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Reds: A Revolutionary Timeline! Discussion

Molehill was a television series from 1987-1990, created by Steven Bocho.


The series centers on Section 1 of the Committee of State Security, its foreign branch. The particular focus is on a division nicknamed “The Molehill” due to its handling of moles and deep-undercover agents, in addition to defectors and highly volitile political situations. The division is led by Major Laura Suzuki (Michiko Takahata*), and includes CSS officers John Slinger (Joe Hines*) and Kathy Nyugen (Phan Vân Khánh*), field operatives Gerald Gomes(Robert Culp), Rainbow Bruneau (Suzanne Johnson*), and Gennedy Demchenko (Vlad Putin) (a GUGB advisor), and support staff, most of which forms the recurring cast. Suzuki answers to CSS head Mary Schmidt (Candice Bergen) as well as commissar Jimmy Giannachi(Ernest Borgnine), a 70 year old who was part of the original generation of revolutionaries.


Together, they form a cohesive unit who attempt to navigate the complicated and contradictory world of foreign espionage. The stories often pit them against the JSB, which(aside from some portrayals of agents and defectors) is shown as a faceless, expansive, oppressive bureaucracy. Often, they have to contend both with fellow Comintern intelligence agencies in addition to the JSB, often facing rifts and tensions during these missions.


The first season largely centered around self-contained incidents that the Molehill has to deal with. An agent compromised in Copenhagen, a spy plane shot down over the North Sea by the West German military, helping a blacklisted French physicist defect to the UASR, helping Congolese operatives in Nigeria. Sometimes, the missions would be successful. Sometimes, either through their own problems or the more effective nature of the JSB and ESF[1], the missions failed.


Beginning in the second season, however, to spice up the formula, it was decided that a season long arc was needed. Thus was introduced Paul Burns, a high ranking British official at the Joint Security Bureau, who suddenly defects, increasingly sympathetic to the working class after witnessing the government repression after 1979, and especially thanks to the main plot point: an extensive information sharing program between the JSB and the ESF that would both give info on potential spies, but also political dissidents and activists. Burns was notably played by Richard Burton[2], a British defector himself. While they attempt to disrupt this program, Suzuki is informed of a similar program being developed between Comintern intelligence programs. This brings a sense of moral greyness to the preceedings, as Suzuki ponders whether to sabotage the program, feeling that it was contrary to the ideals of transparency. Ultimately, both programs fall apart due to issues with their computers and an attempted hacking of the European system.


Burns became a recurring character, serving as the residential JSB advisor, offering his own insight into their inner workings. This serves to open up the next arc, a two pronged attempt to infiltrate the JSB. One involving a mole inserted to work up the ranks. Another is recruiting another officer. Said officer is Ahmed Anwar (Ratna Gnyawali), an Indian dissatisfied with the racism in the ranks and his lack of progress. Slinger himself is able to successfully infiltrate the organization, and slowly move through the ranks, while attempting to convince Anwar to come over to the other side. In the end, Slinger becomes the personal assistant to the Deputy head, and Anwar is successfully recruited.


The final season largely focuses on Slinger as a infiltrator, taking all information back to the UASR. He also establishes contact with both ESCI organizer Gertrude, whom he starts a relationship with, while assigning Anwar and deep-undercover agents George and Karen McClean with various tasks. All the while, Giannachi,after decades of service, decides to retire, and formally tie up all loose ends. It is revealed that he has terminal cancer, with only weeks to live. At the end of the series, Giannachi dies, and the final episode is his funeral. At the very end, both Anwar and Slinger are arrested for treason, leaving their fates up in the air.


For each of the four seasons, the series would garner critical acclaim, receiving an Emmy in its third season. A TV movie, Molehill: Last Defense, was made as an epilogue, showing Suzuki’s retirement, and Slinger(still imprisoned in the FBU) being released in exchange for a high ranking agent held in the UASR. There were talks of a revival or a remake, modernizing the show.


[1] European Security Force

[2] Special thanks to @Aelita for the idea
 
It does not look like the Union of American Socialist Republics will become as tightly-centralised, famine-suffering, repressive, and technologically stagnant as the Soviet Union did in real life or in the book's world.
 
Last edited:
The Book?[/QUOTE
As I was reading the book, I was worried the U.A.S.R. would become a copy of the Soviet Union.

Though, the U.A.S.R. is different from the U.S.S.R. by being "democratic" from the moment the ink dried on the parchment of the 1787 Constitution (or Articles of Confederacy, I do apologise if I am incorrect). It is more industrially developed than the Russian Empire at the time of the 1917 Revolutions. And the Soviet Union tolerates no deviation from Marxist-Leninism-Stalinism; whereas the U.A.S.R. is an ongoing mediation between syndicalist, socialist, Communist, et cetera factions.
 
What do you make this idea? Ever come across "The Nine Nations of North America" (1982) by Joel Garreau, a reporter for the Washington Post? In the course of his and colleagues' careers, they found the U.S.A., Canada, and Mexico etc. were starting to function as nine independent regions in North America and the Caribbean Sea.

These nine "nations" are
the Foundry - the Steel Belt, now the Rust Belt - ,
Ecotopia - the Pacific Northwest from San Francisco to southeast Alaska - ,
Dixie - the southeast United States - ,
the Breadbasket - central U.S.A. - ,
the Empty Quarter - most of Canada and part of the Rocky Mountain states - ,
the Islands - the Caribbean Sea and part of Venezuela - ,
Quebec,
New England, and
Mexamerica - Mexico and the southwestern U.S.A.

The idea came to me: what if the members of the North American Union of Socialist Council Republics start to act as nine separate independent regions, through the course of that world's post-War period? These nine nations would be:
Dixie S.R.,
Ecotopia S.R.,
Mexamerica S.R.,
New England S.R.,
Quebec S.R.,
the Breadbasket S.R.,
the Empty Quarter S.R.,
the Foundry S.R., and
the Islands S.R.
On second thought, one could rename the Breadbasket S.R. as "Wheatland", the Empty Quarter S.R. as "Quarry Quarter" (my colleague suggested that one", the Foundry S.R. as the "Steel Belt Metropolis", and the Islands S.R. as the "Caribbean S.R." (MacArthur and his regime will be gone by the 1980's).

This may sound like chepooka (nonsense) to you, and I won't mind if you pooh-pooh it. I hope the site and others won't mind this "wall-of-text" here. Edit: I do hope I am not being too mouthy.
 
