Flying Blind (1941)

Flying Blind involves a plane crash and rather aptly is a bit of a wreck. What kind of film is this? A goofy romantic comedy? A spy film? Adventure? It tries to be all three and doesn't really work.

Jim Clark (Richard Arlen) is an airline pilot who quits with his flight attendant Shirley (Jean Parker) to start his own specialist airline transporting couples eloping to Las Vegas (well it's an interesting niche). Jim is also in a love-hate romance with Shirley which fills a lot of the film's time.

Meanwhile enemy agents have stolen secret military equipment and hijack Jim's airliner to make a get-away. The plane crashes in the forest but the adventure and peril continues...

The first half of the film drags but once we get to the actual spying and hijacking plot things pick up a bit... but not much. The aeroplane footage is enjoyable but there isn't much else to commend.

The Human Monster (1939)

An uneven, frequently ridiculous but undeniably creepy film. Bela Lugosi is Dr Orloff, a sinister (almost to a pantomime villain level) insurance agent and doctor at a home for the blind in London. Suspicion arises when there are a series of murders, the link being insurance policies drawn up by Orloff who then collects on the policies when they have been killed.

Orloff is the one doing the bumping off with the help of a disfigured blind assistant. The police in the form of Larry Holt (Hugh Williams) and for some reason Lieutenant O'Reilly (Edmon Ryan) from Chicago are on the case. Diana (Greta Gynt) is the daughter of one of the victims and a bit of a love interest for Holt and of course drawn into peril when she starts working at Dr Orloff's lair...

Dr Orloff is so over the top its hard to imagine any of his victims being fooled by him long enough to commit his crimes. It is best to suspend disbelief and enjoy the film for what it is, a creepy romp with good use of shadows.

The Toughest Man in the World (1984)

Mr T runs a youth centre for disadvantaged kids on the touch streets of Chigaco, saving them from a life of crime. Unfortunately those pencil pushing bureaucrats at city hall want to shut the centre down. He needs to raise money to keep the centre open and so enters a contest to find the Toughest Man in the World...

Mr T may not give a masterclass of acting (though has plenty of on-screen charisma) but this film is a masterclass of early 1980s cheese. You will see break dancing, bad polyester suits galore and ghetto blasters. Mr T also raps over the opening tune (which is one of the highlights if we are going to be honest).

The fighting scenes are decent as you might expect, the story line and acting is average as you also might expect. Of course that isn't the point of a film like this. Its all about Mr T spouting nonsense and beating people up. It (and he) is brilliant.

Six-Shootin' Sheriff (1938)

Trigger Morton (Ken Maynard) is fresh out of gaol, where he has spent time after being framed for a crime he didn't commit by local tough guy Kendal (Warner Richmond). Out for revenge on Kendal he also gets roped into tackling the Bar X gang which is terrorising the town, as the sheriff...

After being wounded he is nursed back to health by Molly (Marjorie Reynolds) who provides the love interest (though to be honest he looked old enough to be her Dad)...

There isn't a great deal of story in the film if we're being honest, it's a film of decent if unspectacular action set-pieces though including good horsemanship - which Maynard excelled at as a trick rider for Buffalo Bill.

Charlie Chan in Rio (1941)

Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) is in Rio on the trail of singer Lola Dene (Jacqueline Dalya) whom Chan believes killed a man in Honolulu. When Chan arrives at Lola's home to arrest her he finds her stabbed to death...

As usual with a Charlie Chan film there are many suspects including her fiancee, friends and an ex-husband. There is also a mysterious mystic (Victor Jory) who has recorded evidence of Lola's previous crime. Chan makes his way through the case, helped/hindered by number two son Jimmy (Victor Sen Yung). The local police chief Souto (Harold Huber) is more help...

This is a great entry in the Chan series with a solid supporting cast and the "Rio" setting plus plenty of samba dancing adds an exotic flair to proceedings.

Teenage Dreamers (1982)

Elaine Chow and Rowena Cortes are high school students doing what HK schoolgirls always seem to do in movies - throw coke (as in cola) around and shoplift in japanese department stores. Then their school links up with a boy's school to do a joint production of Romeo & Juliet. Elaine gets the part of Juliet to play opposite schoolboy hunk Leslie Cheung's Romeo...

But she can't get the final dramatic scene right... until she falls in love with her Romeo for real. They meet secretly in Macau, they frolic on the beach, he pulls down her top and then we cut to the waves crashing on the shore... Now real lovers their final scene in R&J is a hit. But then he splits up with her before the opening night...

A cute and very vivid early 80s HK teen flick. The colours are fantastic, you even get to see/hear Rowena singing on the beach, which is pretty nice. There are plenty of teen/fun frolics but nothing too cheesy.

By Appointment Only (1933)

A reasonable if ultimately uninteresting film and certainly one that couldn't be made today as it features an older man flirting with a thirteen year old girl!

Dr Travers (Lew Cody) is a suave and cocky doctor who feels guilty after he couldn't save one of his patients who died in his surgery. He makes the young daughter of the deceased woman, Judy (Sally O'Neal) his ward, not that his fiancee (Aileen Pringle) is that impressed...

Judy matures into an attractive young woman by the time she is eighteen (not that the Doctor seemed unattracted to her beforehand, the fact he liked her to call her uncle adds to the slight creepiness). His fiancee by now is really pissed off. Luckily there is a more reasonable suitor who is Judy's own age but we do get a bit of a four sided love triangle.

