title: Greek Civil War

text: The king's return to Greece reinforced British influence in the country. Nigel Clive, then a liaison officer to the Greek Government and later the head of the Athens station of MI6, stated, "Greece was a kind of British protectorate, but the British ambassador was not a colonial governor". There were to be six changes of prime ministers within just two years, an indication of the instability that would characterise the country's political life.


title: Greek Civil War

text: Fighting resumed in March 1946, as a group of 30 ex-ELAS members attacked a police station in the village of Litochoro, killing the policemen, the night before the elections. The next day, the "Rizospastis", the KKE's official newspaper, announced, "Authorities and gangs fabricate alleged communist attacks". Armed bands of ELAS' veterans were then infiltrating Greece through mountainous regions near the Yugoslav and Albanian borders; they were now organized as the Democratic Army of Greece ("Dimokratikos Stratos Elladas", DSE) under the command of ELAS veteran Markos Vafiadis (known as "General Markos"), operating from a base in Yugoslavia and sent by the KKE to organize already existing troops.


title: Greek Civil War

text: The Yugoslav and Albanian communist governments supported the DSE fighters, but the Soviet Union remained ambivalent. The KKE kept an open line of communication with the Soviet Communist Party, and its leader, Nikos Zachariadis, had visited Moscow on more than one occasion.


title: Greek Civil War

text: By late 1946, the DSE was able to deploy about 16,000 partisans, including 5,000 in the Peloponnese and other areas of Greece. According to the DSE, its fighters "resisted the reign of terror that right-wing gangs conducted across Greece". In the Peloponnese especially, local party officials, headed by Vangelis Rogakos, had established a plan long before the decision to go to guerrilla war under which the numbers of partisans operating in the mainland would be inversely proportional to the number of soldiers that the enemy would concentrate in the region. According to the study, the DSE III Division in the Peloponnese numbered between 1,000 and 5,000 fighters in early 1948.


title: Greek Civil War

text: Rural peasants were caught in the crossfire. When DSE partisans entered a village asking for supplies, citizens were supportive (in previous years, EAM could count on two million members across the whole country) or did not resist. When government troops arrived at the same village, citizens who had supplied the partisans were immediately denounced as communist sympathizers and usually imprisoned or exiled. In rural areas, the government also used a strategy, which had been advised by US advisers, of evacuating villages under the pretext that they were under direct threat of communist attack. That would deprive the partisans of supplies and recruits and simultaneously raise antipathy towards them.


title: Greek Civil War

text: The Greek Army now numbered about 90,000 men and was gradually being put on a more professional footing. The task of re-equipping and training the army had been carried out by its fellow Western Allies. By early 1947, however, Britain, which had spent £85 million in Greece since 1944, could no longer afford this burden. US President Harry S. Truman announced that the United States would step in to support the Greek government against Communist pressure. That began a long and troubled relationship between Greece and the United States. For several decades to come, the US ambassador advised the king on important issues, such as the appointment of the prime minister.


title: Greek Civil War

text: Through 1947, the scale of fighting increased. The DSE launched large-scale attacks on towns across northern Epirus, Thessaly, Peloponnese and Macedonia, provoking the army into massive counteroffensives, which met no opposition as the DSE melted back into the mountains and its safe havens across the northern borders. In the Peloponnese, where General Georgios Stanotas was appointed area commander, the DSE suffered heavily, with no way to escape to mainland Greece. In general, army morale was low, and it would be some time before US support became apparent.


title: Greek Civil War

text: In September 1947, however, the KKE's leadership decided to move from guerrilla tactics to fullscale conventional war despite the opposition of Vafiadis. In December, the KKE announced the formation of a Provisional Democratic Government, with Vafiadis as prime minister; that led the Athens government to ban the KKE. No foreign government recognized this government. The new strategy led the DSE into costly attempts to seize a major town as its seat of government, and in December 1947, 1200 DSE fighters were killed at a set battle around Konitsa. At the same time, the strategy forced the government to increase the size of the army. With control of the major cities, the government cracked down on KKE members and sympathizers, many of whom were imprisoned on the island of Makronisos.


title: Greek Civil War

text: Despite setbacks, such as the fighting at Konitsa, the DSE reached the height of its power in 1948, extending its operations to Attica, within 20 km of Athens. It drew on more than 20,000 fighters, both men and women, and a network of sympathizers and informants in every village and suburb.


title: Greek Civil War

text: Among analysts emphasising the KKE's perceived control and guidance by foreign powers, such as the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, some estimate that of the DSE's 20,000 fighters, 14,000 were Slavic Macedonians from Greek Macedonia. Expanding their reasoning, they conclude that given their important role in the battle, the KKE changed its policy towards them. At the fifth Plenum of KKE on January 31, 1949, a resolution was passed declaring that after KKE's victory, the Slavic Macedonians would find their national restoration within a united Greek state. The alliance of the Democratic army with the Slavic Macedonians caused the official Greek state propaganda to call the communist guerillas "Eamovulgari" (from EAM plus Bulgarians), and the communists were calling their opponents "Monarchofasistes" (Monarch Fascists).


title: Greek Civil War

text: The extent of such involvement remains contentious and unclear; some emphasize that the KKE had in total 400,000 members (or 800,000, according to some sources) immediately prior to December 1944 and that during the Civil War, 100,000 ELAS fighters, mostly KKE members, were imprisoned, and 3,000 were executed. Supporters emphasise instead the DSE's conduct of a war effort across the country aimed at "a free and liberated Greece from all protectors that will have all the nationalities working under one Socialist State".


title: Greek Civil War

text: DSE divisions conducted guerrilla warfare across Greece; III Division, with 20,000 men in 1948, controlled 70% of the Peloponnese politically and militarily; battalions named after ELAS formations were active in northwestern Greece, and in the islands of Lesvos, Limnos, Ikaria, Samos, Creta, Evoia and the bulk of the Ionian Islands. Advisers, funds and equipment were now flooding into the country from Western Allies, and under their guidance a series of major offensives were launched into the mountains of central Greece. Although the offensives did not achieve all their objectives, they inflicted serious defeats on the DSE.


title: Greek Civil War

text: The removal of children by both sides was another highly emotive and contentious issue. About 30,000 children were forcefully taken by the DSE from territories they controlled to Eastern Bloc countries. Many others were moved for protection to special camps inside Greece, an idea of Queen Frederica. The issue drew the attention of international public opinion, and a United Nations Special Committee issued a report, stating that "some children have in fact been forcibly removed".


title: Greek Civil War

text: The communist leadership claimed that children were being gathered to be evacuated from Greece at the request of "popular organizations and parents". According to other researchers, the Greek government also followed a policy of displacement by adopting children of the guerrillas and placing them in indoctrination camps.


title: Greek Civil War

text: According to Kenneth Spencer, a UN committee reported at that time, "Queen Frederica has already prepared special 'reform camps' in Greek islands for 12,000 Greek children..." According to the official KKE story, the Provisional Government issued a directive for the evacuation of all minors from 4 to 14 years old for protection from the war and problems linked to it, as was stated clearly according to the decisions of the Provisional Government on March 7, 1948. According to non-KKE accounts, the children were abducted to be indoctrinated as Communist janissaries. Several United Nations General Assembly resolutions appealed for the repatriation of children to their homes. After 50 years, more information regarding the children gradually emerged. Many returned to Greece between 1975 and 1990, with varied views and attitudes toward the communist faction.


title: Greek Civil War

text: During the war, more than 25,000 children, most with parents in the DSE, were also placed in 30 "child towns" under the immediate control of Queen Frederika, something especially emphasised by the left. After 50 years, some of these children, given up for adoption to American families, were retracing their family background in Greece.


title: Greek Civil War

text: The insurgents were demoralised by the bitter split between Stalin and Tito. In June 1948, the Soviet Union and its satellites broke off relations with Tito. In one of the meetings held in the Kremlin with Yugoslav representatives, during the Soviet-Yugoslav crisis, Stalin stated his unqualified opposition to the "Greek uprising". Stalin explained to the Yugoslav delegation that the situation in Greece has always been different from the one in Yugoslavia because the US and Britain would "never permit [Greece] to break off their lines of communication in the Mediterranean". (Stalin used the word , Russian for "fold up", to express what the Greek Communists should do.)


title: Greek Civil War

text: Yugoslavia had been the Greek Communists' main supporter from the years of the occupation. The KKE thus had to choose between its loyalty to the Soviet Union and its relations with its closest ally. After some internal conflict, the great majority, led by party secretary Nikolaos Zachariadis, chose to follow the Soviet Union. In January 1949, Vafiadis himself was accused of "Titoism" and removed from his political and military positions, to be replaced by Zachariadis.


title: Greek Civil War

text: After a year of increasing acrimony, Tito closed the Yugoslav border to the DSE in July 1949, and disbanded its camps inside Yugoslavia. The DSE was still able to use Albanian border territories, a poor alternative. Within the Greek Communist Party, the split with Tito also sparked a witch hunt for "Titoites" that demoralised and disorganised the ranks of the DSE and sapped support for the KKE in urban areas.


title: Greek Civil War

text: In summer 1948, DSE Division III in the Peloponnese suffered a huge defeat. Lacking ammunition support from DSE headquarters and having failed to capture government ammunition depots at Zacharo in the western Peloponnese, its 20,000 fighters were doomed. The majority (including the commander of the Division, Vangelis Rogakos) were killed in battle with nearly 80,000 National Army troops. The National Army's strategic plan, codenamed "Peristera" (the Greek word for "dove (bird)"), was successful. A number of other civilians were sent to prison camps for helping Communists. The Peloponnese was now governed by paramilitary groups fighting alongside the National Army. To terrify urban areas assisting DSE's III Division, the forces decapitated a number of dead fighters and placed them in central squares. Following defeat in southern Greece, the DSE continued to operate in northern Greece and some islands, but it was a greatly weakened force facing significant obstacles both politically and militarily.