What do you make this idea? Ever come across "The Nine Nations of North America" (1982) by Joel Garreau, a reporter for the Washington Post? In the course of his and colleagues' careers, they found the U.S.A., Canada, and Mexico etc. were starting to function as nine independent regions in North America and the Caribbean Sea.

These nine "nations" are
the Foundry - the Steel Belt, now the Rust Belt - ,
Ecotopia - the Pacific Northwest from San Francisco to southeast Alaska - ,
Dixie - the southeast United States - ,
the Breadbasket - central U.S.A. - ,
the Empty Quarter - most of Canada and part of the Rocky Mountain states - ,
the Islands - the Caribbean Sea and part of Venezuela - ,
Quebec,
New England, and
Mexamerica - Mexico and the southwestern U.S.A.

The idea came to me: what if the members of the North American Union of Socialist Council Republics start to act as nine separate independent regions, through the course of that world's post-War period? These nine nations would be:
Dixie S.R.,
Ecotopia S.R.,
Mexamerica S.R.,
New England S.R.,
Quebec S.R.,
the Breadbasket S.R.,
the Empty Quarter S.R.,
the Foundry S.R., and
the Islands S.R.
On second thought, one could rename the Breadbasket S.R. as "Wheatland", the Empty Quarter S.R. as "Quarry Quarter" (my colleague suggested that one", the Foundry S.R. as the "Steel Belt Metropolis", and the Islands S.R. as the "Caribbean S.R." (MacArthur and his regime will be gone by the 1980's).

This may sound like chepooka (nonsense) to you, and I won't mind if you pooh-pooh it. I hope the site and others won't mind this "wall-of-text" here. Edit: I do hope I am not being too mouthy.
The Republics are set in stone by Basic Law.

Here's our discord by the by:https://discord.gg/EyeBXN
 
The Republics are set in stone by Basic Law.

Here's our discord by the by:https://discord.gg/EyeBXN

Thank you for reminding me. Merely an idle idea.
DeLeon-Debs, D.C./Union Commune is the seat of government for the U.A.S.R., right? Well, if this does not sound too outrageous, to make the government more representative of the people, what about a space for a Union Commune in each and every Capitol in each Socialist Republic in the Union? The people of the government can move around to a certain Union Commune every so often to reassure the masses that they are not in any way forgotten by the establishment in D.L.-D., U.C. The choice could be chosen after a majority vote!

Or maybe they do not need to do that, as the Praesidium, the Central Executive Committee, and the All-Union Congress are designed to be very transparent and open to the voters.
 
The Revolution split Hollywood in almost the same way it did the Army. Much of the ground talent (directors, set designers, writers, actors, cameramen, etc.) stayed behind because of the more beneficial nature of the new regime, and the strongly anti-union, anti-Communist studio heads fled after the Reds victory.


However, their journeys were far spread out. Adolf Zukor used the Paramount owned theaters in Canada to comfortably re-establish Paramount there out of Ottawa. Louis B. Mayer took MGM to Britain, creating a home within Alexander Korda’s Denham Film Studio. The rest of the big studios, including Universal, RKO, Warner Brothers and Columbia settled in MacArthurist Cuba. Eventually, Warner Bros and Columbia would dominate the Cuban film scene, with respective studio heads Jack Warner and Harry Cohn becoming parts of MacArthur’s inner circle and their sponsored brand of propaganda (most notably wartime “Macaco” films) becoming big hits. Universal, however, managed to survive by merging with Fox Films[1], and RKO would largely compete in the periphery with other low-budget studios.


This new studio system, the norm for the post-Revolution and war periods, is often regarded as beginning its unravelling in the late 1950’s. Jack Warner and Harry Cohn, who had defined the Studio System through their state subsidized blockbusters, often co-productions between their studios, had an increasingly contentious relationship, as they secretly jockeyed for more power and influence (meaning generally more profits). Due to his direct, authoritarian nature and opposition to encroaching Franco-British films (Cohn had spearheaded the Cinema Act to combat this), Cohn was generally preferred amongst the Cuban elite. However, Cohn’s health took a turn for the worse with a severe heart attack in 1957 with another following in 1958. As Cohn lay dying, Jack Warner seized the opportunity and secretly organized a syndicate to purchase more and more stock in Columbia, right under Cohn’s nose (a popular legend said his death was prompted by the revelation of Warner’s activities)[2]. Eventually, after Cohn’s death, Warner seized complete control of Columbia, and merged it to form Warner-Columbia.


The studio became overstretched, and the subsidies offered by the Department of Communciations gradually petered out under Robert Kennedy. Just as well, television slowly made its way into Cuba, meaning more competitions for films. Once their big budget war epic The Fires of Venezuela and Arthurian adaptation The Ill-Made Knight flopped at the box office, Warner-Columbia collapsed under its own weight, and would declare bankrupcy. Its film library, theaters, and studios sold off.


While W-C’s collapse is regarded as the end of the first Cuban Studio System, the beginnings of the Second actually had its roots before even the merger, with various new players coming into prominence to replace Jack Warner.


In 1947, Universal was bought out by the Rank Organization. Now restructured as “Universal World Pictures,” it would largely become the Cuban subsidiary to J. Arthur Rank’s film company, becoming one of the first to utilize the “quota quickies” enacted under the Cinema Act. However, the backing of Rank meant that they also could make “exotic” pictures, filmed in places across the FBU colonial empire. This allowed them to ride out the end of subsidies and come out as W-C devolved into bankruptcy. Universal would utilize both quota quickies and big British productions to replace its output. In 1969, Oliver!, the adaptation of the popular West End version of Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist, would become a major success, prompting Universal to go hard into the genre. Eventually, they acquired the rights to “East End Story”, a British musical centering on a star-crossed lovers tale set among London gangs in the East End. However, to appeal to the newly liberated native Cuban consumers, the setting was changed to Havana, with the gangs being low-class, immigrant whites and Cuban. Havana Story is largely regarded as a classic.


