renting this place." Grace begs her husband to abandon the house and his research. When John refuses, Grace pays the driver, grabs her suitcase and announces she is staying at Hill House, "to join the ghost hunt." When Eleanor casually mentions the nursery as a place to stay, Grace quickly accepts the challenge, "Thank you, my dear. The nursery it is." Markway and Nell try to dissuade her, but Grace responds, "You insult my intelligence. You don't think I'd believe anything you ghost hunters might tell me." Luke notices the door to the nursery is open for the first time. Grace decides to spend the night in the room, despite everyone's warning not to. Markway insists he and the three researchers spend the night downstairs in the parlor.Later that night, Nell and Theo sleep together on the sofa by the fireplace as Markway sleeps in a chair. Luke finishes his tour upstairs and enters the parlor. He heads for a bottle on the mantle. Suddenly, the parlor door slams shut by itself and the others wake with a start. They hear a deep rhythmic banging outside the door. Markway is concerned about his wife upstairs. Next a very loud banging comes from just outside the door. The unseen phantom presses against the parlor door as it bows inward and out like breathing, creaking and crunching against the hinges. The sound moves to overhead towards the nursery. Markway is desperate to check on his wife.Unseen, Nell runs from the parlor, through the music room, and upstairs directly to the nursery room. The doors are open, but Grace Markway is nowhere to be seen. Her bed shows signs of being used. Markway and the others arrive and start the search. Nell wanders away. She finds herself in the greenhouse. Descending into her own little world, Nell dances out onto the verandah. When she hears the others calling to her, Nell runs into the Library. She is drawn to the spiral staircase and the balcony at the top. Before she reaches the top, the rickety staircase begins its swaying, the lateral support bolts pulling away from the wall. Markway calls to her, begging her to carefully walk back down. She ignores him and stands on the balcony. Markway carefully climbs the stairs and joins Nell on the iron balcony platform. Before they walk back down, Nell sees Grace Markway peer at her through a trap door in the ceiling.A little later, Markway is furious and now insists Eleanor leave the house for her own safety. Luke brings her car around and Theo packs her bag. Nell tries to talk them out of her dismissal, but the three insist she leave. They escort Eleanor out to her car. Luke gets back out of Nell's car to retrieve the gate key from Markway. She drives off without Luke. Before she reaches the gate she is distracted by the white-robed figure of Grace Markway and crashes into a tree.The three find Eleanor dead in the half overturned car. She crashed into the same tree that killed the first Mrs. Crain. Grace wanders over to the accident scene. She explains to her husband, "I didn't want any of this to happen. You must believe me, John." She explains that she woke and was frightened. She got lost looking for her husband and ended up in the attic. While Theo blames Grace for Eleanor's accident, Luke takes a different view. "Eleanor did it to herself. It looked to me, anyway, like she deliberately aimed the car at this tree." Markway blames the house. Luke stares at the house and remarks, "It ought to be burned down and the ground sowed with salt."We close with an evening shot of Hill House with Eleanor, now a ghost, narrating from beyond the grave about Hill House and that "we who walk here... walk alone." The end title comes up as well as the final title card 'The Haunting' followed by eerie piano music. | The Haunting | 16bae6d9-08e0-771d-f2e3-f1e81822b3b8 | What happens to Luke at the fireplace? | [
"Luke is decapitated",
"He is decapitated.",
"He is decapitated"
] | false |
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