The Green Hornet (Serial) (1940)

Classic comic book style thrills in this serial as playboy newspaper owner Britt Reid (Gordon Jones) decides to become a modern day Robin Hood and investigate a sinister syndicate behind a number of deadly industrial accidents...

With the help of his loyal servant, and technical wizard, Kato (Keye Luke) Britt creates a masked persona called the Green Hornet. With the help of his souped up car (which can apparently do 200mp/h) and his gas gun the Green Hornet begins his battle against the syndicate in a series of death defying stunts and cliffhangers...

So it is usual movie serial fare but done so well. Everything is performed at breakneck speed and energy, there isn't time to notice some of the flaky plot points such as the lack of any real explanation as to why a rich man would want to start wearing a mask and tangle with brutal crooks. However this isn't the time and place for lengthy exploration of Reid's disposition, there is a cliff hanger to set up in a few minutes!

The Green Hornet is played more as a vigilante than later super heroes who lacked the same cool air of ambiguity. This was an adaptation of a radio serial, interestingly while masked as the Green Hornet Jones' lines were dubbed by the radio actor of the radio serial Al Hodge.

Way of the Black Dragon (1979)

Allison (Cecilia Wong) is a young Thai girl who is kidnapped by gangsters and trafficked to HK. She is just one of a number of poor girls sent to HK as drug mules and then sold to a grim life of prostitution or as wives to unsuspecting locals. Allison's fate is the latter and she is to become the wife of local worker and kung fu expert Chen (Carter Wong). When Chen finds out the real reason Allison was in HK he wants to help her get back home to Thailand (and marry her for real) but she'll also need the help of US agent Bill (Ron Van Clief)...

Along with Allison's brother Hsiao Ho (who just so happens to be a handy fighter too) our heroes work to bring down the evil syndicate led a rather laughable gwailo villain. There are a lot of fights, many of them rather random (the film makes little sense of course). The film starts off rather slow though improves a lot when Van Clief finally makes an appearance about half way through the film. The action then comes pretty thick and fast.

Sometimes sleazy, often violent, none of the film really makes a lot of sense but for a chopsocky 70s martial arts action film it does the job. The quality of the film making is rather suspect but the terrible dubbing makes the nonsense entertaining.

Youth on Parole (1937)

Philip (Gordon Oliver) and Bonnie (Marian Marsh) just happen to be standing outside of a jewellers which is robbed by The Sparkler's gang. The crooks plant loot on the naive youngsters who end up getting arrested in the confusion and go to gaol!

Now released Philip and Bonnie find it hard to make a new start but love sparks between the two. Finally they find out how they were framed by The Sparkler (Miles Mander) and begin a plan to bring him to justice and clear their names...

A fairly straight forward little crime drama with a heavy dose of melodrama. The leading couple of quite appealing together and the film has good production values despite the B movie budget. The story doesn't tear up any trees but does a good job.

The Locked Door (1929)

An enjoyable early talkie crime melodrama. Eighteen months before slimy businessman Frank (Rod la Rocque) is taking his slightly naive secretary Ann (Barbara Stanwyck) on a rum boat. He plies her with booze and tries to have his wicked way with her, but her honour is saved by a police raid...

Now Ann is happily married to Lawrence (William Stage Boyd) and living with him and his young sister Helen (Betty Bronson). To Ann's shock Helen has a new boyfriend... Frank! Lawrence finds out Frank has broken up his friend's marriage with his womanising ways and goes to have it out with the cad. A struggle ensues and Frank lies dead. Lawrence flees and locks the room... a complication being Ann was already hiding in the apartment having arrived earlier to have it out with Frank herself...

A simple enough plot but enjoyably done. The final act with the police investigation by the DA (Harry Mestayer) is quite exciting with a couple of plot twists. An early talkie which avoids some of the flaws of the period though is fairly static, you wouldn't be surprised to find out this was adapted from a stage play. Literally a locked door murder mystery and fine for that.

The Horror of Frankenstein (1970)

A fun and sexy re-telling of the Frankenstein story. Young Victor Frankenstein (Ralph Bates) is a man of passions and plenty of sneers. Obsessed with his dark medical research, he arranges for his father's death simply because he is in the way. Now with his father's castle and money behind him he is ready to push the boundaries of science and make... man...

All this happens while his friend Wilhelm (Graham James) increasingly becomes disgusted of Victor's experiments and buxom maid Alys (Kate O'Mara) looks on with bewilderment (when she isn't in Victor's bed). Victor arranges for human body parts to be stolen from graves by the wonderfully sinister Dennis Price and begins to create his monster (David Prowse)...

Although the story covers no new ground as far as the story is concerned Bates is great as a cocky bonking and utterly amoral young Frankenstein. The only really flaw in the film is the monster itself which hasn't got the best Frankenstein's monster make-up ever. Prowse certainly looked better in his Vader suit.

