When 80-year-old Ari Meyer is asked by the History Channel to tell the story of his World War II exploits with the Ritchie Boys he agrees but, instead begins to tell the tale of Viktor, a soldier and friend, a young Jewish man killed during the war. What follows is the story of two boys, who, having lost their mother and grandmother, are separated by their uncaring father in 1923 Munich, Germany; an unfortunate chain of events is brought about. Four-year-old Viktor is sent to America to live with an aunt and uncle in the affluence of Hollywood, California. Hans, the eldest, at eight, is sent...

A glossary compiled with the Film Noir enthusiast in mind For most everyone under the age of 75, the vernacular, or slang, used in the novels, films, and plays of the 1930s and 40s can be confusing. It wasn't that our language had changed much; it was just that the playwrights and novelists began to write the way ordinary people spoke. Some of the slang comes from convicts, some from the immigrants (i.e. the Jews and Italians) who had begun to integrate into American society. In fact, the Yiddish language had a profound influence on America English in general. Anyone with an interest in the...