Sexton Blake and the Hooded Terror (1938)

Now for our 800th review!

Sexton Blake could be considered a bit of a rip-off of Sherlock Holmes being an amateur detective who also lives on Baker Street! However, his stories were very popular in the twentieth century (indeed he was my great-grandfather's favourite detective). In this film, Blake (George Curzon) has to battle the mysterious Black Quorum who are the most powerful and deadliest criminals in the country apparently, though the fact Blake has never heard of them before despite being a famous detective seems quite odd.

The Quorum are led by Larron (Tod Slaughter), who has the appearance of a respectable stamp collector but when he dons his black snake gown and hood he likes to send women to the death chamber. Blake, with the help of his assistant Tinker (Tony Sympson), tracks the Quorum to a house in London. However, he is captured and left to die. Luckily French undercover agent Julie (Greta Gynt) saves the day... The hunt then continues in Paris...

So this is a fast moving romp with numerous cliffhangers and death traps, in some ways it is like a condensed movie serial. Original it isn't but fun it surely is. The ending is certainly unusual especially for a film from this era.

The American President (1995)

A lush US political romantic drama, often rather West Wing in feel at times, it even has Martin Sheen in the White House (though as the chief of staff not the President). The President is Andrew Shepherd (Martin Douglas) who is riding high on the popularity polls. 

However, when lobbyist Sydney Ellen Wade (Annette Bening) goes to the White House to push an environmental bill and meets Shepherd sparks begin to fly.

The President was a widower and once it is known he has a new girlfriend the press go into a frenzy, Shepherd's rival in the next election Senator Rumson (Richard Dreyfuss) begins to make hay. Sydney's character, and that of the President, are put into question and this puts their relationship under strain.

An enjoyable romantic drama with sharp political dialogue and a good cast including Michael J Fox. It is a bit predictable, of course it ends with Shepherd giving a rousing speech.

The Quiller Memorandum (1966)

An enjoyable if flawed 1960s spy thriller. Quiller (George Segal) is an agent sent to Berlin by Pol (Alec Guinness) to hunt a gang of neo-Nazis. However, the Nazis led by Oktober (Max von Sydow) are always one step ahead of him. He needs to find their base and they want to find his. So begins a battle of wits and truth drugs across 1960s Berlin (which is the real star of the show). 

Quiller hooks up with Inge (Senta Berger) who also gets into danger. Of course there is more than meets the eye behind much of what we see...

This is a 1960s spy film in the LeCarre style rather than Bond. Written by Harold Pinter it has the intelligent dialogue, subtlety and lengthy pauses you might expect. It lacks much in the way of action though has plenty of suspense. At times the film is a bit too campy and gets dangerously close to being a spoof. However, the film is worth sticking with.

The film leaves things slightly ambiguous. A great soundtrack by John Barry and a theme song by Matt Munro make this a classic 1960s British spy film.

The World Owes Me a Living (1945)

An interesting premise for a film though the execution unfortunately lets it down. During the Second World War senior officer Paul Collyer (David Farrar) suffers amnesia following a plane crash. Vital plans are kept in his head and his memory needs to be restored as a matter of urgency. His friends, including Moira (Judy Campbell), try and help him remember by going back to the interwar years when Paul was a barnstorming pilot.

Most of the film is told in flashback and details the lives of Paul, Moira and other aviators as they try and make a living giving joyrides. Paul eventually works on a transport glider for the Army. Unfortunately this flashback can often be rather aimless and dull. 

The film isn't without interest and includes plenty of good aerial footage. Not a bad film, it just could have been a lot better. 

Apollo 13 (1995)

One of the greatest adventures based on true events, but when you are depicting events this epic it is surely hard to go wrong. Actually it probably is pretty easy to mess it up but rest assured this does not happen with Apollo 13, this film smashes it.

Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) is finally heading to the moon having only flown around it on an earlier Apollo mission. There are some last minute snags though due to medical issues and Ken Mattingly (Gary Sinise) has to give up his seat to Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon). Still nothing else will go wrong now?

