PBS - American Experience: The Poisoner's Handbook (2014) [Repost]
HDTV | 1280x720 | .MKV/AVC @ 2308 Kbps | 1h 53mn | Audio: English AC3 192 kbps, 2 channels | Subs: English | 2.02 GiB
Genre: Documentary

In the early 1900s , the average American medicine cabinet was a would-be poisoner's treasure chest. Deadly chemicals such as radioactive radium, thallium, potassium cyanide, and morphine lurked in health tonics, depilatory creams, teething medicine, and cleaning supplies. While the tools of the murderer's trade multiplied as the pace of industrial innovation increased, the scientific knowledge and the political will to detect and prevent the crimes lagged behind. All this changed in 1918, when New York City hired Charles Norris as its first scientifically trained medical examiner. Over the course of a decade and a half, Norris and his extraordinarily driven and talented chief toxicologist, Alexander Gettler, would turn forensic chemistry into a formidable science, sending impatient heirs, jilted lovers, and desperate debtors to the electric chair, and setting the standards that the rest of the country would ultimately adopt.

From his youth, Paolo Castorini, a Sicilian baron, is as attracted to women as they to him. Giovanna, a servant girl, Lillian, a serious girlfriend in Rome, a hostess at a post-war party, Paolo makes love to them all. He also feels dissatisfied with a life only of the body, compared to his journalist friend Vincenzo and his own father, a sober and serious thinker. When his father is on his deathbed, Paolo learns of syphilis in the family and something of the curse of dissolution. Some years later, he resolves to marry Katrina, the pure daughter of the woman he should have married. He wants her purity to redeem him so he can make something of his life. But is it too late?

In flashback, New York nightclub pianist Al Roberts hitchhikes to Hollywood to join his girl Sue. On a rainy night, the sleazy gambler he's riding with mysteriously dies; afraid of the police, Roberts takes the man's identity. But thanks to a blackmailing dame, Roberts' every move plunges him deeper into trouble…

When the new warden comes in disguised as an inmate, he sees firsthand all the corruption and scams the guards and prison officials are running. When he reveals himself and starts to implement reforms to stop the corruption, the local business community, who had been benefiting from the scams, fights back, and the corrupt prison system starts making political trouble for the new warden.

When a gentleman (Monty Woolley) is forced to retire at age 65, he'll do just about anything to beat the system. Dying his hair black, he poses as the president of his former employer's holding company. Suddenly free to air his views on everything from company policy to national economics, comic craziness ensues when he meets not only the firm's top executives, but someone equally impressive - a beautiful secretary, played by Marilyn Monroe, in one of her first and funniest roles.

Julia, a divorced American fashion designer, is dying of a tragic, incurable disease. With only ten days to live, she spends her time vacationing in an Italian villa and watching television. She spots a TV interview with an Italian engineer Valerio, who designs plastic air bags to protect passengers in automobile collisions.