The need to appeal to the new middle class Cubans was also a major part of the next player’s appeal. In 1952, ex-Warner executive Frank McCarthy would start Santiago Pictures, and grow it by purchasing the increasingly bankrupt Poverty Row Studios. Frank McCarthy would start mostly with documentaries and educational films, going through slow growth. In 1958, McCarthy would hire a young Cuban filmmaker named Manuel Trujillo, who would begin to make specifically Cuban flavored B-Films, tailored more towards a Cuban audience. These features would define the “Mambo film” aesthetic, and keep Santiago afloat with cult successes up until the late 60’s. Trujillo would leave Santiago, and go onto a prolific career, both as a producer of schlocky Mambo films for Franco-British audiences and as a pioneering director and mentor for Cuban filmmakers. McCarthy, in the meantime, would purchase its studio in Havana (and some of its film library), and embarked on directly replacing W-C whilst utilizing Trujillo’s more Cuban oriented approach to adapt to the times. Thus, with his war film A Long Night, McCarthy would embark on making high budget action and thriller films, mostly with a focus towards Cuban audiences while maintaining a largely pro-American stance. This included 1973 spy thriller The Bureau Man and Attack on the USS Freedom, a 1975 thriller involving the communist seizure of a Cuban warship and the resulting war of wills.


The man who would topple Jack Warner as the leading exec of the period was Howard Hughes. A minor producer notable for winning the first Academy Award for The Racket, Hughes reentered the market with his success in real estate and airplanes,in 1948 by purchasing RKO outright, and building it as a company gradually, with what is regarded as the first “Mambo Film”, the Western Deliverance. In the 60’s, Hughes expanded both RKO’s slate of films, and the growing television empire that he built under its name, using its own library, both key to a larger media empire. The eclipse of W-C was the breakthrough needed. Hughes purchased the rest of the Warner-Columbia catalogue and even the use of the old WB name and symbol from the almost destitute Jack Warner, and added them into RKO-TV catalogue. Hughes would use the Warner name in “the Warner Bros. Grand Casino and Resort”, a large casino in Monaco utilizing the famous Warner water tower and iconography from Warner Bros films.


Hughes biggest advantage was his growing TV empire. Along with right-wing news programs, he used RKO as a means of both filmmaking and TV, making series like Scotland Yard and Holmes, both British set police procedurals (the latter a modernization of the Sherlock Holmes stories). The combination of this and building a minor media empire with the RKO name allowed Hughes to surpass his rivals.


The 70’s saw two spheres of Cuban filmmaking arise. One, the three studios that had taken over the former Warner-Columbia, two of which owned by British or British based companies, making larger budget films, with the underground “Mambo Film” scene with low budget films by those like Trujillo. This balance would survive into the 80’s.


However, cracks would begin to show, as more studios formed and Franco-British orgs began a larger push into the market. Santiago’s penchant for high budget blockbusters would make it increasingly unsustainable as Franco-British blockbusters of generally higher quality would make their way into Cuba. McCarthy attempted to pre-empt this, much as he did for Macaco films with A Long Night. To seize on the success of Alien, he would try to produce his own SF creature feature with Night of the Crawlers, an invasion film with radiated worms causing a large plague. While regarded as a cult classic, it was not as big a success as Santiago needed, and as they tried to chase trends, they would sink lower and lower into debt due to multiple failures.


As the late 80’s approached, with Santiago’s decline, a major blow occurred with the repeal of the Cinema Act in 1988. With films now more expensive to make, the studio system would rapidly collapse much as it did after Fires of Venezuela. Santiago was dealt a fatal blow with this and the death of Frank McCarthy in 1990, causing their eventually bankruptcy and purchase by mogul Ted Kennedy.


Universal World would survive, but downgraded, with operations largely transferred to Britain. Hughes’ death in 1976 would see his properties more consolidated, and priority was given to television over film. Eventually, RKO Films (renamed RKO-Warner in 1994) would be relocated to France, with the studio transferred to Spain.


The fall of Santiago would see the end of a formal studio system, but new native studios, mostly encouraged by the new quota system, have arisen to become the new Cuban industry, though the problem remains the preeminence of Franco-British films over native ones.


[1] Later 20th Century Fox OTL

[2] OTL, Jack Warner did a similar thing to buy out his brothers after taking WB public. Once it was revealed, Harry Warner purportedly died of shock.
 
(Co-written by @Time slip , who I very much thank for helping extensively with this doc)

Lankershim Monsters


The Lankershim Monsters refers to a series of films produced by Universal and its post-revolution collective Lankershim Films, that often have a monster in it from 1921-1968. Most of these films were largely horror or science fiction in nature, as well as adaptations, though some original films were made with the theme.


The primary films listed as being the main canon of sorts for “Lankershim Monsters” include:


The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1921)- Silent adaptation of Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel of the same name. Starring Lon Chaney as the titular hunchback, and directed by Wallace Worsley.


Phantom of the Opera (1925)- Silent adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s 1910 novel. Lon Chaney as the titular Phantom.


Frankenstein (1931)- Adaptation of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel. Starring Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s monster, and directed by James Whale.


Dracula (1933)- Adaptation of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel. Starring Bela Lugosi in the title role, and directed by Tod Browning. Release delayed by two years.


The Mummy (1934)- Starring Boris Karloff in the title role, and directed by Karl Freund.


The Invisible Man (1935)- Adaptation of the 1897 novel by H. G. Wells. Starring Bela Lugosi, and directed by Tod Browning.


Dracula’s Daughter (1936)- Sequel to Dracula, starring Gloria Holden in the title role, directed by Edgar G. Ulmer.


Frankenstein Rises(1936)- Sequel to Frankenstein, returning cast with the addition of Elsa Lancaster as the Bride of Frankenstein, and directed by Robert Florey.


The Murders at the Rue Morgue (1937)- Adaptation of the 1841 short story of Edgar Allan Poe starring Lon Chaney in the lead role. Originally to be made pre-Revolution, but stalled and eventually halted by Universal. Directed by Lambert Hillyer.


The Werewolf of Paris
(1938)- Adaptation of Guy Endore’s 1933 novel. Starring Lon Chaney and son Creighton Chaney, and directed by Edward Dmytryk.


The Mummy Walks (1939)- Sequel to Mummy, though centered on an Incan mummy this time, played by John Carradine and Lupe Velez as the (eventual) love interest. Also starring Jon Hall and directed by Rowland V. Lee.



Frankenstein’s Journey(1940)- Starring Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s monster and Peter Lorre as Manfred Frankenstein. Also starring Bela Lugosi and directed by Erle C. Kenton.


Son of Dracula(1940)- Starring Evelyn Ankers and Creighton Chaney as a relative of Dracula, and directed by Victor Halperin.


Invisible Man in Baghdad(1941)- Set in the wartime Middle East. Starring Vincent Price and Turhan Bey, and directed by Ford Beebe. The monster movie sequels mostly take on a more B movie tone from this point on.