title: Greek Civil War

text: At the same time, the National Army found a talented commander in General Alexander Papagos, commander of the Greek army during the Greco-Italian War. In August 1949, Papagos launched a major counteroffensive against DSE forces in northern Greece, codenamed "Operation Pyrsos/Torch". The campaign was a victory for the National Army and resulted in heavy losses for the DSE. The DSE army was now no longer able to sustain resistance in pitched battles. By September 1949, the main body of DSE divisions defending Grammos and Vitsi, the two key positions in northern Greece for the DSE, had retreated to Albania. Two main groups remained within the borders, trying to reconnect with scattered DSE fighters largely in Central Greece.


title: Greek Civil War

text: These groups, numbering 1,000 fighters, left Greece by the end of September 1949. The main body of the DSE, accompanied by its HQ, after discussion with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and other Communist governments, was moved to Tashkent in the Soviet Union. They were to remain there, in military encampments, for three years. Other older combatants, alongside injured fighters, women and children, were relocated to European socialist states. On October 16, Zachariadis announced a "temporary ceasefire to prevent the complete annihilation of Greece"; the ceasefire marked the end of the Greek Civil War.


title: Greek Civil War

text: Almost 100,000 ELAS fighters and Communist sympathizers serving in DSE ranks were imprisoned, exiled, or executed. That deprived the DSE of the principal force still able to support its fight. According to some historians, the KKE's major supporter and supplier had always been Tito, and it was the rift between Tito and the KKE that marked the real demise of the party's efforts to assert power.


title: Greek Civil War

text: Western anti-Communist governments allied to Greece saw the end of the Greek Civil War as a victory in the Cold War against the Soviet Union. Communists countered that the Soviets never actively supported the Greek Communist efforts to seize power in Greece. Both sides had, at differing junctures, nevertheless looked to an external superpower for support.


title: Greek Civil War

text: The Civil War left Greece in ruins and in even greater economic distress than it had been following the end of German occupation. Additionally, it divided the Greek people for ensuing decades, with both sides vilifying their opponents. Thousands languished in prison for many years or were sent into internal exile on the islands of Gyaros and Makronisos. Many others sought refuge in communist countries or emigrated to Australia, Germany, the US, the UK, Canada and elsewhere.


title: Greek Civil War

text: The polarization and instability of Greek politics in the mid-1960s was a direct result of the Civil War and the deep divide between the leftist and rightist sections of Greek society. A major crisis as a result was the murder of the left-wing politician Gregoris Lambrakis in 1963, the inspiration for the Costa Gavras political thriller, "Z". The crisis of the "Apostasia" followed in 1965, together with the ""ASPIDA" affair", which involved an alleged coup plot by a left-wing group of officers; the group's alleged leader was Andreas Papandreou, son of George Papandreou, the leader of the Center Union political party and the country's prime minister at the time.


title: Greek Civil War

text: On April 21, 1967, a group of rightist and anti-communist army officers executed a "coup d'état" and seized power from the government, using the political instability and tension of the time as a pretext. The leader of the coup, George Papadopoulos, was a member of the right-wing military organization IDEA ("Sacred Bond of Greek Officers"), and the subsequent military regime (later referred to as the Regime of the Colonels) lasted until 1974.


title: Greek Civil War

text: After the collapse of the military junta, a conservative government under Constantine Karamanlis led to the abolition of monarchy, the legalization of the KKE and a new constitution, which guaranteed political freedoms, individual rights and free elections. In 1981, in a major turning point in Greek history, the centre-left government of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) allowed a number of DSE veterans who had taken refuge in communist countries to return to Greece and reestablish their former estates, which greatly helped to diminish the consequences of the Civil War in Greek society. The PASOK administration also offered state pensions to former partisans of the anti-Nazi resistance; Markos Vafiadis was honorarily elected as member of the Greek parliament under PASOK's flag.


title: Greek Civil War

text: In 1989, the coalition government between Nea Dimokratia and the Coalition of Left and Progress (SYNASPISMOS), in which the KKE was for a period the major force, suggested a law that was passed unanimously by the Greek Parliament, formally recognizing the 1946–1949 war as a civil war and not merely as a communist insurgency (Συμμοριτοπόλεμος "Symmoritopolemos") ( Ν. 1863/89 (ΦΕΚ 204Α΄) ). Under the terms of this law, the war of 1946–1949 was recognized as a Greek Civil War between the National Army and the Democratic Army of Greece, for the first time in Greek postwar history. Under the aforementioned law, the term "communist bandits" (Κομμουνιστοσυμμορίτες "Kommounistosymmorites", ΚΣ), wherever it had occurred in Greek law, was replaced by the term "Fighters of the DSE".


title: Greek Civil War

text: In a 2008 Gallup poll, Greeks were asked "whether it was better that the right wing won the Civil War". 43% responded that it was better for Greece that the right wing won, 13% responded that it would have been better if the left had won, 20% responded "neither" and 24% did not respond.


title: William Hopper

text: William DeWolf Hopper Jr. (January 26, 1915 – March 6, 1970) was an American stage, film, and television actor. The only child of actor DeWolf Hopper and actress and Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper, he appeared in predominantly minor roles in more than 80 feature films in the 1930s and 1940s. After serving in the United States Navy during World War II, he left acting, but in the mid-1950s, he was persuaded by director William Wellman to resume his film career. He became best known for his work as private detective Paul Drake in the CBS television series "Perry Mason".


title: William Hopper

text: William DeWolf Hopper Jr., was born January 26, 1915, in New York City. He was the only child of actor, singer, comedian, and theatrical producer DeWolf Hopper and his fifth wife, actress Hedda Hopper (born Elda Furry). He had one older half-brother, John A. Hopper, from his father's second marriage in the 1880s. Hopper made his film debut as a baby in his father's 1916 silent movie "Sunshine Dad". His mother divorced his father in 1922 and moved to Hollywood with their son. Hedda Hopper became one of America's notorious gossip columnists, and a major proponent of the Hollywood blacklist, with nearly 30 million readers in newspapers in the U.S.


title: William Hopper

text: Hopper began his acting career as a teenager. He made his first stage appearance at the Pasadena Community Playhouse, in "She Loves Me Not". He worked in summer stock in Ogunquit, Maine. He appeared on Broadway in the short-lived comedy "Order Please" (1934) and as a member of the ensemble in Katharine Cornell's production of "Romeo and Juliet" (1934–35).


title: William Hopper

text: In March 1936, Hopper — then working under the name Wolfe Hopper — won a contract at Paramount Pictures. Early in his film career, Hopper appeared in numerous movies, uncredited and also under the name DeWolf Hopper. In 1936, he played a small role as a soldier in the Columbia Pictures film "The King Steps Out" starring Grace Moore and Franchot Tone. In 1937, he portrayed the leading man in two films, "Public Wedding" with Jane Wyman and "Over the Goal" with June Travis. He also enjoyed significant roles alongside Ann Sheridan in "The Footloose Heiress" (1937) and "Mystery House" (1938).


title: William Hopper

text: After that, he had roles that included playing a sergeant in the John Ford Western, "Stagecoach" (1939); an intern in "The Return of Dr. X" (1939); a college football player in "Over the Goal" (1939); and reporters in "Knute Rockne, All American" (1940), "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) and "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942).


title: William Hopper

text: Hopper became an actor because his mother expected it of him. "When I worked at Warner Bros.," Hopper said, "I was so scared I stuttered all the time."


title: William Hopper

text: Hopper served with the United States Navy during World War II, as a volunteer with the Office of Strategic Services and as a member of the newly created Underwater Demolition Team. He received a Bronze Star and several other medals during operations in the Pacific.


title: William Hopper

text: For eight years after the war, Hopper became involved in business and sold cars in Hollywood. He combined car sales and acting when opportunities came up during the advent of television.


title: William Hopper

text: "I didn't even think about acting much until a friend, director Bill Wellman, asked me to do a part in "The High and the Mighty"," Hopper recalled.


title: William Hopper

text: In 1953, director William Wellman persuaded Hopper to resume his movie career with his 1954 film, "The High and the Mighty", opposite Jan Sterling. Before filming began, Hopper challenged Wellman because he suspected his mother had arranged the offer. "When it appeared Wellman was serious, I asked him if he knew whose son I was. He ignored me," Hopper recalled. "I was so lousy, so nervous, I didn't even know where the camera was. But somehow Billy got me through. Afterward, I thanked him. He said, 'Thank me, my foot. After this, you're going to be in every picture I make.' I didn't believe him." Hopper subsequently appeared in two of Wellman's films, "Track of the Cat" (1954) and "Good-bye, My Lady" (1956).


title: William Hopper

text: Hopper was cast to star opposite Claire Trevor in the live television drama, "No Sad Songs for Me", broadcast April 14, 1955, on NBC's "Lux Video Theatre". He had such stage fright, he initially cancelled: "I swore I'd never act again as long as I lived," Hopper recalled. "Then I thought, what the heck, they can't shoot me, and walked on the set. Something happened then. It was as if someone had surgically removed the nerves."


title: William Hopper

text: At last comfortable on screen, Hopper played the stern and emotionally distant father of Natalie Wood in the James Dean classic, "Rebel Without a Cause" (1955), and the absentee father in "The Bad Seed" (1956). He starred in the science-fiction films "20 Million Miles to Earth" and "The Deadly Mantis", released in 1957.


title: William Hopper

text: In 1956 Hopper guest-starred again on television during the first season of the Western series "Gunsmoke", portraying an outlaw initially supported by townsfolk in an episode titled "Robin Hood". The following year he played a supporting role in the pilot episode of the television series "The Restless Gun", which was broadcast as an episode of "Schlitz Playhouse of Stars". Some of Hopper's other television guest appearances include "The Joseph Cotten Show", "Fury", "Studio 57", and "The Millionaire".