Unfortunately something does, an explosion aboard Apollo 13 cripples the mission and puts the lives of the three astronauts (including Bill Paxton) in dire peril. Mission Control headed by Gene Kranz (Ed Harris) and with the help of Mattingly must somehow find a way to bring the crew home, pushing the remaining hardware to the limit and using it in ways it was never intended.

The film is a masterpiece. The technical details and the human story perfectly balanced. The performances are all spot on. An iconic film for iconic events.

The Savage Girl (1932)

After Tarzan comes... the Savage Girl, a wild white girl in the jungle with perfect flowing locks and a very stylish off the shoulder leopard skin dress! Stitch (Harry Myers), an alcoholic millionaire, hires explorer Jim Franklin (Walter Byron) to take him to Africa to get some animals for a zoo he wants to impress his neighbours. Once they reach Africa they hire Adolf Milar (Alec Bernouth) to take them into the bush...

As well as lions and gorillas they soon discover a white girl (Rochelle Hudson) who lives feral in the jungle and is friends with the animals, especially the chimps. When the hunters capture animals she releases them. So they decide to capture her. Afterwards though Franklin gets sweet on her and thinks they should let her go. However, Milar has other ideas. We never find out if the wild girl is wearing pants, but if she is, Milar wants to get into them...

A very silly and ridiculous film with incredibly dated stereotypes but is pretty amusing and charming. It is basically Tarzan as a girl but can be enjoyed in it's own right.

Lola (1970)

A film that could never be made these days. Twinky (Susan George) is an (almost) 16 year old girl (though acts like she is about 12) who loves the trashy romantic novels of Scott Wardman (Charles Bronson). However, her real secret is that she is in a relationship with the author, a much older man. A relationship that usually involves burning his breakfast and lots of sex.

Twinky's family are naturally not that pleased when they find out but Scott and Twinky get married in Scotland and then move to the U.S., where their relationship is put under strain. Twinky's immature behaviour is no doubt quite tiresome to Scott though the fact she wears miniskirts exclusively probably makes up for it and he undoubtedly loves her. Eventually they begin to drift apart as the age gap does finally tell.

A rather strange film and not that brilliant if we are to be honest though light enough to avoid being too offensive. Bronson spends much of the film on autopilot and you can't wait for Twinky to be old enough to start secondary school. 

The film does have an impressive array of British actors in it including Trevor Howard and Honor Blackman though they are mostly wasted with this material. The film is silly and inconsequential and doesn't really go anywhere but worth watching to see Bronson in a very different role than we are used to seeing him usually.

Dilemma (1962)

A highly enjoyable but curious little drama. Music teacher Harry (Peter Halliday) arrives home not long after a scream was heard in his home and his wife Jean (Ingrid Hafner) was seen running out by nosy neighbour Mrs Jones (Edna Burke). Harry has something more important to worry about, there is a dying man in the bathroom! Harry quickly decides he has to get rid of the man, now dead, whom he assumes his wife killed (what a good hubby!) He lifts up the floorboards and buries the corpse in concrete, though amusingly he keeps getting interrupted by the likes of nuns, piano tuners and Mrs Jones.

Jean though is busy too, first of all getting a hand injury stitched up, then getting a flight ticket and then trying to empty her safety deposit box. However, she can't find her key. The police in the form of Inspector Murray (Patrick Jordan) are looking for a known criminal who has been seen in the area. When Harry sees the mugshot he has a shock. Its the bloke now under the floorboards!

A tense little drama though with a degree of farce where Harry is regularly interrupted. The twist in the end when Jean's house of cards collapse is well worth waiting for. The soundtrack is strangely light though considering the content.

The Eagle (1925)

A glorious Rudolph Valentino feature from the golden age of silent film with the usual impressively vast sets and large numbers of extras. Valentino plays Dubrovsky, a lieutenant in the imperial Russian army. After he spurns the advances of the Czarina (Louise Dresser) he is forced to go on the run and become a fugitive.

Dubrovsky returns home and find's his family lands have been seized by the evil Kyrilla (James A Marcus). Dubrovsky becomes a masked bandit to fight Kyrilla and instead falls in love with the evil one's daughter Mascha (Vilma Banky)...