The Tell-Tale Heart (1941)- Adaptation of the 1843 short story by Edgar Allan Poe. Starring Peter Lorre and Lon Chaney, and directed by A. Edward Sutherland.


The Mummy Lives! (1942)- Set in wartime China. Starring Jon Hall (opposite a Chinese American cast) and directed by Harold Young and Esther Eng.


Phantom of the Opera (1943)- Remake of the 1925 adaptation, starring Claude Rains and Susanne Foster, with Chaney in a cameo as Franz Listz. Directed by Arthur Lubin.


The Bride of Frankenstein (1943)- Starring Ramsay Ames as the Bride of Frankenstein. Also starring Bela Lugosi, Elyse Knox, and Lionel Atwill, and directed by Dorothy Arzner.


Calling Dr. Death (1943)- Mystery-thriller starring Creighton Chaney, beginning of the “Inner Sanctum” adaptations.


Captive Wild Woman (1943)- Bizarre sci-fi film about an ape that turns into a woman, directed by Edward Dmytryk.


The Masque of the Red Death (1945)- Adaptation of the 1842 short story by Edgar Allan Poe. Starring Bela Lugosi as Prince Prospero and Boris Karloff as the titular Red Death, and directed by Edgar G. Ulmer. Shot in color.


Dracula Meets Frankenstein (1946)- Starring Vincent Price as Dracula, Creighton Chaney as Frankenstein’s Monster, and John Carradine as a mad scientist. Directed by Reginald Le Borg.


The Werewolf of Berlin (1947)- A spiritual successor to Paris, this time set in Berlin between 1901 and 1945, starring John Carradine in the lead.


The Valley of Gwangi (1948)- Dinosaur monster movie, co-produced in Mexico, effects by Willis O’Brien and Ray Harryhausen. Directed by Nathan Juran.


The Night of the Monster (1950)- Loose remake of Frankenstein, updated to an atomic age, and directed by Joseph Pevney.


The Foghorn (1951)- Story of a prehistoric monster affected by an atomic blast, directed by Jack Arnold, based on the story by Ray Bradbury.


At the Mountains of Madness (1952)- Adaptation of HP Lovecraft’s 1936 story. Directed by Nathan Juran. Co-Produced by Hyperion Live-Action.


The Meteor (1953)- Film about a crashed UFO, directed by Jack Arnold, based on a treatment by Ray Bradbury.


The Winter Wolf (1954)- Loose remake of The Werewolf of Paris, set in Russia before and during the Decemberist uprising. Mosfilm coproduction.


The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)- Tragedy centering on a fish creature found in the Colombian jungle. Reteamed Arnold and Bradbury (the latter the co-screenwriter)


This Island Earth (1955)- Adaptation of the 1952 Raymond F. Jones novel, about scientists preventing an invasion of the Earth.


Herbert West (1956)- Atomic age reimaging of HP Lovecraft’s 1922 story. Starring Kevin McCarthy in the titular role.


Attack of the Flying Saucers! (1956)- Invasion film about UFO observations gradually revealing a massive invasion (based on then-current WFRAAF investigations into the topic). Directed by Nathan Juran.


The Creature Returns! (1957) - Sequel to Black Lagoon, in which another Gil-Man is caught and held in a Bogota zoo, eventually gaining the sympathies of two zoologists.


The Thing (1957)- Alien invasion film starring Boris Karloff as a scientist involved in early manned space exploration dealing with an astronaut infected by an alien disease.


The Colour Out of Space (1958)- The story of a New England farmer witnessing the gradual decline of his community following a meteor crash. Based on HP Lovecraft’s story of the same name (with Lovecraft as a co-writer)


The Creature’s Revenge (1959)- Explorers in the Amazon find an ancient civilization, that is now inhabited by a group of Gil-Man.


War of the Worlds (1960)- George Pal adaptation of HG Wells’ novel. Featuring effects by Ray Harryhausen.


The Creature Takes Manhattan (1961)- A Gil-Man is set loose in New York City.


Haunter in the Dark (1964)- Adaptation of Lovecraft’s 1937 story, where a young writer quickly runs afoul of a cult worshipping a strange creature.


Nights of the Star-Vampire
(1965)- Prequel and sequel to Haunter, based on Robert Bloch’s The Shambler in the Stars and The Shadow from the Steeple. Last film of Lankershim’s Yog-Sothothery Cycle.


Viy (1966)- Adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s short story, telling the story of a witch in 19th Century Russia, terrorizing a group of students. Mosfilm co-production.


Plutonia(1968)- Adaptation of Vladimir Obruchev’s 1915 novel, focusing on a prehistoric world found in a remote region of Siberia. Mosfilm co-production.
 
The Death of MacArthur (2017)

1963 marks 30 years since Douglas MacArthur (Carl Reiner) had taken over Cuba and set up the exiled government of the United States. However, the stress of continued insurgency, attempts on his life, and his position as a Cold War hotspot has taken a toll on his health, along with increasingly erratic behavior, such as firing the head of the American Olympic Committee (in exile) for a disappointing showing in the 1960 Games.

In this state, policy is influenced by Attorney General Robert Kennedy (Peter Sarsgaard) and First Secretary Hamilton Fish V (Josh Brolin), who have a more liberal attitude than MacArthur. They are hampered by conservatives Secretary of War Edwin Walker (Jim Parsons) and MacArthur’s long time Vice President John S. Wood (Chris Parnell).

However, Wood is called to MacArthur’s office one morning, and learns that MacArthur is forcing him to resign, wanting a newer face. That night, MacArthur makes one final appearance at a gala, with figures including Jack Warner (Stanley Tucci), Howard Hughes (Warren Beatty), William Randolph Hearst, Jr. (BJ Novak), Meyer Lansky (Richard Dreyfuss), David Rockefeller (Jon Favarau), Henry Ford II (John Michael Higgins), and Robert’s father, Joe Sr. (Bruce Dern), before retiring to his bedroom. Joe Sr. and Lansky note MacArthur’s health, and discuss taking advantage, using Robert as a pawn.

The next day, his butler finds him in his bedroom, dead. The butler contacts a number of figures, including Bobby, Fish, Wood, Joe Sr., and Walker, and his estranged son Arthur MacArthur. They argue for a bit, with Walker having the Presidential Palace locked down, with staff captured and interrogated, as well as a state of emergency in Havana. When it is determined that MacArthur died of natural causes, Kennedy forces Walker to lift the emergency. However, a staffer notes the conversation from the last night to one of Walker’s aides.