title: William Hopper

text: Hopper is best known for his principal role as the private investigator Paul Drake on CBS's courtroom television series "Perry Mason" (1957–66). He initially tested for the title role, while Raymond Burr read for the role of Mason's courtroom adversary, district attorney Hamilton Burger. Burr was encouraged to lose weight and return to audition for the role of Perry Mason — which he did, successfully. Hopper, too, was called back. Executive producer Gail Patrick Jackson recalled, "When Bill Hopper came in to read for Paul Drake he blurted out, 'You hate my mother.' And that was Hedda Hopper. Well, I disliked what she stood for, but 'hate' is something else — and anyway he was perfect as Drake, and we got him."


title: William Hopper

text: Hopper continued to work in summer stock and to make movie appearances during his years on "Perry Mason"; however, after the series was cancelled in 1966, he declined other television offers. He did, though, make one final film appearance in "Myra Breckinridge" (1970), which premiered in New York three months after his death.


title: William Hopper

text: In 1959, Hopper was nominated as Best Supporting Actor (Continuing Character) in a Dramatic Series at the 11th Primetime Emmy Awards for his performance as Paul Drake.


title: William Hopper

text: In 1940, Hopper married actress Jane Gilbert. They had worked together on the 1939 film "Invisible Stripes". The couple had one daughter, Joan, born in 1947.


title: William Hopper

text: Hopper and Gilbert divorced in 1959, and later that same year, Hopper married Jeanette Juanita Ward (d. 2008). They remained together until his death.


title: William Hopper

text: Hopper, a chain smoker who often indulged onscreen in "Perry Mason", entered Desert Hospital in Palm Springs, California, on February 14, 1970, after suffering a stroke. He died of a heart attack three weeks later, on March 6, at age 55. He was buried in Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California.


title: Secret society

text: A secret society is a club or an organization whose activities, events, inner functioning, or membership are concealed. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence agencies or guerrilla warfare insurgencies, that hide their activities and memberships but maintain a public presence.


title: Secret society

text: The exact qualifications for labeling a group a secret society are disputed, but definitions generally rely on the degree to which the organization insists on secrecy, and might involve the retention and transmission of secret knowledge, the denial of membership or knowledge of the group, the creation of personal bonds between members of the organization, and the use of secret rites or rituals which solidify members of the group.


title: Secret society

text: Anthropologically and historically, secret societies have been deeply interlinked with the concept of the Männerbund, the all-male "warrior-band" or "warrior-society" of pre-modern cultures (see H. Schurtz, "Alterklassen und Männerbünde", Berlin, 1902; A. Van Gennep, "The Rites of Passage", Chicago, 1960).


title: Secret society

text: A purported "family tree of secret societies" has been proposed, although it may not be comprehensive.


title: Secret society

text: Alan Axelrod, author of the "International Encyclopedia of Secret Societies and Fraternal Orders", defines a secret society as an organization that:


title: Secret society

text: Spence also proposes a sub-category of "Elite Secret Societies" (composed of high-income or socially influential people), and notes that secret societies have a frequent if not universal tendency towards factionalism, infighting and claiming origins older than can be reliably documented. Spence's definition includes groups traditionally thought of as secret societies (Freemasons and Rosicrucians) and other groups not so traditionally classified such as certain organized crime cabals (the Mafia), religious groups (Order of Assassins and Thelema) and political movements (Bolsheviks and Black Dragon Society).


title: Secret society

text: David V. Barrett, author of "Secret Societies: From the Ancient and Arcane to the Modern and Clandestine", has used alternative terms to define what qualifies a secret society. He defined it as any group that possesses the following characteristics:


title: Secret society

text: Barrett goes on to say that "a further characteristic common to most of them is the practice of rituals which non-members are not permitted to observe, or even to know the existence of." Barrett's definition would rule out many organizations called secret societies; graded teaching is usually not part of the American college fraternities, the Carbonari, or the 19th-century Know Nothings.


title: Secret society

text: The organisation "Opus Dei" (Latin for "Work of God") is portrayed as a "secret society" of the Catholic Church. Critics such as the Jesuit Wladimir Ledóchowski sometimes refer to Opus Dei as a Catholic (or Christian or "white") form of Freemasonry. Other critics label Opus Dei as "Holy Mafia" or "Santa Mafia" as the organisation is connected with various questionable practises including intense "brainwashing" of its members to exploit labor force as well as the direct involvement of members in severe crimes such as baby-trafficking in Spain under the dictator Francisco Franco.


title: Secret society

text: Because some secret societies have political aims, they are illegal in several countries. Italy (Constitution of Italy, Section 2, Articles 13–28) and Poland, for example, ban secret political parties and political organizations in their constitutions.


title: Secret society

text: Many student societies established on university campuses in the United States have been considered secret societies. Perhaps one of the most famous secret collegiate societies is Skull and Bones at Yale University. The influence of undergraduate secret societies at colleges such as Harvard College, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Emory University, the University of Chicago, the University of Virginia, Georgetown University, New York University, and Wellesley College has been publicly acknowledged, if anonymously and circumspectly, since the 19th century.


title: Secret society

text: British Universities, too, have a long history of secret societies or quasi-secret societies, such as The Pitt Club at Cambridge University, Bullingdon Club at Oxford University, and the 16' Club at St David's College. Another British secret society is the Cambridge Apostles, founded as an essay and debating society in 1820. Not all British Universities host solely academic secret societies, for both The Night Climbers of Cambridge and The Night Climbers of Oxford require both brains and brawn.


title: Secret society

text: Notable examples in Canada include Episkopon at the University of Toronto's Trinity College, and the Society of Thoth at the University of British Columbia.


title: Secret society

text: Secret societies are disallowed in a few colleges. The Virginia Military Institute has rules that no cadet may join a secret society, and secret societies have been banned at Oberlin College from 1847 to the present, and at Princeton University since the beginning of the 20th century.


title: Secret society

text: Confraternities in Nigeria are secret-society like student groups within higher education. The exact death toll of confraternity activities is unclear. One estimate in 2002 was that 250 people had been killed in campus cult-related murders in the previous decade, while the Exam Ethics Project lobby group estimated that 115 students and teachers had been killed between 1993 and 2003.


title: Secret society

text: The Mandatory Monday Association is thought to operate out of a variety of Australian universities including the Australian Defence Force Academy. The Association has numerous chapters that meet only on Mondays to discuss business and carry out rituals.


title: Secret society

text: The only secret society abolished and then legalized is that of The Philomaths, which is nowadays a legitimate academic association founded on a strict selection of its members.


title: Secret society

text: While their existence had been speculated for years, internet-based secret societies first became known to the public in 2012 when the secret society known as Cicada 3301 began recruiting from the public via internet-based puzzles. The goals of the society remain unknown, but it is believed that they are involved in cryptography.


title: Secret society

text: Many Christian Churches forbid their members from joining secret societies. For example, ¶41 of the General Rules contained in "Discipline" of the Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection teaches:


title: Shantaram (TV series)

text: Shantaram is an American drama thriller television series created by Eric Warren Singer and Steve Lightfoot, based on the novel of the same name by Gregory David Roberts. The story drew inspiration from Roberts' own life, which is about a bank robber from Australia who flees the country to India. The series will consist of twelve episodes directed by Justin Kurzel and Bharat Nalluri. Steve Lightfoot joined as showrunner after Eric Warren Singer departed the project. It is produced by Fair Honest Positive Creative, The 4 Keys, Bohemian Risk Productions, Square Head Productions, Anonymous Content and Paramount Television Studios and was distributed by Apple Inc. for their streaming service, Apple TV+. The series premiered on October 14, 2022. On December 15, 2022, the series was cancelled after one season.


title: Shantaram (TV series)

text: When the novel "Shantaram" was published in 2003, several parties expressed interest in a film adaptation. As Warner Bros. purchased the film's rights for $2 million, Brad Grey, an executive of the company, decided to hire Johnny Depp due to his expression of love for the book, which was to be based on a script written by the book's author Gregory David Roberts. In October 2005, Warner Bros. hired screenwriter Eric Roth to rewrite the initial draft created by Roberts. The following November, the studio hired Peter Weir to direct and to develop the script with Roth.


title: Shantaram (TV series)

text: Originally planned to schedule production for late 2006, in June of that year, Weir departed from the project with a studio spokesperson citing different interpretations between the director, the studio, and producers, and was replaced by Mira Nair in January 2007. The studio initially wanted to start production in early 2007, which was later cancelled by Warner Bros, citing the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike's interference with the script's readiness, the schedule, and climatic conflicts with the difficulties in filming between India and New Mexico in the United States.


title: Shantaram (TV series)

text: Although in November 2008, "The Independent" reported the project had been cancelled, a report in May 2013, from the "Mumbai Mirror" stated that Warner Bros. had negotiated to retain the film rights until 2015, speculating that a film adaptation of "Shantaram" was still in the works. The following October, Depp approached Joel Edgerton to star in his place also being involved in the project as a producer. Warner Bros. was in early talks with Garth Davis, co-director of the Emmy-nominated "Top of the Lake", to make his feature film directing debut on the movie which also failed to happen.


title: Shantaram (TV series)

text: In January 2018, Anonymous Content and Paramount Television Studios acquired the rights to "Shantaram," with plans to repurpose it as a television series. In June 2018, it was announced that Apple Inc. was developing a television adaptation of the novel for Apple TV+, becoming one of their first international production with two other series announced during its launch. Eric Warren Singer was appointed as the screenwriter, who was to also serve as the executive producer alongside David Manson, Nicole Clemens, Steve Golin, and Andrea Barron with Charlie Hunnam in the lead role. Singer took more than year to complete the writing of the series. Pre-production work was completed by August 2019. In September 2019, Charlie Hunnam, Richard Roxburgh and Radhika Apte were cast as series leads, with Justin Kurzel set to direct the first two and last two episodes of the ten-part series.


title: Shantaram (TV series)

text: "Shantaram" was set to begin in Victoria, Australia, and Bhopal, India, as the primary locations. The Australian Government planned to provide $5 million for the production of the project through its Location Incentive program, with the Victorian Government also supporting the series through Film Victoria's Production Incentive Attraction Fund. The budget was estimated at $100 million.


