into a woman's house, and Alex assaults and kills her by ramming her face with a sculpture of a penis and testicles (in the book it is a bust of Beethoven). As Alex flees from the house after hearing police sirens, Dim hits him with a milk bottle (his chain in the book) and the gang leaves him to be arrested. Alex is found guilty of murder and sentenced to 14 years in prison. Over the next two years, Alex is a model prisoner, endearing himself to the prison chaplain by studying the Bible. He is especially fond of the passages in the Old Testament portraying torture and murder. Eventually, prison officials recommend him for the Ludovico Technique, an experimental treatment designed to eliminate criminal impulses. During the treatment, prison doctors inject him with nausea-inducing drugs and make him watch films portraying murder, torture and rape. The treatment conditions him to associate violent thoughts and feelings with sickness. Alex is particularly affected by watching footage of Nazi war crimes set to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, one of his favourite pieces of music; as a result, he can no longer hear it without feeling sick. His sentence is commuted to time served, and he is released. Once he returns to society, however, he finds that the treatment worked too well: any thought of violence brings him to his knees with pain, and he cannot defend himself. His parents have rented out his room, he is brutalised by his former victims, and beaten by George (Billy Boy in the novel) and Dim, who are now police officers. He collapses in front of an old house, owned by a writer the government considers "subversive". The writer is one of the gang's victims, but he does not recognise Alex, who had been wearing a mask as he and his friends beat the man and gang-raped his wife, who later died of pneumonia the writer believes was exacerbated by her ordeal. When Alex tells him of his plight, the writer promises to help him. However, the writer realises who Alex is upon hearing him singing "Singin' in the Rain", the very song he had sung while raping his wife (in the book, he recognizes Alex’s voice and speech patterns). He drugs Alex and forces him to listen to the Ninth Symphony, which causes Alex so much pain that he attempts suicide by jumping out of the