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Our second film focuses on the cause of the civil war, and the passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which outlawed slavery once and for all. In "Lincoln," directed by Steven Spielberg, the story follows President Abraham Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis) as he seeks to ensure passage of the 13th Amendment in the House of Representatives during the lame duck session of Congress before the results of the recent election take effect. His Secretary of State, William Seward (David Strathairn) is supporting his attempt, but his wife Mary Todd (Sally Fields) is in ill-health, and still grieving the loss of one of their children. The war within the White House, between the good of the nation and what's best for his family, is a constant backdrop to a tale of politics, back-room deals, and what it takes to get otherwise good men to publicly step up and do the right thing. The film also features Joseph Gordon-Levitt, James Spader, Hal Holbrook, Tommy Lee Jones, John Hawkes, Jackie Earl Haley, Bruce McGill, Jared Harris, Lee Pace, Gloria Reuben, and Jeremy Strong. Plus, the trio reveal what their first of two "Month of Halloween" horror pairings will be!

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The war between the states was like no war ever fought before, or after, in the United States of America, and it is to that war that we turn for this pairing. First up, the film that includes in its credits "And introducing Denzel Washington," the story of the Massachusetts 54th, the 2nd "colored" regiment in the Union. In "Glory" (1989), Edward Zwick directs a script based on surviving correspondence from the Civil War. The story follows Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broderick) who is given the rank of Colonel and command of the Union army's first all-black company. With his second-in-command, Major Cabot Forbes (Cary Elwes) by his side, and aided by training officer Sergeant Major Mulcahy (John Finn), the pair oversee the training of a large squad of volunteers, including Sergeant Major John Rawlins (Morgan Freeman), Private Trip (Denzel Washington), Private Jupiter Sharts (Jihmi Kennedy), and Corporal Thomas Searles (Andre Braugher). Fighting the indifference of the rest of Union command, the antipathy of other union soldiers, and the corruption of wartime officers occupying "enemy" territory, Colonel Shaw and the brave fighting men of the 54th prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that all men deserve to fight for their country.

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We conclude our salute to director/producer George Pal with the film he was invited by the H. G. Well estate to make after his success with "The War of the Worlds." It's not space that is the subject of this film, however, but the fourth dimension: Time! In 1960's "The Time Machine," directed and produced by Pal, with a screenplay written by David Duncan, the story followed H. George Wells (played by Rod Taylor) who arrives late for dinner with his friends David Filby (Alan Young), Dr. Phillip Hillyer (Sebastian Cabot), Anthony Bridewell (Tom Helmore) and Walter Kemp (Whit Bissel), after housekeeper Mrs. Watchett (Doris Lloyd) has already served the meal. George is dirty, his clothing stained and torn, and he relates then his tale of creating a machine to allow him to travel through the fourth dimension of time as we would through the other three dimensions. He encounters World War I, then World War 2, then an Atomic War, after which he is entombed in solid rock. Eventually, after some 800,000 years, he arrives in a time of seeming idyllic prosperity and leisure for humanity. He witnesses a young woman drowning in a river, and watches as none of her companions even seem to notice, so he leaps in to save her. Weena (Yvette Mimieux) becomes his guide to the future society, helping him learn how humanity got this place. But she falls afoul of the grim underground dwellers known as the Morlocks, and they also take his machine, trapping him in the future. George must figure out how to gain access to the Morlock's subterranean domain, rescue Weena, and retrieve his machine, if he has any hope of ever return to his own time! And the trio reveal which American war serves as the backdrop for the next film pairing!

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For this pairing we turn the work of master director/producer George Pal, a true supporter of the advancement of special effects technology in film in the 1950s and 1960s! We start with his first adaptation of an H.G. Wells property, 1953's "The War of the Worlds!" Directed by Byron Haskin, with a screenplay by Barre Lyndon, and produced by Pal, the film stars Gene Barry as Dr. Clayton Forrester, a scientist who happens to be camping nearby when a meteor comes down in upstate California. Upon investigating, he meets Sylvia Van Buren (Ann Robinson) and her uncle Pastor Dr. Matthew Collins (Lewis Martin) who have also come to see what there is to see. Also on scene is an old acquaintance, Major General Mann (Les Tremayne), who has brought troops to help quell the crowds and assess any possible threat. But the meteor proves to be much more than cosmic driftwood, it's a pod containing creatures from the planet Mars who have descended upon the Earth to conquer it. Mankind attempt every type of military response imaginable, but nothing works, and it appears the human race's time to extinction is rapidly counting down! What can possible save Earth from the invaders from outer space?

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