title: Shantaram (TV series)

text: In February 2020, Singer stepped down as showrunner of the series, stating that the delay in shooting had created potential scheduling conflicts. In November 2020, Apple hired Steve Lightfoot as the new showrunner for the series, who completed writing the remaining episodes; Alexander Siddig joined the cast in March 2021. Siddig was approached to play the role of Kader Khan, a role rumored to have been meant for Amitabh Bachchan, who Mira Nair had proposed. Bharat Nalluri was announced as director of the remaining six episodes.


title: Shantaram (TV series)

text: Filming of the series began in October 2019 in Australia, followed by a move to India in November 2019, with a significant portion of the series expected to be shot over the course of a year in Bhopal and various other locations in Madhya Pradesh. Shooting of the series was suspended in February 2020 due to the Indian monsoon season which happens in the June–October period, adding to the reasons were Singer's departure from the series leading to a writing backlog, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. Production restarted in Melbourne, Australia, in May 2021 before additional filming was moved to Thailand due to India's worsening COVID-19 outbreaks. Production returned to Melbourne in August 2021. All principal photography was completed in mid-December 2021.


title: Shantaram (TV series)

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 56% approval rating with an average rating of 5.9/10, based on 27 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Charlie Hunnam is appealingly roguish as the irascible Lin Ford, but "Shantaram"s lack of a propelling narrative leaves this compelling character stranded." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 62 out of 100 based on 14 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Matt Skiba

text: Matthew Thomas Skiba (born February 24, 1976) is an American musician, singer and songwriter, known for his role as the founding lead vocalist and guitarist for Alkaline Trio and was the guitarist and vocalist of the band Blink-182 from 2015 to 2022. Skiba's lyrical content commonly involves dark romantic themes.


title: Matt Skiba

text: Alkaline Trio formed in 1996 with Skiba as the frontman. Since then, the band has released nine full-length albums over two decades. Skiba also recorded albums with side projects including Heavens and the Hell, as well as two full-length solo albums with his backing band, the Sekrets.


title: Matt Skiba

text: Following Tom DeLonge's second departure from in early 2015, Skiba was hired as their touring guitarist for three shows and then became an official member later that year; he recorded two albums with the band before DeLonge returned in 2022.


title: Matt Skiba

text: Matt Skiba was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in McHenry, Illinois. He began playing piano and drums at an early age. His first concert was Public Image Ltd. In 1996, while working as a bike messenger, he decided to switch from drums to guitar. Prior to that he played in bands including Blunt, Jerkwater, and the Traitors.


title: Matt Skiba

text: His mother, Joan Skiba, is a fourth and fifth grade teacher at Woods Creek Elementary School in Crystal Lake, Illinois. His father, Thomas Skiba (1942-2022), was an oral surgeon in Crystal Lake who served in the Vietnam War. He has two younger twin sisters.


title: Matt Skiba

text: Skiba studied design at Chicago's Columbia College but left in 1996 to form Alkaline Trio with drummer Glenn Porter and bassist Rob Doran.


title: Matt Skiba

text: After the group recorded their demo and the single "Sundials", they recorded the "For Your Lungs Only" EP, during which Doran left the group. Dan Andriano joined and played bass on the EP. The band released their debut full-length "Goddamnit" on Asian Man Records in 1998, followed by "Maybe I'll Catch Fire" and the compilation "Alkaline Trio" in 2000.


title: Matt Skiba

text: The group's lineup changed again in 2000 when Porter left and former Smoking Popes drummer Mike Felumlee joined. "From Here to Infirmary", released by Vagrant Records in the spring of 2001. In 2002 Jade Tree Records released a Hot Water Music/Alkaline Trio split EP which was well received. Both bands contributed original tracks and covers of each other's songs. "Good Mourning" followed in 2003, marking the band's first album with drummer Derek Grant, formerly of Suicide Machines and Thoughts of Ionesco. While recording "Good Mourning", Skiba had a problem with acid reflux because of his diet, lack of vocal warm-up and his earlier troubles with alcohol and drugs.


title: Matt Skiba

text: Following a tour and throat surgery for Skiba, the band recorded and released "Crimson" in 2005 and the compilation "Remains" in 2007. "Agony & Irony", their first and only record on Epic Records, was released in July 2008. In January 2010 they released "This Addiction" on their own Heart & Skull label in partnership with Epitaph Records. In July 2011, they released a semi-acoustic LP called "Damnesia" to commemorate 15 years as a band. Their eighth album, "My Shame Is True" was released on April 21, 2013.


title: Matt Skiba

text: In 2014, the band underwent an anthology tour known as the "Past Live Tour", in which they performed their first eight studio albums in their entirety across four dates. Following a five-year hiatus from the studio and a second throat surgery for Skiba, the band released their ninth album, "Is This Thing Cursed?", on August 31, 2018.


title: Matt Skiba

text: Following the departure of Tom DeLonge from Blink-182 in 2015, Mark Hoppus announced that Skiba would "fill in" for the band and performed two club shows and a slot at the Musink festival in March 2015. Later that year, the band confirmed that Skiba was now an official member and would be appearing on their upcoming album. The resulting album "California," was released on July 1, 2016. Skiba reappears on the band's eighth studio album "Nine", which was released on September 20, 2019. However, he did not appear on the band's 2020 single "Quarantine", due to lack of a proper home recording studio.


title: Matt Skiba

text: In July 2022, Skiba stated in an Instagram comment reply that his status with Blink-182 was uncertain while also saying that he was grateful for his time in the group. Blink-182 later announced that DeLonge had officially returned to the band. Skiba was absent in promotional material, effectively confirming his departure. DeLonge messaged Skiba on Instagram to thank him for his time with the band, and later shared the post publicly on his account. Skiba himself reposted some of the promotional material of the new single on his Instagram account, congratulated the band for the reunion of their classic line up and stated his gratitude for his time in the band.


title: Matt Skiba

text: In 2001, he began his first full solo tour with The Plea for Peace Tour, consisting mostly of acoustic versions of Alkaline Trio songs with backing drums and bass in a few shows.


title: Matt Skiba

text: His first solo release came in 2002 in the form of a split with Kevin Seconds of 7 Seconds fame. The songs were mostly acoustic with drums, bass, and piano played by Skiba. Alkaline Trio still occasionally performs the song "Good Fucking Bye".


title: Matt Skiba

text: In 2006, Skiba launched the band Heavens with F-Minus bassist Josiah Steinbrick. The group released "Patent Pending" on September 12, 2006.


title: Matt Skiba

text: Also in 2006, Skiba contributed to the track "Rock 'n' Roll High School" featured on "", a tribute album released on Go-Kart Records.


title: Matt Skiba

text: In late December 2008, Steinbrick announced on Heavens' MySpace page, "This is no longer a Heavens page. Sorry, that's just the way it's going down. Matt will still be doing Trio stuff and last I heard he might be working on a wonderful solo record. I'm not really positive actually but I'm sure it will be great." A falling-out between Skiba and Steinbrick led to the breakup.


title: Matt Skiba

text: On August 18, 2009, at Debonair Social Club in Chicago, Skiba, Grant and Greg Corner and Jonny Radtke of Kill Hannah debuted the supergroup cover band Them Crooked Vulvas (and occasionally played under the name A Perfect Circus).


title: Matt Skiba

text: On August 10, 2010, he released a solo album titled "Demos" on Asian Man Records. The album is said to be a precursor to a future Alkaline Trio album .


title: Matt Skiba

text: In January 2012, Skiba released an EP along with former Angels and Airwaves and The Offspring drummer Atom Willard under the moniker The Hell. The Hell's debut EP is entitled "Sauve Les Requins".


title: Matt Skiba

text: Skiba's second full-length solo album, "Babylon", was released on May 8, 2012. The album features Skiba leading a band called Matt Skiba and the Sekrets; the backing band includes AFI bassist Hunter Burgan, and former touring drummer for My Chemical Romance Jarrod Alexander. "Voices" impacted radio on May 1, 2012.


title: Matt Skiba

text: In early 2013, Matt Skiba encouraged Mike Park of Asian Man Records to release The Smith Street Band's first two albums in America. Skiba had met the band's guitarist Lee Hartney and fallen in love with his personality and tones. Blink 182 and The Smith Street Band played together in 2017 at Hurricane Festival in Germany.


title: Matt Skiba

text: Skiba confirms his current work on a solo record, a screenplay, and a children's punk record featuring Mark Hoppus.


title: Matt Skiba

text: In March 2015, Skiba and the Sekrets' second album, "Kutz", was announced for a release date of June 1.


title: Matt Skiba

text: Although he started out as an avid player of Gibson Les Pauls, Skiba currently plays Fender Jaguar HH's. He has also played Gibson Les Paul Juniors, Gibson SGs, Fender Stratocasters and Fender Jazzmasters in the past.


title: Matt Skiba

text: Skiba is a vegan and practices Transcendental Meditation according to an interview with AOL Interface. He said that the clear and calm state of mind it provides has greatly helped his creative process, though initially he believed the "tortured soul" mindset was more beneficial. The book "Catching the Big Fish" by David Lynch caused him to change his mind and he now believes a calm state is more artistically helpful. Matt purchased a membership in The Church of Satan organization back in the early days of Alkaline Trio, saying, "to me Anton LaVey was...very punk rock".


title: Matt Skiba

text: Skiba moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2001, though he currently lives in Los Angeles. He has "Love Song" tattooed on his knuckles. He is a "big Cure fan," a "huge Damned fan," "an enormous David Lynch fan", a "big Green Day fan" and a "really big Nirvana fan." Skiba is divorced. He was a close friend of Fat Mike of NOFX-fame and served as the best man at his wedding.


title: Jonah Hauer-King

text: Jonah Andre Hauer-King (born 30 May 1995) is an English actor. He has starred in the films "The Last Photograph" (2017) and "A Dog's Way Home" (2019), and appeared in the television miniseries "Howards End" (2017), "Little Women" (2017) and "World on Fire" (2019). In 2020, he was cast as Prince Eric in the Disney film "The Little Mermaid" (2023).