The Play House (1921)

A music hall comedy farce where Buster Keaton plays twenty different characters! It seems at the play house Keaton is the big shot... Indeed only show in town as he is everything in the theatre from stagehand down to orchestra to stage performer... but then he wakes up from his dream to his reality as just a humble stage hand.

Mayhem soon follows Keaton around, mayhem which involves a performing ape, minstrels and ends in the play house being turned into a swimming pool...

An incredibly inventive comedy that packs more into a few minutes than most films can pack into hours.

They Came From Beyond Space (1967)

A formation of meteorites lands in Cornwall, a group of scientists led by Lee Mason (Jennifer Jayne) investigate but are soon taken over by invisible aliens (when you are making a low budget sci-fi movie invisible aliens are always handy). Meanwhile Dr Curtis Temple (Robert Hutton) wonders what has happened to his girlfriend Lee and why the scientists need so much equipment...

Dr Temple investigates the site and finds a major operation taking place, even rockets being launched towards the Moon. The personnel at the site are hostile but find they cannot take over Dr Temple as he has a silver plate in his head after a recent road accident...

With the help of his friend Farge (Zia Mohyeddin) Dr Temple develops a detector for the aliens, steals a few ray guns and then ends up on the Moon to face the Master (Michael Gough)...

It is all rather cheesy and very of it's time, it is also very British as the aliens are very polite. Despite the flaws this is a quite reasonable sci-fi film.

Arrest Bulldog Drummond (1939)

Bulldog Drummond (John Howard) is about to marry Phyllis (Heather Angel), or rather try to marry her again. Of course something turns up to delay the wedding day yet again, in this case it is a death ray created by a mad scientist...

Naive genius Richard Gannet (Leonard Mudie) has created a machine that can detonate explosives at a distance. The poor man intends the machine to end war though unscrupulous Rolf (George Zucco) has other ideas and kills Gannet and steals the machine. Despite Drummonds efforts Rolf and his confederate Lady Beryl (Jean Fenwick) make it away with the machine and board a cruise ship... though Phyllis is also on board.

In a far off land Rolf intends to sell the machine to foreign powers and kill Drummond and his friends Algy (Reginald Denny) and Tenny (E.E. Clive)...

A high energy entry in the Drummond series, the science fiction elements (with the usual mad scientist lab of electric arcs) is an excellent addition to the usual chasing around. Rolf is a terrifically sinister villain, though even one of the other characters calls his plots a bit theatrical!

Fun Bar Karaoke (1997)

Pu (Fey Ussawaweth), dreams of her dead mum every night and in those dreams she is building a model house. She is told by fortune tellers that when she finishes the house her dad, who is a bit of a drunk and enjoys karaoke at the seedy Fun Bar Karaoke and young women (especially at the same time), will die...

Her dad is involved with one young lady, unfortunately for him she is a gangster's moll and thus his life is in a spot of peril. He gets used as a punchbag by the hood's men - one of whom Noi (Ray MacDonald) is a ruthless (yet also a bit of a bumbling loser) killer who has the hots for Pu...

So that is the story, its not that bad a film. An interesting story, as with many (all?) Thai films mixed with a dose of superstition. The film has a number of dream sequences that often confuse. Maybe too many dream sequences if we are to be honest.

The print is a bit fuzzy and the sound poor. Its a bit sloppy too, the sound boom appears a few times, one time it nearly hits the actor on the head. How did that pass unnoticed during production?

Peeping Tom (1960)

To say this film is somewhat disturbing would be an understatement. Mark (Carl Boehm) is a film studio worker who has a side line in soft core porn, he also likes to film the look of terror on young women's faces before he kills them...

Mark explains to a potential victim (Anna Massey) how his (mad of course) scientist father filmed him constantly as a child and liked to stimulate fear in him with various props including lizards, filming his reaction. Mark is pretty screwed up and acts incredibly weirdly but then again with his twisted upbringing is it any wonder?

A controversial film to say the least but what made it most shocking was probably the humanisation of the murderer. Mark is as much a victim as the unfortunates he kills, a difficult message to portray back then (even now), the film destroyed the director Michael Powell's career but survives as a testament to intelligent and daring film making.

Dr Pyckle and Mr Pride (1925)

A parody of the well-known Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde story (and an earlier movie version of the story), Dr Pyckle (Stan Laurel) is a scientist who tests a drug on himself to see if it change his personality. It does, it turns him into a Mr Pride who can't stop playing jokes on people...

Dr Pyckle did have higher hopes for this transformation than to someone who steals ice cream and scares ladies with loud noises! It is very funny, once we get to the Mr Pride stage. It is also interesting to see Stan Laurel without Oliver Hardy, we were still a couple of years from their immortal double act. This is quite a different performance in many ways, playing both title roles gave Laurel a lot of scope to show just how versatile he was as a performer.

Mariners of the Sky (1936)

US Navy flyboy hi jinks. A rather contrived plot involving a baby and a bunch of Naval airmen. Tex (Addison Randall) learns that his wife back home is pregnant. Unfortunately by the time his aircraft carrier reaches port he finds out she died in childbirth. His sister-in-law Bernice (Claire Dodd) wants to take the baby away but Tex wants it bought up on the ship (for some unfathomable reason)...