However all of this sounds far worse in text than it is onscreen, this isn't Lolita by any means. Instead it's a fairly average light hearted romantic drama. It could have been more but it is what it is.

Inside Job (1946)

Eddie Norton (Alan Curtis) is an ex-con trying to go straight but reduced to acting as a mannequin in a department store window, also working in the store is his wife Claire (Ann Rutherford) who has to endure the company of her lecherous old boss in order to get paid properly. Eddie is recognised by crime boss Bart Madden (Preston Foster) who wants Eddie to relieve the store of all of it's cash...

For someone who is supposed to want to go straight Eddie decides almost in an instant to do the job himself and cut Bart Madden out of the action. Claire also needs little persuading in helping Eddie out with his crime. Eddie and Claire are soon on the run from the police and Bart Madden...

An enjoyable noir crime drama. It doesn't hang around and the audiences' feelings are played with to an extent. The Nortons fall into crime very easily but are seen gaining a huge amount of redemption through their future actions. However crime doesn't pay, well in Hollywood anyway.

A Shot In The Dark (1935)

A college student (James Bush) is found hanging from the balcony of his dorm room however it soon transpires that he was already dead when the rope was put around his neck... another boy who knew some information dies soon after.

The father (Robert Warwick) of the murdered student's friend Ken Harris (Charles Starrett) is in town and as he has in interest in criminology takes over the case, even the local police agree to it! The murderer is using some kind of weapon to shoot needles into the brains of their victims...

A complicated but enjoyable murder mystery with some Golden Age touches. Is the victim's sister Jean (Marion Shilling) mixed up in it? Family secrets and inheritances are eventually discovered to be the motive and there is a great twist in the end. The film has some good performances though as is usual with films set in universities from this period the "students" all look a little old...

They Call Me Bruce (1982)

A hilarious send-up of martial arts movies. Johnny Yune is a Korean cook working for the mafia (though completely unaware of any wrong doing), everyone calls him Bruce and thinks he can do kung fu...

Unfortunately "Bruce" has no martial arts ability at all but gets involved in delivering drugs for the mob alongside Freddy (Raf Mauro) all the time being tailed by the Feds (Pam Huntington) and being used to capture the big boss...

It is all very silly with lots of slapstick and corny gags (but delivered excellently). It knows the subject it is sending up very well and if you get the references then it may indeed be one of the funniest films you'll ever see.

Betsy Ross (1917)

A film about Betsy Ross (Alice Brady) who was the woman who made the first American flag.

This is a charming though not exactly enthralling little period piece about her life from strict religious upbringing to chasing after a British officer (Frank Mayo). However before she can marry him her beau is struck down in a duel with her sister Carissa's (Lillian Cook) husband.

Later she is commissioned to create the flag by Washington (George MacQuarrie) but there is some trouble with her brother-in-law but everything ends up well in the end and they all go home happily for tea. The film is a bit light if we're going to be honest, but improves as time goes on. It all looks pretty lovely.

Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935)

Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) is in Egypt investigating stolen ancient artifacts. While there Chan discovers the head of the expedition (George Irving) dead in a Mummy's sarcophagus...

Who killed the professor, was he the victim of the curse of the Pharaoh? Certainly there are lots of strange goings on and eerie sightings... There is also a hidden chamber in the tomb though guarded by a man with a gun not ancient demons.

A decent crime drama but expect dated stereotypes, so many of them they could fill a pyramid! The mystery is not as complex as some Charlie Chan films but the exotic setting of Luxor and the mysteries of the ancient Pharaohs adds so much to the film. Look out for Rita Hayworth in one of her early roles (billed as Rita Cansino). As none of Chan's "sons" are in the film, Stephen Fetchit is there to provide "comedy relief" though fails miserably with his rather awful "coon" act.

The Villain (1979)

The Villain is quite a strange film. It is a comedy western full of capers, more like a live action version of a Road Runner cartoon, with the "Coyote" in the shape of Cactus Jack (Kirk Douglas) trying to stop the "roadrunner" (Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ann-Margret) with a series of increasingly deranged and hopeless ambushes.

There is a plot, evil schemes concocted by Jack Elam involving bank loans and seizing a mine, but these seem rather incidental as the failed ambushes continue. The film is very silly and completely unrealistic, Cactus Jack somehow avoiding injuries despite his various accidents. His performing horse Whisky also does a good role. However once you treat the film as intended then it works.

As well as the wacky action the film has some good lines and goofy humour. Look out for Mel Tillis as a telegraph operator who tricks Arnie out of his steak!

Beast of Berlin (1939)

Anti-Nazi films were rare even by 1939, this film was banned and censored in parts of the US even as armies prepared for war in Europe. So this is a significant film though not that good a one.

It follows a group of anti-Nazis including Alan Ladd, Roland Drew, Greta Granstedt and Steffi Duna. They are printing pamphlets and spreading dissent, all the while scared of betrayal and being caught by the brutal SS. A complication is that one of their number, Hans von Twardoski, is a member of the SS but wants out before liquor consumed in a Nazi booze-up loosens his tongue...

The propaganda is laid on heavy, as heavy as a Tiger tank. For some reason the actors speak English with a vague German accent interspersed with a few actual German words like Ja and Auf wiedersehen. At times it is a bit Allo Allo, though darker. At times very dark indeed.