With Wood out as VP, there is significant confusion as to proper leadership. As First Secretary, Fish temporarily takes over as interim President. Walker is able to manipulate Wood into contesting that he had proper right towards the position, and that his dismissal from the Vice Presidency was part of MacArthur’s addled actions. Joe wants to have his son in the position, and begins to use his extensive business and political connections to make it so. Both intend to use this to situate themselves as the leader of Cuba.

Kennedy soon finds allies in David Rockefeller and brother, John III(Alan Alda), as well as Warner (an old contemporary from Joe’s Hollywood days), and calls in a favor from Lansky to help sway corrupt NSF members.

Walker, meanwhile, begins to use loopholes to slowly amass more influence and prestige right under Fish’s nose, and bring the other members of the Cabinet on his side.

British ambassador Alec Douglas-Home (Hugh Grant) informs Fish at MacArthur’s funeral that the Franco-British Union would much prefer Kennedy over Walker, who they fear will start a war with the UASR, which would spark a nuclear exchange.

Walker proceeds to make appeals to Arthur (who is reticent to support either side), and as his prestige increases, begins to push the aged Wood out of the picture to seize power for himself. Hughes and real estate developer Fred Trump (Ryan Reynolds) also provide Walker’s public campaign with significant funds. He also spreads stories of Joe’s other two sons, one having remained in the UASR, the other having died for the SS on the Eastern front, Ted a rumored womanizer, and also rumors that Joe had poisoned MacArthur to place Bobby in charge, with help from mob associates.

However, just as Walker seems poised to take over, Robert, with his allies and the disgruntled Wood, begin to fight back. Robert finally breaks from his father’s influence (and decides to adopt an anti-Mafia stane, despite their support for him), and uses his position to investigate the loopholes. There, through interviews with various Walker affiliates (and some snooping), he learns that Walker was notorious for groping and fondling soldiers within his own guard. Under this pretext, Kennedy has Walker arrested and in an intense scene, eventually pleas guilty.

Fish formally resigned, and Kennedy takes over as President, which he would hold until bowing out for the first free Cuban election in 1971.
 
Casino Royale (1954)


Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Based on the novel by Ian Fleming


Starring….


David Niven as James Bond

Ingrid Bergman as Vesper Lynd

Jean Gabin as Rene Mathis

Jean-Louis Berrault as Le Chiffre

Leslie Nielsen as Felix Leiter

Leo G. Carroll as M



JSB agent James Bond, codename 007, is assigned on a mission to the Casino Royale in Monte Carlo by British section head M. Le Chiffre, a paymaster for a trade union affiliated with Section 1 (and funded by Comintern), has gone bankrupt due to bad investments and hopes to make that up by winning at barracat in Monte Carlo. Bond needs to ensure that Le Chiffre remains bankrupt, whereupon he will likely seek asylum from American retribution. Accompanying him is fellow agent Rene Mathis (representing the JSB’s French section) as an observer and Vesper Lynd, the assistant to the head of Section C. Mathis holds backup funds for Bond in case he loses, which Bond is confident he doesn’t need.


Bond and Lyd pose as an Australian couple holidaying in Monaco. Before challenging Le Chiffre, Bond has an encounter with Felix Leiter, a Cubamerican playboy out enjoying other games at the casino. The two share a drink, and Leiter wishes Bond luck at barracat.


Bond and Le Chiffre begin their game (Chiffre eyeing an observing Leiter briefly), and during the first round, Le Chiffre wipes out Bond. Luckily, Mathis saves him with back-up funds, allowing Bond to take Chiffre down in the second round, leaving him destitute.


Now desperate, Chiffre kidnaps Vesper, leading Bond on chase to a remote location. Chiffre captures and tortures Bond, hoping to extort him. At the last minute, however, Leiter shows up to the location. Le Chiffre begs Leiter not to kill him, but Leiter affirms that Chiffre has shown himself to be a liability to Section 1, and coldly shots him.


Now revealed as a SecOne operative, Bond asks Leiter if he’ll kill Bond now. Leiter says his assignment was to ensure Le Chiffre won the money back and eliminate him if he didn’t, nothing more. However, Leiter burns the letter S onto Bond’s hand before leaving, saying it’s a way to indicate to other agents that he is a spy.


Bond and Vesper Lynd grow closer as he recovers in a French hospital. However, when he confides that he would leave the JSB to be with her, that worries her. When he is finally discharged, he finds that Vesper left without warning, leaving only a note. It is revealed that she was blackmailed into being double agent, and to undermine Bond. Le Chiffre had kidnapped her as leverage for both agencies, but she tipped off Leiter to their location.


Bond is left despondent by this news, telling his contact. “She’s dead.”


----------------------------


Trivia:


  • Produced by MGM, who bought the rights to the novel from Fleming shortly after publication. Considered for a TV special, Hitchcock signing on turned it into a feature film.
  • Written by Charles Bennett, who wrote other spy thrillers for Hitchcock, like The 39 Steps. [1]
  • Hitchcock’s name attracted such talent as David Niven (Fleming’s first choice for the role), Ingrid Bergman and Jean Gabin.
  • Filmed in Technicolor
  • Faithful to the novel, with the exception of the shortened ending and Vesper Lynd living (likely due to censorship)
  • Started off the popular Bond series of films based on Fleming’s other novel, with Eon Productions (founded by Harry Saltzman and Gregory Ratoff) making the other films and MGM releasing them.
  • Nielsen would parody his role as Leiter with Eon Leiter and fellow Canadian William Shatner in Discards, a 1994 American film where the two play retired CSS agents who both adopted the identity of “Jimmy Fletcher”, and antagonized a thuggish JSB agent named “Daniel Liven” (who seeks to enact finally vengeance on them)


[1] OTL. Bennett wrote the first Casino Royale adaptation for the American television show Climax! In 1954.
 
The French Connection (1999)



In 1948, an ex-Resistence fighter from Corsica named Lisandru Aravena is recruited by gangster Paul Carbone as a strikebreaker in the port of Marsailles, repressing communist backed strikes amongst the dockworkers. Impressed by his skills and his efficiency, Carbone offers him a more stable position as an enforcer for the Union Corse.