Soon afterwards however Tex is critically injured in a car accident. He pledges his child over to his buddy Red (William Gargan). However Bernice and her lawyer are out to get the baby off him...

There then follows various mayhem which includes a gangster (Paul Fix) stealing the baby and Red stealing a plane. Well everything ends up happily in the end and they all go home for tea, and Red and Bernice get married. There isn't much depth to this film (which is ironic considering it involves the Navy) but it is a reasonable bit of fluff.

God Father (1980)

A fairly enjoyable HK genre romp starring a young Chow Yun Fat. You can probably guess what this film will be like: violence, ropey kung fu with badly matching impact sound dubbing, dubious comedy, overacting and a weird convoluted plot. But of course these are the ingredients of many a classic HK film!

Chow plays a minor card shark / mechanic who tries to tangle with the local hood. Chow thinks he has the magic card skills from his god father, an ex Minor Deity of Gamblers but hes not quite that good. So he ends up owing the Boss thousands of HK$ and gets a good kicking for his cheek. But then his god father calls upon his old mate, a real God of Gamblers and the revenge begins... amid a rather convoluted plot. The Hood ends up in gaol and all the good guys go and visit him to laugh at him. 

Is this film any good? Well its not God Of Gamblers but fairly decent entertainment all the same. Seeing Chow Yun Fat so young is quite entertaining.

The Avenging Hand (1936)

An intriguing crime caper. Lee Barwell (Noah Beery) is a Chicago gangster over in London on holiday. He gets involved in (or rather blunders into) a plot to steal a lot of cash which includes a hapless match seller who is to look after the key to a safe where the loot is. When the match seller is found dead Lee decides to find out the killer...

The film is basically a low-budget whodunnit which takes place in a posh hotel. Lee the gangster starts off wanting to take the loot for himself but becomes the good guy very quickly when the match seller, who be earlier befriended, is bumped off and turns detective. Along with Pierre (Louis Borel) and Gwen (Kathleen Kelly) he brings the criminals to justice. The plot is a fairly standard mystery with a few clues like scented cigarettes thrown in, there is also a degree of farce.

The plot is actually fairly mediocre, and not without a few holes, but Beery's performance as one of the most unlikely detectives on screen completely makes the film. The dialogue is sharp and not without some humour.

Fear in the Night (1972)

An assured horror film that doesn't mind taking it's time to set the scene.

Peggy (Judy Geeson) is recovering from a nervous breakdown and thinks she had been attacked by a man with a mechanical arm. Now married to Robert (Ralph Bates) who works at a boarding school she moves in and encounters the rather sinister headmaster (Peter Cushing) and his even more sinister wife Molly (Joan Collins)...

Peggy is attacked again by a man with a mechanical arm though Robert doesn't believe her. Is she imagining things? Why is the school so strange and eerie, is it even really a school?

This is a psychological horror film full of suspense with a rather interesting twist.

Laser Mission (1989)

Incomprehensible low-budget action nonsense. Michael Gold (Brandon Lee) is a mercenary sent to recruit Professor Braun (Ernest Borgnine) who is an expert on lasers. The CIA want to keep his knowledge safe and stop terrorists blowing airliners out of the sky with lasers (obviously the CIA want to be able to do that themselves)...

Gold is sent to... well who really knows... it could be Africa, it could be Latin America it could be a film set which oddly mixes both. There are plenty of Cubans and Russians around but none of them can shoot straight, except Colonel Kalishnakov (Grahem Clarke). Gold meets up with Alissa (Debi Monahan) who is supposed to be Braun's daughter but also seems incredibly handy in a fight. Endless shoot outs and chase scenes across the desert thus follow...

It is terrible but strangely compelling at the same time. The fight scenes are so bad that the cannon fodder bad guys often drop dead even before the heroes start firing. The meagre plot is stretched so thinly that half a dozen pointless action scenes had to be inserted to fill the film out. Oh and the dialogue is frequently awful. And this is why it is brilliant obviously.

Murder at the Baskervilles (1937)

Twenty years after solving the case of the Hound of the Baskervilles Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Wontner) and Dr Watson (Ian Fleming) return to visit Sir Henry Baskerville (Lawrence Grossmith), this time for a holiday. However there they get drawn into a double murder case and the theft of a champion race horse...

Sir Henry's horse "Silver Blaze" looks set to win the big race and bankrupt the bookies, one of whom enlists the help of Professor Moriarty (Lyn Harding) to nobble the nag. The stable boy guarding the horse is killed and the horse stolen. However later Sir Henry's man Staker (Martin Walker) is also found dead on the moors...

Although the story runs at a steady if unspectacular plod rather than a gallop this is a pleasing Sherlock Holmes film which slowly winds it's way up to an exciting conclusion. There are a few red herrings thrown in but Holmes soon is in control of the case. Wontner plays Holmes very well abd certainly looked the part. A good little crime film that makes the most of it's low budget.