The Bells of St. Mary's

A nice short from the early Karl Valentin.

In the 15th century Richard Duke of Gloucester, aided by his club-footed executioner Mord, eliminates those ahead of him in succession to the throne, then occupied by his brother King Edward IV of England. As each murder is accomplished he takes particular delight in removing small figurines, each resembling one of the successors, from a throne-room dollhouse, until he alone remains. After the death of Edward he becomes Richard III, King of England, and need only defeat the exiled Henry Tudor to retain power.

Old houses in Zagreb are destroyed in order to build new, bigger blocks. A teacher who lives in one of these houses allows a stranger to share his home with him. The stranger has a fascination with statistics, and claims he can predict crimes based on statistical analyses. When a predicted murder did not occur, the stranger is adamant that the whole town will suffer unless a balance is achieved - and he leaves.

In a church, a suggestive confession occurs. The priest listens attentively. Who confesses to whom?

A police raid in Detroit in 1967 results in one of the largest citizens' uprisings in the history of the United States.

A young aspiring boxer is lured by a powerful impresario into a dangerously compromising situation.

In the spring of 2010, a church lock in at First Baptist Church was organized by Pastor Chris. In the first hour of the lock in, one of the students, Justin, had an unusual “incident” and was “inconsolable.” It was reported that he calmed down and kept to himself for the remainder of the event. Two days after the lock in, Justin reportedly broke down to his parents that he experienced something “evil” at the lock in. He also claimed he captured everything on tape. After watching the footage, the parents met with church leaders to discuss criminal charges they were considering filing against the church for child endangerment, neglect and torture.

Driven by simple curiosity, I did some investiagative reporting and found out some surprising things about the Catholic Church...

A medieval nun's convent is the only refuge for women trying to escape from Turkish raiders looking for slaves. But the beautiful mother superior is actually in league with the raiders and her convent is no refuge but a secret market for the beauties who also succumb to her wild desires.

Kitty Carroll, an attractive store model, volunteers to become a test subject for a machine that will make her invisible so that she can use her invisibility to exact revenge on her ex-boss.

Amy, the young, friendless daughter of Oliver and Alice Reed, befriends her father's late first wife and an aging, reclusive actress.