By 1957, Aravena is now in major position within the organization, and through his resistance connections (and Carbone’s Petainist ones), largely operates his organization with no major interference from the law. However, the old trading route from Turkey has been cut off, and it is increasingly difficult to get heroin.


However, Marcel, an old colleague who served with the French Foreign Legion in Indochina, reveals that soldiers bring back Thai heroin with them. Aravena uses that, Marcel and one of his associates Augustus (a former Petainist agent) to recruit returning French soldiers as carriers, going across the border to buy poppies and smuggle it back into the country, where the Marsailles drug labs refine it into pure heroin.


In 1961, Aravena is now the most prominent drug trafficker in the Franco-British Union, using his source to become the most prominent heroin dealer. He manages to levage this to sell his product to Montreal gangster Robert Hubert, who spreads it across Canada and the American Republics.


However, with this rise comes many enemies seeking to take him down. He becomes the target of the Sicilian mob, who feel he is interfering with their own South American drug trade, especially when Hubert begins a crime war with Montreal Mafia bosses the Cozzi brothers and the ruthless Garrett Firm of London, hoping to break the hemegony of Le Milleu in Franco-British organized crime. As India takes a larger role in the Indochina conflict, Mumbai syndicates (represented by Ali Hasan in a few scenes) force their way into the Union Corse’s trade and take a cut of the earnings.


As the war on drugs amplifies, anti-narcotics becomes a priority. In Metropolis, a team lead Medds[1] Jones of the Narcotics division of Section 4 begins to trace heroin shipments to dealers in Buffalo and Newfoundland. On the other side of the Atlantic, Scotland Yard detective Benjamin Yeardley is recruited to a new narcotics division, and he investigates heroin in London’s neighborhoods. However, when he connects it to dealers in Marsailles and Calais, he is stifled by the French, who defend the various resistance heroes (and rehabilitated Petainists) rumored to be involved.


Aravena is able to broker a peace with the Sicilians, especially with their South American operation under threat, and the French connections begins to supply them with heroin, in effect profiting off both sides of the Hubert-Cozzi conflict. Despite this, he only narrowly survives an assassination attempt by the Garrett firm, which kills Marcel.


Hubert’s men are able to kill the Cozzi Brothers, gunning them down in front of the pizza restaurant serving as their base of operation. One of their underbosses flees back to Metropolis, and tells Medds that the dealers are supplied in Montreal, and that Hubert was the primary source, in exchange for protection.


The Indochina conflict winds to a close, and Aravena becomes more dependent on the Mumbai syndicates and the Sicilians, through a route in Arabia to keep the chain alive. His negotiations with the Garretts fall apart, and though their interactions with the Soviet crime syndicates, they have revived the Turkish route, further undercutting business. One of Hubert’s men learns of Aravena selling to the Sicilians, and when the Mounties arrest him based on the American intel, he becomes informant.


Through the info, Yeardley and his men track the last shipments coming into French air bases, and are able to seize the Marsailles drug labs.


In a montage scene (set to Julio Iglesias’ rendition of “Le Mar”)[2], most of the surviving participants are arrested. Hubert is arrested by the Mounties just as he was in the old Cozzi Pizza place ( on a mission to fully exterminate the Italians from Montreal [3]). Augustus is arrested at an Army base whilst inspecting equipment. Carbone is arrested in his home in Marcel. In the last scene (set in 1969), Aravena is leaving a fancy restaurant, and is confronted by police surrounding him.


After an interrogation, in exchange for a lightened sentence, Aravena rats out the many officials and policemen he had bribed over the years. The film ends in 1981, when Aravena is released from prison.


A final title card notes that Aravena is fictional, based on the many Corsican gangsters involved in the French connection.




[1] Marx Engels Deleon and Debs

[2] This was the inspiration for really this whole piece:

[3] Richard Blass, the inspiration for this character (both for myself OTL and the filmmakers TTL) purportedly had a virulent hatred of the Italian mafia.
 
Does the TL cover the history of Baseball before and after the revolution?
 
Terry English is a comedic-esponage strip that ran in 2000 AD from 1987-1994, created by Kim Newman and illustrated by Alan Davis, an homage and parody of the 60’s and 70’s British spy and Eurospy genres with a supernatural twist. It was also collected by Eclipse Comics in the United Republics


The eponymous character is an agent for “Department D”, at first described as a section of the Joint Security Bureau (and later revealed as the Diogenes Club from Sherlock Holmes, subsumed into the JSB after the formation of the Franco-British Union), who investigates paranormal activity throughout the FBU, mostly parodies or riffs on popular fiction of the period. Terry wears eclectic fashion, and embraces countercultural trends, while being fiercely and devoutly patriotic (always wearing a signature Union Jack jacket. One story has him rejecting a look from the FBU flag). He is accompanied by French agent Vanessa and “two-bit bobby” Carlton.


While he fights a variety of foes in the stories from Nazi Pagan skinheads summoning the Norse gods to a minor European king building a fortress in the Mediterranean from material found in Atlantis, his main enemies is the Section Zero, a division of the MDSS that also deals in paranormal activity. Section Zero is represented by Russian-American “The Big Bear” (an amalgamation of Maxine Kaplan’s Nikolai Balabos and Marvel Comics’ Nick Fury, complete with eye-patch), and more frequently by Debsy, an attractive female agent.


While homaging the Eurospy genre, the strips also deconstruct the Cold War era they emerged from. “The Oxbridge Rebellion” has a plot involving Section Zero summoning mind-control demons amongst student radicals on FBU college campus’. Another story features Terry and co. helping agents of a British-Cuban corporation (lead by the head of a thinly veiled Howard Hughes analogue) battle American magicians.


Terry himself is a sexually promiscuous, hard smoking, hard drinking, drug user, who is only kept due to his very special “skill set” (said in one strip to be “offin’ commies”), and as the strip went on, it gradually turned hard towards satirizing FBU anti-communism. Terry’s enemies grew more and more ludicrous, and their scheme grew more and more absurd (at one point, The Bear has a parody of Marvel’s Thor destroy London with a storm monster). The final story arc featured Terry being trapped in another dimension, and returning in the 90’s, where he is confused by the new Detente and the languor experienced after the 80’s, and has one final confrontation with Debsy (now having succeeded The Bear as leader of Section Zero), which ends with them sleeping together.


Terry English was adapted into an animated show in 1996, and later to a live action one in 2014.
 