title: Jonah Hauer-King

text: Hauer-King was born on 30 May 1995 in Islington, London, the son of Debra Hauer, a Jewish theatre producer and therapist, and Jeremy King, a prominent London restaurateur. His sister is Margot Hauer-King, an accounts manager and partner of actor Josh O'Connor. Hauer-King was raised Jewish. His maternal grandparents were Polish Jews who fled Warsaw in the 1930s.


title: Jonah Hauer-King

text: Hauer-King attended St John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a first class degree in theology and religious studies, juggling acting roles on stage and screen whilst he was there.


title: Jonah Hauer-King

text: Hauer-King's first feature was a lead role in Danny Huston's "The Last Photograph", which received its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. He played Laurie in the 2017 BBC version of "Little Women", and starred as Andrius Aras in the film "Ashes in the Snow" (2018), opposite Bel Powley, and as David in "Postcards from London" (2018). He also starred as Lucas in the film "A Dog's Way Home" (2019). His other roles include "The Song of Names" and "This Is the Night". His most recent feature was playing Harry Chase in BBC World War II drama "World on Fire" (2019). King also appeared in the television film "Agatha and the Curse of Ishtar". On 12 November 2019, it was announced that King would play Prince Eric in the upcoming live-action film adaptation of "The Little Mermaid".


title: Elgin Marbles

text: The Elgin Marbles (), also known as the Parthenon Marbles (, lit. "sculptures of the Parthenon"), are a collection of Classical Greek marble sculptures made under the supervision of the architect and sculptor Phidias and his assistants. They are original parts of the Parthenon and other sacred and ceremonial structures built on the Acropolis of Athens in the 5th century BCE. The collection is on display in the British Museum, in the purpose-built Duveen Gallery. The presence of the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum is the subject of international controversy.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: From 1801 to 1812, agents of Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin removed about half of the surviving sculptures of the Parthenon, as well as sculptures from the Propylaea and Erechtheion, and had them transported by sea to Britain. Elgin argued as his authority for this that he had obtained an official decree (a firman) from the Sublime Porte, the central government of the Ottoman Empire which, as ruler of Greece, was at that time the legal owner of the sculptures. This firman has not been found in the Ottoman archives despite its wealth of documents from the same period and its veracity is disputed. The Acropolis Museum displays a portion of the complete frieze, aligned in orientation and within sight of the Parthenon, with the position of the missing elements clearly marked and space left should they be returned to Athens.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: In Britain, the acquisition of the collection was supported by some, while some others, such as Lord Byron, likened the Earl's actions to vandalism or looting. Following a public debate in Parliament and its subsequent exoneration of Elgin, he sold the Marbles to the British government in 1816. They were then passed into the trusteeship of the British Museum, where they are now on display in the purpose-built Duveen Gallery.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: After gaining its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1832, the newly founded Greek state began a series of projects to restore its looted monuments and art. It has expressed its disapproval of Elgin's removal of the Marbles from the Acropolis and the Parthenon, which is regarded as one of the world's greatest cultural monuments. International efforts to repatriate the Marbles to Greece were intensified in the 1980s by then Greek Minister of Culture Melina Mercouri, and there are now many organisations actively campaigning for the Marbles' return, several united as part of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures. The Greek government itself continues to urge the return of the marbles to Athens so as to be unified with the remaining marbles and for the complete Parthenon frieze sequence to be restored, through diplomatic, political and legal means.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: In 2014, UNESCO offered to mediate between Greece and the United Kingdom to resolve the dispute, although this was later turned down by the British Museum on the basis that UNESCO works with government bodies, not trustees of museums. In 2021, UNESCO issued its first decision on the Parthenon Marbles, calling for the United Kingdom to return them to Greece. Following intense public pressure, in December 2022, it was reported that the British Museum had entered into talks with the Greek government for the permanent return of the Parthenon Marbles to Athens.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: Asked about the possible return of the Marbles, Culture Secretary, Michelle Donelan replied: "I can sympathise with some of the arguments but I do think that is a very dangerous and slippy road to embark down."


title: Elgin Marbles

text: Built in the ancient era, the Parthenon was extensively damaged by earthquakes. Also, during the Sixth Ottoman–Venetian War (1684–1699) against the Ottoman Empire, the defending Turks fortified the Acropolis and used the Parthenon as a castle and gunpowder store. On 26 September 1687, a Venetian artillery round, fired from the Hill of Philopappus, ignited the gunpowder, and the resulting explosion blew up the Parthenon, and the building was partly destroyed. The explosion blew out the building's central portion and caused the cella's walls to crumble into rubble. Three of the four walls collapsed, or nearly so, and about three-fifths of the sculptures from the frieze fell. About three hundred people were killed in the explosion, which showered marble fragments over a significant area. For the next century and a half, portions of the remaining structure were scavenged for building material and looted of any remaining objects of value.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: In November 1798, the Earl of Elgin was appointed as "Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of His Britannic Majesty to the Sublime Porte of Selim III, Sultan of Turkey" (Greece was then part of the Ottoman Empire). Before his departure to take up the post he had approached officials of the British government to inquire if they would be interested in employing artists to take casts and drawings of the sculptured portions of the Parthenon. According to Lord Elgin, "the answer of the Government ... was entirely negative."


title: Elgin Marbles

text: Lord Elgin decided to carry out the work himself, and employed artists to take casts and drawings under the supervision of the Neapolitan court painter, Giovanni Lusieri. According to a Turkish local, marble sculptures that fell were being burned to obtain lime for building. Although his original intention was only to document the sculptures, in 1801 Lord Elgin began to remove material from the Parthenon and its surrounding structures under the supervision of Lusieri. Pieces were also removed from the Erechtheion, the Propylaia, and the Temple of Athena Nike, all inside the Acropolis.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: The marbles were taken from Greece to Malta, then a British protectorate, where they remained for a number of years until they were transported to Britain. The excavation and removal was completed in 1812 at a personal cost to Elgin of £74,240 (equivalent to £ in pounds). Elgin intended to use the marbles to decorate Broomhall House, his private home near Dunfermline in Scotland, but a costly divorce suit forced him to sell them to settle his debts. Elgin sold the Parthenon Marbles to the British government for £35,000, less than half of what it cost him to procure them, declining higher offers from other potential buyers, including Napoleon.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: The Parthenon Marbles acquired by Elgin include some 21 figures from the statuary from the east and west pediments, 15 of an original 92 metope panels depicting battles between the Lapiths and the Centaurs, as well as 75 metres of the Parthenon Frieze which decorated the horizontal course set above the interior architrave of the temple. As such, they represent more than half of what now remains of the surviving sculptural decoration of the Parthenon.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: Elgin's acquisitions also included objects from other buildings on the Athenian Acropolis: a Caryatid from Erechtheum; four slabs from the parapet frieze of the Temple of Athena Nike; and a number of other architectural fragments of the Parthenon, Propylaia, Erechtheum, the Temple of Athene Nike, and the Treasury of Atreus.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: The Acropolis was at that time an Ottoman military fort, so Elgin required special permission to enter the site, the Parthenon, and the surrounding buildings. He stated that he had obtained a firman from the Sultan which allowed his artists to access the site, but he was unable to produce the original documentation. However, Elgin presented a document claimed to be an English translation of an Italian copy made at the time. This document is now kept in the British Museum. Its authenticity has been questioned, as it lacked the formalities characterising edicts from the Sultan. Vassilis Demetriades, Professor of Turkish Studies at the University of Crete, has argued that "any expert in Ottoman diplomatic language can easily ascertain that the original of the document which has survived was not a firman". The document was recorded in an appendix of an 1816 parliamentary committee report. 'The committee permission' had convened to examine a request by Elgin asking the British government to purchase the Marbles. The report said that the document in the appendix was an accurate translation, in English, of an Ottoman firman dated July 1801. In Elgin's view it amounted to an Ottoman authorisation to remove the marbles. The committee was told that the original document was given to Ottoman officials in Athens in 1801. Researchers have so far failed to locate it despite the fact that firmans, being official decrees by the Sultan, were meticulously recorded as a matter of procedure, and that the Ottoman archives in Istanbul still hold a number of similar documents dating from the same period.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: The parliamentary record shows that the Italian copy of the firman was not presented to the committee by Elgin himself but by one of his associates, the clergyman Rev. Philip Hunt. Hunt, who at the time resided in Bedford, was the last witness to appear before the committee and stated that he had in his possession an Italian translation of the Ottoman original. He went on to explain that he had not brought the document, because, upon leaving Bedford, he was not aware that he was to testify as a witness. The English document in the parliamentary report was filed by Hunt, but the committee was not presented with the Italian translation in Hunt's possession. William St. Clair, a contemporary biographer of Lord Elgin, said he possessed Hunt's Italian document and "vouches for the accuracy of the English translation". The committee report states on page 69 "(Signed with a signet.) Seged Abdullah Kaimacan" – however, the document presented to the committee was "an English translation of this purported translation into Italian of the original "firman"", and had neither signet nor signature on it, a fact corroborated by St. Clair. The 1967 study by British historian William St. Clair, "Lord Elgin and the Marbles," stated the Sultan did not allow the removal of statues and reliefs from the Parthenon. The study judged a clause authorising the British to take stones "with old inscriptions and figures" probably meant items in the excavations of the site, not the art decorating the temples.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: The document allowed Elgin and his team to erect scaffolding so as to make drawings and mouldings in chalk or gypsum, as well as to measure the remains of the ruined buildings and excavate the foundations which may have become covered in the ["ghiaja" (meaning gravel, debris)]; and "...that when they wish to take away ["qualche" (meaning 'some' or 'a few')] pieces of stone with old inscriptions or figures thereon, that no opposition be made thereto". The interpretation of these lines has been questioned even by non-restitutionalists, particularly the word "qualche", which in modern language should be translated as "a few" but can also mean "any". According to non-restitutionalists, further evidence that the removal of the sculptures by Elgin was approved by the Ottoman authorities is shown by a second firman which was required for the shipping of the marbles from Piraeus.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: Many have questioned the legality of Elgin's actions, including the legitimacy of the documentation purportedly authorising them. A study by Professor David Rudenstine of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law concluded that the premise that Elgin obtained legal title to the marbles, which he then transferred to the British government, "is certainly not established and may well be false". Rudenstine's argumentation is partly based on a translation discrepancy he noticed between the surviving Italian document and the English text submitted by Hunt to the parliamentary committee. The text from the committee report reads "We therefore have written this Letter to you, and expedited it by Mr. Philip Hunt, an English Gentleman, Secretary of the aforesaid Ambassador" but according to the St. Clair Italian document the actual wording is "We therefore have written this letter to you and expedited it by N.N.". In Rudenstine's view, this substitution of "Mr. Philip Hunt" with the initials "N.N." can hardly be a simple mistake. He further argues that the document was presented after the committee's insistence that some form of Ottoman written authorisation for the removal of the marbles be provided, a fact known to Hunt by the time he testified. Thus, according to Rudenstine, "Hunt put himself in a position in which he could simultaneously vouch for the authenticity of the document and explain why he alone had a copy of it fifteen years after he surrendered the original to Ottoman officials in Athens". On two earlier occasions, Elgin stated that the Ottomans gave him written permissions more than once, but that he had "retained none of them." Hunt testified on 13 March, and one of the questions asked was "Did you ever see any of the written permissions which were granted [to Lord Elgin] for removing the Marbles from the Temple of Minerva?" to which Hunt answered "yes", adding that he possessed an Italian translation of the original firman. Nonetheless, he did not explain why he had retained the translation for 15 years, whereas Elgin, who had testified two weeks earlier, knew nothing about the existence of any such document.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: English travel writer Edward Daniel Clarke, an eyewitness, wrote that the Dizdar, the Ottoman fortress commander on the scene, attempted to stop the removal of the metopes but was bribed to allow it to continue.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: In contrast, John Merryman, Sweitzer Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and also Professor of Art at Stanford University, putting aside the discrepancy presented by Rudenstine, argues that since the Ottomans had controlled Athens since 1460, their claims to the artefacts were legal and recognisable. Sultan Selim III was grateful to the British for repelling Napoleonic expansion, and unlike his Hellenophile ancestor Mehmet II, the Parthenon marbles had no sentimental value to him. Further, that written permission exists in the form of the firman, which is the most formal kind of permission available from that government, and that Elgin had further permission to export the marbles, legalises his (and therefore the British Museum's) claim to the Marbles. He does note, though, that the clause concerning the extent of Ottoman authorisation to remove the marbles "is at best ambiguous", adding that the document "provides slender authority for the massive removals from the Parthenon ... The reference to 'taking away any pieces of stone' seems incidental, intended to apply to objects found while excavating. That was certainly the interpretation privately placed on the firman by several of the Elgin party, including Lady Elgin. Publicly, however, a different attitude was taken, and the work of dismantling the sculptures on the Parthenon and packing them for shipment to England began in earnest. In the process, Elgin's party damaged the structure, leaving the Parthenon not only denuded of its sculptures but further ruined by the process of removal. It is certainly arguable that Elgin exceeded the authority granted in the firman in both respects".