A short supplemental, since this property was mentioned recently (Special thanks to @Time slip for some storylines in the comic strip that could be used as inspiration)

Flash Gordon (1979)
Directed by Sergio Leone

In 1936, Yale students Flash Gordon and Dale Arden, visiting the observatory, come across their astronomy professor, German immigrant Hans Zharkov, making observations of a distant planet, called Doitsu. He is fairly cryptic about why, aside from “the event.” The next night, they see a meteor fall near the observatory. As they approach the meteor, a deranged Dr. Zharkov pops out with a pistol, threatening them. He forces them onto an experimental rocket he had been developing, and they launch into space.

Sure enough, the rocket reaches Doitsu, and Zharkov grandly reveals that the planet’s trajectory was putting it on a collision course with Earth. Dale concludes that this was impossible (based on the calculations previously shown on Zharkov’s board), and Flash tries to fight Zharkov to bring them back to Earth. However, this only causes the rocket to nearly crash land. Flash and Dale emerge unscathed, while Zharkov is presumed dead. As they wander the planet, they encounter large dinosaurs and primitive cavemen, before a large rocket ship arrives and soldiers capture them.

They are brought to the city of Adolvopolis, an advanced city adorned with the image of the tyrant, Supreme Emperor of Doitsu Adolf the Abominable. Sure enough, Adolf brings the two to his court. The longtime totalitarian ruler of Doitsu, he had keep the races separate, and that was key to keeping order. However, with the discovery of the planet Earth, he decides to launch a brutal conquest and “cleansing” its population of inferior blood, along with Doitsu’s own races.

Flash and Dale are imprisoned in his extensive prisons, but are released by Adolf’s daughter Aura, who is fascinated by the off-planeters. They escape Adolvopolis, and leave for the varying lands of Doitsu.

They wander the jungles of Doitsu, until they come across the peaceful kingdom of Tropica, ruled by Queen Desira. They recover there, but their socialist sensibilities are miffed by the regalness of the kingdom. They are soon captured by the leader of local rebels, led by Barin. They are exposed to the dark underbelly, where Desira’s rule (backed by Adolph’s forces) causes poverty and death across the populace. They soon hatch a plan to overthrow the Queen.

Meanwhile, Adolf is alerted to the remains of the rocket, and another survivor- Dr. Zharkov. Adolf assures a distraught Zharkov that the planets would not collide, and tricks him into thinking that he wants peace, hoping to have him remake the original rocket plan.

The plan to overthrow the Queen is foiled thanks to her security chief Captain Brazor, but our heroes are saved by the floating city of Hawkman, which is a multi-race commune ruled by a council led by Vultan, Thun, and Bulok. They are attempting to resist the rule of Adolph across the planet, and Flash, Dale, Aura, and Barin are recruited (all the while, the latter two have a burgeoning relationship).

They soon travel across the various kingdoms of Doitsu, helping inspiring the people to overthrow Adolf’s respective puppet rulers. When they return to Tropica, they find Desira has been exiled to the desert, due to Brazor overthrowing him. She decides to cast aside her royal status to join the heroes in overthrowing Captain Brazor.

Adolf pressures Zharkov to accelerate the project in the wake of the mass overthrows. Zharkov overhears some of Adolf’s lackeys revealing his true plans, and Zharkov is arrested.

Most of the planet under their control, Flash and the heroes go to confront Adolvopolis, but are beseiged by his forces, led by Reichskommondo Gordo. While moving across the palace, Flash finds and frees Zharkov, who feels awful about the entire affair. They reconcile, while the rebellion seems poised to fail under the weight of Gordo’s assaults, and they, along with Dale and Barin break into Adolf’s quarters. Adolf hopes to kill the two and display their corposes as a warning. When his personal guard manages to capture the four and poison him, his plan seems to succeed.

However, when he actually displays the corpses, the crowd storms the palace, and the forces are overwhelmed by them and the freed prisoners from Adolf’s dungeons. Sure enough, it is revealed the poison pills were actually temporary epilepsy pills, and Adolf is easily overwhelmed and arrested, along with Gordo and his regime enforcers.

Doitsu is placed under the control of a ruling Soviet, with Vultan, Thun, Bulok, and Barin the inaugural members. Barin and Aura marry, and the film ends with Flash, Dale and Zharkov blasting back to Earth, though the credits said “FLASH GORDON WILL RETURN IN….. ADOLF’S RETURN!”


-----------------------------------------------


Trivia:
  • Adapted from Alex Raymond’s comic strip of the same name, adopting numerous elements of the original “Emperor Adolf” and “Tropica” storylines
  • George Lucas attempted to conceive a Flash Gordon film in the early 70’s, which gradually morphed into Star Wars. Fredrico Fellini (who had contributed to the strip in the 40’s) also considered the project.
  • Leone was a fan of the original strip and strove to make it faithful to Raymond’s look, especially in depicting the varying lands of Doitsu. He also retained the explicit anti-fascism and strong socialist streak of the strip, including making Adolf a Mussolini look-alike with a Hitler mustache.
  • Special effects done by Rick Baker, Jim Danforth, and Dave Allen [1]
  • Regarded as part of Leone’s comic adaptation duology, with The Phantom (1982), and was praised for its faithful and entertaining story
  • Sequel, Adolf's Return was made without Leone's involvement (though some of the same cast returned)
 
The Mogul (1990)

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

In 1974, an elderly Jack L. Warner lives in relative obscurity in a Havana retirement home. He suffered a stroke, which leaves him unable to speak or walk. He is watching a television, which morphs from a British period drama to the 1902 film The Great Train Robbery. Jack is suddenly thrust back into 1903 in Youngstown, Ohio, where he and his brothers screen the film in a rented theater, first marking their impact in the film industry.

In 1918, after years as distributors and minor producers, the Warner Brothers (Sam, Harry, Albert, and Jack) establish a studio in Culver City, California, where they make a successful war film (My Four Years in Germany), but are unable to replicate that success. Eventually, they are forced to move to a studio on Olive Avenue. There, in 1923, a veteran named Lee Duncan brings in a German Shepard that he had found in a bombed out kennel in France. Jack perceives Rin-Tin-Tin as intelligent and manageable, and he proves a massive box office hit with his films, saving WB. A young man named Darryl F. Zanuck rises from writing one of Rin Tin Tin’s pictures to become Warner’s leading executive producer.