title: Elgin Marbles

text: The issue of firmans of this nature, along with universally required bribes, was not unusual at this time: In 1801 for example, Edward Clarke and his assistant John Marten Cripps, obtained an authorisation from the governor of Athens for the removal of a statue of the goddess Demeter which was at Eleusis, with the intervention of Italian artist Giovanni Battista Lusieri who was Lord Elgin's assistant at the time. Prior to Clarke, the statue had been discovered in 1676 by the traveller George Wheler, and since then several ambassadors had submitted unsuccessful applications for its removal, but Clarke had been the one to remove the statue by force, after bribing the "waiwode" of Athens and obtaining a firman, despite the objections and a riot, of the local population who unofficially, and against the traditions of the iconoclastic Church, worshipped the statue as the uncanonised Saint Demetra (Greek: Αγία Δήμητρα). The people would adorn the statue with garlands, and believed that the goddess was able to bring fertility to their fields and that the removal of the statue would cause that benefit to disappear. Clarke also removed other marbles from Greece such as a statue of Pan, a figure of Eros, a comic mask, various reliefs and funerary steles, amongst others. Clarke donated these to the University of Cambridge and in 1803 the statue of Demeter was displayed at the university library. The collection was later moved to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge where it formed one of the two main collections of the institution.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: The contemporary museum director in the Louvre had no doubt around the legality of the acquisition of Lord Elgin. During the art restitutions of post-Napoleonic France to other European States, Vivant Denon, then director of former Musee Napoleon then Louvre, wrote in a private letter to the French ambassador Talleyrand who was then engaged in the Congress of Vienna: "If we yield to the claims (for art restitution) of Holland and Belgium, we deprive the Museum of one of its greatest assets, that of having a series of excellent colorists... Russia is not hostile, Austria has had everything returned, Prussia has a restoration more complete... There remains only England, who has in truth nothing to claim, but who, since she has just bought the bas-reliefs of which Lord Elgin plundered the Temple at Athens, now thinks she can become a rival of the Museum [Louvre], and wants to deplete this Museum in order to collect the remains for her" (Denon to Talleyrand, quoted in Saunier, p. 114; Muintz, in Nouvelle Rev., CVII, 2OI). Vivant Denon uses clearly the verb "plunder" in French.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: When the marbles were shipped to England, they were "an instant success among many" who admired the sculptures and supported their arrival, but both the sculptures and Elgin also received criticism from detractors. Lord Elgin began negotiations for the sale of the collection to the British Museum in 1811, but negotiations failed despite the support of British artists after the government showed little interest. Many Britons opposed purchase of the statues because they were in bad condition and therefore did not display the "ideal beauty" found in other sculpture collections. The following years marked an increased interest in classical Greece, and in June 1816, after parliamentary hearings, the House of Commons offered £35,000 (equivalent to £ in pounds) in exchange for the sculptures. Even at the time the acquisition inspired much debate, although it was supported by "many persuasive calls" for the purchase.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: Lord Byron strongly objected to the removal of the marbles from Greece, denouncing Elgin as a vandal. His point of view about the removal of the Marbles from Athens is also mentioned in his narrative poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage", published in 1812, which itself was largely inspired by Byron's travels around the Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea between 1809 and 1811:


title: Elgin Marbles

text: Edward Daniel Clarke witnessed the removal of the metopes and called the action a "spoliation", writing that "thus the form of the temple has sustained a greater injury than it had already experienced from the Venetian artillery," and that "neither was there a workman employed in the undertaking ... who did not express his concern that such havoc should be deemed necessary, after moulds and casts had been already made of all the sculpture which it was designed to remove." When Sir Francis Ronalds visited Athens and Giovanni Battista Lusieri in 1820, he wrote that "If Lord Elgin had possessed real taste in lieu of a covetous spirit he would have done just the reverse of what he has, he would have removed the rubbish and left the antiquities."


title: Elgin Marbles

text: A parliamentary committee investigating the situation concluded that the monuments were best given "asylum" under a "free government" such as the British one. In 1810, Elgin published a defence of his actions, but the subject remained controversial. A public debate in Parliament followed Elgin's publication, and Parliament again exonerated Elgin's actions, eventually deciding to purchase the marbles for the "British nation" in 1816 by a vote of 82–30. Among the supporters of Elgin was the painter Benjamin Robert Haydon. He was followed by Felicia Hemans in her "Modern Greece: A Poem" (1817), who there took direct issue with Byron, defying him with the question


title: Elgin Marbles

text: and quoting Haydon and other defenders of their accessibility in her notes. John Keats visited the British Museum in 1817 and recording his feelings in the sonnet titled "On Seeing the Elgin Marbles". William Wordsworth also viewed the marbles and commented favourably on their aesthetics in a letter to Haydon.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: Following the exhibition of the marbles in the British Museum, they were later displayed in the specially constructed Elgin Saloon (1832) until the Duveen Gallery was completed in 1939. The gallery is named after Joseph Duveen, 1st Baron Duveen. The crowds packing in to view them set attendance records for the museum.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: Prior damage to the marbles was sustained during successive wars, and it was during such conflicts that the Parthenon and its artwork sustained, by far, the most extensive damage. In particular, an explosion ignited by Venetian gun and cannon-fire bombardment in 1687, whilst the Parthenon was used as a munitions store during the Ottoman rule, destroyed or damaged many pieces of Parthenon art, including some of that later taken by Lord Elgin. It was this explosion that sent the marble roof, most of the cella walls, 14 columns from the north and south peristyles, and carved metopes and frieze blocks flying and crashing to the ground, destroying much of the artwork. Further damage to the Parthenon's artwork occurred when the Venetian general Francesco Morosini looted the site of its larger sculptures. The tackle he was using to remove the sculptures proved to be faulty and snapped, dropping an over-life-sized sculpture of Poseidon and the horses of Athena's chariot from the west pediment on to the rock of the Acropolis below.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: The Erechtheion was used as a munitions store by the Ottomans during the Greek War of Independence (1821–1833) which ended the 355-year Ottoman rule of Athens. The Acropolis was besieged twice during the war, first by the Greeks in 1821–22 and then by the Ottoman forces in 1826–27. During the first siege the besieged Ottoman forces attempted to melt the lead in the columns to cast bullets, even prompting the Greeks to offer their own bullets to the Ottomans in order to minimize damage.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: Elgin consulted with Italian sculptor Antonio Canova in 1803 about how best to restore the marbles. Canova was considered by some to be the world's best sculptural restorer of the time; Elgin wrote that Canova declined to work on the marbles for fear of damaging them further.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: To facilitate transport by Elgin, the columns' capitals and many metopes and frieze slabs were either hacked off the main structure or sawn and sliced into smaller sections, causing irreparable damage to the Parthenon itself. One shipload of marbles on board the British brig "Mentor" was caught in a storm off Cape Matapan in southern Greece and sank near Kythera, but was salvaged at the Earl's personal expense; it took two years to bring them to the surface.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: The artefacts held in London suffered from 19th-century pollution which persisted until the mid-20th century and have suffered irreparable damage by previous cleaning methods employed by British Museum staff.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: As early as 1838, scientist Michael Faraday was asked to provide a solution to the problem of the deteriorating surface of the marbles. The outcome is described in the following excerpt from the letter he sent to Henry Milman, a commissioner for the National Gallery.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: The marbles generally were very dirty ... from a deposit of dust and soot. ... I found the body of the marble beneath the surface white. ... The application of water, applied by a sponge or soft cloth, removed the coarsest dirt. ... The use of fine, gritty powder, with the water and rubbing, though it more quickly removed the upper dirt, left much embedded in the cellular surface of the marble. I then applied alkalies, both carbonated and caustic; these quickened the loosening of the surface dirt ... but they fell far short of restoring the marble surface to its proper hue and state of cleanliness. I finally used dilute nitric acid, and even this failed. ... The examination has made me despair of the possibility of presenting the marbles in the British Museum in that state of purity and whiteness which they originally possessed.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: A further effort to clean the marbles ensued in 1858. Richard Westmacott, who was appointed superintendent of the "moving and cleaning the sculptures" in 1857, in a letter approved by the British Museum Standing Committee on 13 March 1858 concluded


title: Elgin Marbles

text: I think it my duty to say that some of the works are much damaged by ignorant or careless moulding – with oil and lard – and by restorations in wax and resin. These mistakes have caused discolouration. I shall endeavour to remedy this without, however, having recourse to any composition that can injure the surface of the marble.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: Yet another effort to clean the marbles occurred in 1937–38. This time the incentive was provided by the construction of a new Gallery to house the collection. The Pentelic marble mined from Mount Pentelicus north of Athens, from which the sculptures are made, naturally acquires a tan colour similar to honey when exposed to air; this colouring is often known as the marble's "patina" but Lord Duveen, who financed the whole undertaking, acting under the misconception that the marbles were originally white probably arranged for the team of masons working in the project to remove discolouration from some of the sculptures. The tools used were seven scrapers, one chisel and a piece of carborundum stone. They are now deposited in the British Museum's Department of Preservation. The cleaning process scraped away some of the detailed tone of many carvings. According to Harold Plenderleith, the surface removed in some places may have been as much as one-tenth of an inch (2.5 mm).


title: Elgin Marbles

text: The British Museum has responded with the statement that "mistakes were made at that time." On another occasion it was said that "the damage had been exaggerated for political reasons" and that "the Greeks were guilty of excessive cleaning of the marbles before they were brought to Britain." During the international symposium on the cleaning of the marbles, organised by the British Museum in 1999, curator Ian Jenkins, deputy keeper of Greek and Roman antiquities, remarked that "The British Museum is not infallible, it is not the Pope. Its history has been a series of good intentions marred by the occasional cock-up, and the 1930s cleaning was such a cock-up". Nonetheless, he claimed that the prime cause for the damage inflicted upon the marbles was the 2000-year-long weathering on the Acropolis.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: American archeologist Dorothy King, in a newspaper article, wrote that techniques similar to the ones used in 1937–38 were applied by Greeks as well in more recent decades than the British, and maintained that Italians still find them acceptable. The British Museum said that a similar cleaning of the Temple of Hephaestus in the Athenian Agora was carried out by the conservation team of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens in 1953 using steel chisels and brass wire. According to the Greek ministry of Culture, the cleaning was carefully limited to surface salt crusts. The 1953 American report concluded that the techniques applied were aimed at removing the black deposit formed by rain-water and "brought out the high technical quality of the carving" revealing at the same time "a few surviving particles of colour".


title: Elgin Marbles

text: Documents released by the British Museum under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that a series of minor accidents, thefts and acts of vandalism by visitors have inflicted further damage to the sculptures. This includes an incident in 1961 when two schoolboys knocked off a part of a centaur's leg. In June 1981, a west pediment figure was slightly chipped by a falling glass skylight, and in 1966 four shallow lines were scratched on the back of one of the figures by vandals. In 1970 letters were scratched on to the upper right thigh of another figure. Four years later, the dowel hole in a centaur's hoof was damaged by thieves trying to extract pieces of lead.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: Air pollution and acid rain have damaged the marble and stonework. The last remaining slabs from the western section of the Parthenon frieze were removed from the monument in 1993 for fear of further damage. They have now been transported to the New Acropolis Museum.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: Until cleaning of the remaining marbles was completed in 2005, black crusts and coatings were present on the marble surface. The laser technique applied on the 14 slabs that Elgin did not remove revealed a surprising array of original details, such as the original chisel marks and the veins on the horses' bellies. Similar features in the British Museum collection have been scraped and scrubbed with chisels to make the marbles look white. Between 20 January and the end of March 2008, 4200 items (sculptures, inscriptions small terracotta objects), including some 80 artefacts dismantled from the monuments in recent years, were removed from the old museum on the Acropolis to the new Parthenon Museum. Natural disasters have also affected the Parthenon. In 1981, an earthquake caused damage to the east façade.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: Since 1975, Greece has been restoring the Acropolis. This restoration has included replacing the thousands of rusting iron clamps and supports that had previously been used, with non-corrosive titanium rods; removing surviving artwork from the building into storage and subsequently into a new museum built specifically for the display of the Parthenon art; and replacing the artwork with high-quality replicas. This process has come under fire from some groups as some buildings have been completely dismantled, including the dismantling of the Temple of Athena Nike and for the unsightly nature of the site due to the necessary cranes and scaffolding. But the hope is to restore the site to some of its former glory, which may take another 20 years and 70 million euros, though the prospect of the Acropolis being "able to withstand the most extreme weather conditions – earthquakes" is "little consolation to the tourists visiting the Acropolis" according to "The Guardian". Under continuous international pressure, Directors of the British Museum have not ruled out agreeing to what they call a "temporary" loan to the new museum, but state that it would be under the condition of Greece acknowledging the British Museum's claims to ownership.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: Those arguing for the Marbles' return claim legal, moral and artistic grounds. Their arguments include:


title: Elgin Marbles

text: In a 2018 interview to the Athens newspaper "Ta Nea", British Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn did not rule out returning the Marbles to Greece, stating, "As with anything stolen or taken from occupied or colonial possession—including artefacts looted from other countries in the past—we should be engaged in constructive talks with the Greek government about returning the sculptures."


title: Elgin Marbles

text: For the first time, UNESCO, on 30 September 2021, issued a decision calling for the United Kingdom to return the Parthenon Marbles to Greece, beyond the positive recommendations that it has issued for years.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: Specifically, Decision 22 COM 17 of UNESCO's Inter-Governmental Committee, asks the British government to urgently review its policy against repatriation of the marbles.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: A range of different arguments has been presented by scholars, British political leaders and British Museum spokespersons over the years in defence of retention of the Elgin Marbles by the British Museum. The main points include:


title: Elgin Marbles

text: The Trustees of the British Museum make the following statement on the Museum website in response to arguments for the relocation of the Parthenon Marbles to the Acropolis Museum:


title: Elgin Marbles

text: In March 2021, the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson issued a point-blank rejection of the Parthenon Marbles being returned to Greece. Stating "The UK government has a firm longstanding position on the sculptures, which is that they were legally acquired by Lord Elgin under the appropriate laws of the time and have been legally owned by the British Museum's trustees since their acquisition."


title: Elgin Marbles

text: Outside Greece, a campaign for the Return of the Marbles began in 1981 with the formation of the International Organising Committee – Australia – for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles, and in 1983, with the formation of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles. International organisations such as UNESCO and the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, as well as campaign groups such as, Marbles Reunited, and stars of Hollywood, such as George Clooney and Matt Damon, as well as Human Rights activists, lawyers, and the people of the arts, voiced their strong support for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: American actor George Clooney voiced his support for the return by the United Kingdom, and reunification of the Parthenon Marbles in Greece, during his promotional campaign for his 2014 film "The Monuments Men" which retells the story of Allied efforts to save important masterpieces of art and other culturally important items before their destruction by Hitler and the Nazis during World War II. His remarks regarding the Marbles reignited the debate in the United Kingdom about their return to their home country. Public polls were also carried out by newspapers in response to Clooney's stance.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: TV presenter and producer William G. Stewart was a high-profile supporter of the campaign and regularly referenced the Marbles on his quiz show "Fifteen-to-One". On an episode in 2001, Stewart gave a presentation stating the case for their return, fulfilling a promise to do so if too few contestants survived the first round to continue the game.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: An internet campaign site, in part sponsored by Metaxa, aims to consolidate support for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to the New Acropolis Museum in Athens.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: In BBC TV Series "QI" (series 12, episode 7, XL edition), host Stephen Fry provided his support for the return of the Parthenon Marbles while recounting the story of the Greeks giving lead shot to their Ottoman Empire enemies, as the Ottomans were running out of ammunition, in order to prevent damage to the Acropolis. Fry had previously written a blog post along much the same lines in December 2011 entitled "A Modest Proposal", signing off with "It's time we lost our marbles". He repeated the position at the 2022 Hay Festival, stating it "would be an act that uses a word that we haven't been able to use of Britain's acts lately, much: it would be classy".