In 1925, Sam begins to negotiate with the company Western Electric to develop a new sound technology for film. While the others are skeptical, Sam manages to get them on his side, and the new Vitaphone system is put to work for the 1928 feature The Jazz Singer, starring Broadway star Al Jolson. However, the day before the premiere of the film, Sam Warner dies of pneumonia (though the film implies his brothers may have had a hand in his death). The Jazz Singer puts Warner Brothers on the map, and they follow up this success with crime films like The Public Enemy and Little Caesar. However, WB’s success and their authoritarian rule over the studio also puts them into conflict with the various guilds and unions in Hollywood. Jack provides information about some of his staff involved with strikes or the burgeoning communist movement to the MPPDA to ensure they don’t get work, and testifies with other studio heads like Louis B. Mayer and Harry Cohn in front of the Fish Committee about Communist activities in Hollywood.

As the Revolution comes to California, the Warners are split as to where to go. Harry wants to return to Canada, while Jack advocates taking their resources to Cuba. As the Warner lot becomes closer to the Red line, the Warner Bros attempt to flee. Harry and Albert both receive telegrams from Jack, telling them the location of a smuggler that could take them to Canada. However, Harry ends up in a location just outside of Los Angeles, where he is soon caught in the middle of a battle, and killed. Albert is killed in a similar fashion, as his limousine is caught in gunfire.

Jack soon arrives in Havana, where he formally relocates the Warner lot (recreated to look like the old Culver City one), and quickly uses his existing resources and experience to establish Warner Bros as a leading film producer for the new Cuban market, and himself among the White American business clique. He is bitter when he learns that Zanuck has stayed in the mainland, and taken over operations of the old studio for the Reds, feeling Zanuck had betrayed him personally, though he finds a new protege in David O. Selznick, a former RKO executive.

Despite this, there are fewer resources in Cuba than in the US, so he pools his resources with previous bitter rival Cohn and Columbia Pictures. This partnership proves very fruitful in 1938 when the two co-produce an adaptation of White exile Margaret Mitchell’s bestseller Gone with the Wind, starring Errol Flynn and Vivian Leigh.

The mega-success of Gone with the Wind impresses General MacArthur, who commissions the new Warner-Columbia alliance to make films promoting the “American Way”, and offers him massive subsidies through a new program from the “Department of Communications” to make movies to promote Cuban policies.

The program begins with epic American historical features like Washington’s War and Gettysburg, before Cuba enters the war in South America. Warner and Cohn are commissioned to make a film about the war effort. Plagiarizing an old World War I script from the pre-Revolution days, In the Jungle proves a massive success, and provides a road map for Warner and Columbia to make large, epic war films, with racist views of native Cubans and big battle scenes. These Macaco films further curry favor with MacArthur, and Warner and Cohn end up in his inner circle, influencing policy, and becomes Cuba’s leading tastemaker.

During the war, Frank McCarthy, a former line producer at Columbia, crosses over into WB, and becomes a protege of Selznick. McCarthy’s brother Tommy is a high ranking figure in the Irish Mob (McCarthy, in fact, describes his childhood and young adulthood to Warner as very similar to James Cagney’s character in The Public Enemy), and Warner is convinced by his friend Meyer Lansky (one of the heads of the Havana Outfit) to promote McCarthy to an executive position.

As the war winds down, and “Macaco films” continue their dominance in cinemas, the old rivalry between Cohn and Warner intensifies, especially as they attempt to jockey for the subsidies. Cohn seems to start to win in this contest, especially with his advocacy for a limitation of Franco-British films being released (The Third Man and other films from Alexander Korda, now a pawn of Warner’s other old rival Louis B. Mayer becoming major hits). Still, the two use their combined influence to have Joseph I. Breen, the long time censor for the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association of America, removed for “hindering the production of patriotic films” (Breen had denied releases to several Macaco films for their violence). Warner and Cohn also try to hinder the rise of television in Cuba, but Warner eventually gains the foresight to start a television department, with shows like Caracas [1] and western Old Colorado, which he is then able to sell to the BBC. McCarthy decides to leave Warner as well to form his own studio in Santiago, prompting Warner to acrimoniously cut ties and call him “just another Zanuck”

Cohn’s health starts to take a turn for the worst, and with declining profits (Warner taking a larger share of their co-productions due to technicalities in the contracts), he makes Columbia public. Warner takes advantage, secretly organizing a syndicate to buy up Columbia stock. Eventually, he buys up most of it. Cohn assistant brings news of this to Cohn in the hospital and he dies of complete shock.

Warner completes his takeover and merger of Columbia, celebrating it by knocking down the wall that previously separated the studios. Warner-Columbia, however, is only kept alive by the Department of Communication subsidies, with their stable of Macaco and Westerns becoming less and less successful.

MacArthur’s 1963 death and the rise of Kennedy prove further disastrous, as Kennedy ends the “propaganda state”, stopping subsidies, despite Warners plea to Joe Kennedy. To make matters worse, his son Jack M Warner (Jack Jr.), whom he had become estranged from, defects to the mainland. Warner tries to make one last attempt at capitalist success, making both a traditional epic Macaco film in The Fires of Venezuela and buying the rights to TH White’s The Once and Future King, and adapting the Ill-Made Knight.

Both films have massive production difficulties, with The Fires of Venezuela dealing with the Brazilian military withdrawing support and the harsh tropical environment in Brazil, and the tensions between Warner and British actors in The Ill-Made Knight. Both films are gigantic flops, and unable to handle the growing debt and expenses, Warner declares bankruptcy, and sells off the studio piecemeal to buyers.

Now living in obscurity with relatives, his mental state deteriorates from dementia. In one instance, while with Harry’s son Lewis, he mistakes Lewis for Harry, and hints at how he had Harry and Albert killed in the Civil War. He also suffers a stroke while watching A Long Night, produced by McCarthy as a deliberate attack on the Macaco films that made Warner famous.

Warner lives the rest of his days in assisted living, before his death in 1978. A few years later, Harry and Albert’s remaining children learn evidence from the mainland that Jack had both of his brothers killed by misleading them, along with testimony from In the Jungle star William Demarest that all three had killed Sam Warner right before the debut of The Jazz Singer. The resulting legal battle inside the family was still ongoing as of the film’s release (settled in 1994).

[1] A show about a former NBI agent turned JSB operative in Venezuela, foiling plots by “agitators” and Red American agents

--------------

Special thanks to @Mr. C for reminding me of this idea. Also to @Bookmark1995 for their piece, which gave some info used (Read it here: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/reds-fanfic.341837/page-272#post-15745852)
 
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