title: Elgin Marbles

text: An Ipsos MORI poll asked in 1998, "If there were a referendum on whether or not the Elgin Marbles should be returned to Greece, how would you vote?" This returned these values from the British general adult population:


title: Elgin Marbles

text: Another opinion poll in 2002 (again carried out by MORI) showed similar results, with 40% of the British public in favour of returning the marbles to Greece, 16% in favour of keeping them within Britain and the remainder either having no opinion or would not vote. When asked how they would vote if a number of conditions were met (including, but not limited to, a long-term loan whereby the British maintained ownership and joint control over maintenance) the number responding in favour of return increased to 56% and those in favour of keeping them dropped to 7%.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: Both MORI poll results have been characterised by proponents of the return of the Marbles to Greece as representing a groundswell of public opinion supporting return, since the proportion explicitly supporting return to Greece significantly exceeds the number who are explicitly in favour of keeping the Marbles at the British Museum.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: This seemed confirmed by a 2014 YouGov poll suggesting that more British people (37%) supported the marbles' restoration to Greece than opposed it (23%). By 2021, 59% of British respondents were saying they belong in Greece and 18% that they belong in the UK.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: One commentator on the controversies raised by former objects of worship held in museums draws a parallel between public responses to such works as the Elgin Marbles, the Benin Bronzes and (outside London) the Sultanganj Buddha. From the sociological view, there is something about these special examples that seems to draw to themselves strong emotional responses either of devotion or of rejection, the latter sometimes taking the form of wishing to be rid of their presence by sending them back to where they came from. Though encountered now in a radically different environment, such artefacts "and the capacity of humans to recognize [their charisma] and be drawn to it, is clearly not a phenomenon limited to cultural and religious contexts in which such behaviour is officially endorsed". The controversy they elicit arises as a psychological response, an "iconoclash", transcending questions of right or wrong.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: The remainder of the surviving sculptures that are not in museums or storerooms in Athens are held in museums in various locations across Europe. The British Museum also holds additional fragments from the Parthenon sculptures acquired from various collections that have no connection with Lord Elgin.


title: Elgin Marbles

text: The British Museum lent the figure of a river-god, possibly the river Ilisus, to the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg to celebrate its 250th anniversary. It was on display there from 6 December 2014 until 18 January 2015. This was the first time the British Museum had lent part of its Parthenon Marbles collection and it caused some controversy.


title: The Rental

text: The Rental is a 2020 American horror film written, produced and directed by Dave Franco, in his feature directorial debut. Franco co-wrote the screenplay with Joe Swanberg from a story by Franco, Swanberg, and Mike Demski. It stars Dan Stevens, Alison Brie, Sheila Vand, Jeremy Allen White, and Toby Huss, and follows two couples who begin to suspect they are being watched in the house they rented.


title: The Rental

text: The film was released on video-on-demand and in select theaters in the United States on July 24, 2020, by IFC Films. It received generally positive reviews from critics, and became the second film to ever top video-on-demand (VOD) charts and the box office in the same weekend.


title: The Rental

text: Charlie, his wife Michelle, his brother Josh, and Josh's girlfriend/Charlie's coworker Mina rent a remote house on the Oregon Coast for a weekend getaway. On their arrival at the property, they meet the house's caretaker Taylor, who acts oddly and makes racist remarks toward Mina. After they have settled in, Mina, Josh, and Charlie take MDMA (ecstasy) while Michelle goes to bed. Josh later passes out on the couch, and Mina and Charlie end up kissing in the hot tub and having sex in the shower.


title: The Rental

text: The next morning, Charlie and Mina agree to forget what happened between them and not tell their respective partners. While taking a shower, Mina discovers a camera in the shower head and alerts Charlie; the two are confident Taylor has installed it. Charlie stops her from calling the police, as doing so would likely lead to Michelle and Josh learning they had sex. He also assures her that Taylor would not reveal the footage because it would involve him admitting to spying on them.


title: The Rental

text: That night, Michelle calls Taylor over to fix the hot tub, while Josh realizes his dog has gone missing. Josh is suspicious that Taylor may have taken the dog, so he confronts Taylor upon his arrival, but he denies it. Taylor fixes the hot tub, and Mina privately confronts him about the hidden camera in the shower, which he claims to be unaware of. An argument ensues and Taylor attempts to call the police, but Mina tries to stop him. Hearing the commotion, Josh rushes in and, assuming Taylor was attacking Mina, beats him unconscious. Mina is forced to explain the hidden camera in the shower, but does not reveal that she had sex with Charlie. The group gather in the living room to decide what to do. Meanwhile, a masked man sneaks inside and smothers Taylor to death. When the others return and find Taylor dead, they assume that he died from the injuries inflicted by Josh.


title: The Rental

text: Frantic, Michelle demands they call the police, but Charlie refuses to let his brother, who has previously been incarcerated, return to prison. He suggests that they stage Taylor's death as an accident by throwing him off the cliff into the ocean. Michelle refuses to take part in their plan and goes to the bedroom. Charlie, Josh and Mina carry Taylor's body to the cliff. It falls onto an outcrop, forcing Josh to go down and push it into the sea. Back at the house, Michelle hears the sound of a shower and when she investigates, she is lured into a room where a television shows the footage of Charlie and Mina having sex. Michelle drives over to Charlie, confronts him about what she has seen, and leaves angrily. Down the road, she runs over metal spikes, crashes into a trees and is attacked by the masked man while texting Charlie to come help her.


title: The Rental

text: Charlie gets a text from Michelle's phone and goes to search for her. He finds her dead body on the road and is then attacked and murdered by the masked man. Back at the house, Mina and Josh are looking for the shower camera's transceiver to destroy any footage it recorded. Josh receives texts from Charlie's phone that contain evidence of Charlie and Mina having sex. Josh then hears someone enter the house and, thinking it is Charlie, rushes to confront him. Instead, the masked man ambushes and kills Josh. Mina flees, pursued by the masked man. Sprinting through the forest in the darkness and fog, she accidentally runs off a cliff and falls into the ocean.


title: The Rental

text: The masked man returns to the house, removing all evidence and surveillance equipment. He rents a new property and installs cameras in it. During the credits, footage is shown from the hidden cameras of the masked man attacking a sleeping couple.


title: The Rental

text: In March 2019, it was announced Alison Brie, Dan Stevens, Sheila Vand and Jeremy Allen White had joined the cast of the film, with Dave Franco directing from a screenplay he wrote alongside Joe Swanberg. Franco, Elizabeth Haggard, Ben Stillman, Teddy Schwarzman, Swanberg and Christopher Storer served as producers on the film, under their Ramona Films and Black Bear Pictures banners, respectively, while Michael Heimler and Sean Durkin acted as executive producers.


title: The Rental

text: Principal photography began on April 22, 2019, lasting through May 24, in Bandon and Portland, Oregon.


title: The Rental

text: In April 2020, IFC Films acquired distribution rights to the film and scheduled it to be released on July 24, 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film held its premiere at the Vineland Drive-In theatre in City of Industry, California on June 18, 2020.


title: The Rental

text: The film made an estimated $130,000 from 251 theaters in its first day, and $420,871 over the weekend, topping the box office. It also was the top-rented film on Apple TV, the iTunes Store and other streaming services, becoming just the second film to ever top both the box office and rental charts. In its second weekend the film retained the top spot at the box office, grossing $290,272 from 242 theaters. It also remained in the top 10 at the iTunes Store, Apple TV, and Spectrum's rental charts. In its third weekend the film made $123,700 at the box office and came in fourth, while also remaining the top-rented horror film at iTunes.


title: The Rental

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads: "Some tricky genre juggling makes "The Rental" a bit of a fixer-upper, but effective chills and a solid cast make this a fine destination for horror fans." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 62 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: The Rental

text: Writing for the "Chicago Sun-Times", Richard Roeper gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, saying: ""The Rental" would have worked purely as a compelling character study about four dysfunctional adults unraveling over the course of a long weekend — but when the presence of a homicidal maniac is introduced to the proceedings, the transition to horror film is brilliant and wacky and pretty darn great." Owen Gleiberman of "Variety" said the film had "tense flavor and skill" and wrote: "There's some crafty artistry at work in "The Rental", and also some fairly standard pandering, which feels like a violation of the movie's better instincts. That said, most of it is skillful and engrossing enough to establish Franco as a director to watch." In a negative review, Oliver Jones of the "Observer" said the film’s ideas aren’t fully explored or developed enough, which results in "a tweener: a film that is part infidelity drama and part slasher film while never fully committing to either idea." Jones added the plot felt "paper-thin" and the characters insubstantial, concluding "there are seeds of ideas about the toxicity of aspirational real estate and those that indifferently own it that could have possibly have flowered into something worth exploring."


title: The Rental

text: Franco has voiced his interest in a sequel, saying: "It was the intention from the beginning to leave the ending ambiguous enough that we carry on the story if given a chance... I have a very strong idea for what I would want to do with a sequel."


title: IMI Galil

text: The IMI Galil () is a family of Israeli-made automatic rifles chambered for the 5.56×45mm NATO and 7.62×51mm NATO cartridges. Originally designed by Yisrael Galili and Yakov Lior in the late 1960s, the Galil was first produced by the state-owned Israel Military Industries and is now exported by the privatized Israel Weapon Industries.


title: IMI Galil

text: The first Galil rifle was manufactured using RK 62 receivers. Moreover, the Galil design is largely based on the Finnish rifle RK 62 (itself a derivative of the AK-47). The Galil family of weapons is used by both military and police forces across 25 countries.


title: IMI Galil

text: The Israeli Army initially deployed the 5.56×45mm NATO Galil in three basic configurations; the Automatic Rifle Machine-gun (ARM), the Automatic Rifle (AR), and the Short Automatic Rifle (SAR). A modern version of the Galil currently in production in multiple calibers is known as the Galil ACE.


title: IMI Galil

text: The Belgian FN FAL battle rifle had initially been adopted by the Israeli Defense Forces in the late 1950s (chambered for the 7.62×51mm cartridge). The FAL had its limitations, a common complaint being that the abundant local sand and dust exposure would cause weapon malfunction (later attributed to lack of stringent maintenance). Overall, however, the FN FAL was considered long and bulky. Its length and malfunctions became such consistent issues that during the 1973 Yom Kippur War some soldiers began arming themselves with the much smaller Uzi.


title: IMI Galil

text: During the Six-Day War the Israelis captured thousands of primarily Egyptian AK-47's. This rifle was proven reliable and controllable. The required maintenance was low enough that conscripted troops had less stringent regulations on the weapon's care.