And it is all fast paced swashbuckling fun. Valentino is very much in action mode in this film compared to some of his other films where he is there largely for women to swoon over. A great Valentino film, unfortunately he only had one more in him.

The Teckman Mystery (1954)

A slow-burning but interesting espionage mystery. Philip Chance (John Justin) is tasked to write the biography of a test pilot, Martin Techman. Techman died recently in a plane crash, by coincidence Philip meets the pilot's sister Helen Teckman (Margaret Leighton) on his flight to London. Soon after he begins his task, strange things start to occur. He is offered a lucrative job in Berlin by the somewhat mysterious Mr Rice (Meier Tzeiniker), then Martin's old friend Garvin (George Coulouris) turns up dead in Philip's apartment...

The mystery deepens as Philip meets Martin's wife Ruth (Jane Wenham). The police (Roland Culver) are also very interested in Philip and Techman. Things come to a head when Philip discovers that Martin is alive after all! 

A well-layered mystery with a number of surprises and twists. The film is modest but well formed, Philip's character has the light chippy nature of a Golden Age amateur detective. Indeed this often feels like one of those interwar dramas.

The Silent Partner (1978)

A gripping crime drama. Miles (Elliot Gould) is the unfortunate bank teller at the bank Santa Claus decides to rob. The thief is really Reikle (Christopher Plummer) and he gets away with some cash but Miles sees the opportunity to steal some money himself and place the blame on Reikle. 

Reikle, naturally, is rather taken aback when he reads news that the bank heist was far higher than he actually got. He discovers Miles' address and begins to put pressure on him to hand over the cash. Miles proves to be just a rascal as Reikle though and he fits him up for another crime. That isn't the end of things though as Miles and Reikle begin a game of cat and mouse...

A highly enjoyable crime drama. The coolness of Miles is the highlight of the film as he conceives highly complicated plots to hide the theft of the money, the loss of a safety deposit box and even covering up a murder. His luck in love doesn't go as smoothly especially with Julie (Susanna York) but he gets there in the end.

Out of the Fog (1962)

A neat little crime drama though one which plods along at a leisurely pace. Young blonde girls are being killed on the heath whenever there is a full moon. Detective Superintendent Chadwick (John Arnatt) suspects it could be ex-con George (David Sumner) who has just come out of gaol and is at lodgings nearby, especially as the recent victim was his ex-girlfriend...

WS June Lock (Susan Travers) is sent undercover to befriend George and to eventually act as bait. Will she help prove his innocence or end up the next victim?

A nicely stylish (despite the low budget) early 1960s British film. The film is chiefly about exploring George's dark character, which is just as well because the actual criminal investigation is incredibly pedestrian. George spends most of the film in a bad mood but the more we learn about his life the more we understand just why he has such a poor opinion of his fellow man.

Defence of the Realm (1985)

A highly intelligent political thriller. Reporter Nick Mullen (Gabriel Byrne) investigates an MP (Bill Paterson) who is suspected in being somehow involved with a KGB spy. Mullen's fellow reporter, and old soak, Bayliss (Denholm Elliot) thinks there is a far bigger story. 

After Bayliss' suspicious death, Mullen begins to follow up on what Bayliss was investigating, a mysterious death of a youth and possible involvement in nuclear weapons at a US air base.

Mullen and the MP's assistant Beckman (Greta Scacchi) get involved in a game of cat and mouse with the dark forces behind the state who want to ensure a cover-up, no matter who gets hurt...

The story is very well constructed with excellent performances from the cast. An intricate story of Cold War politics and intrigue. The period view of the workings of the 1980s news room (all typewriters and dicta-phones) is also fascinating.

The Secret Tunnel (1948)

An enjoyable children's adventure. When Roger (Tony Wager) discovers that his Dad's Rembrandt has been stolen from the supposedly secure vault at his mansion, he begins to investigate with John (Ivor Bowyer) the butler's son. They find a secret tunnel that leads from the vault and suspicion falls on the cook Mrs Matthews (Thelma Rea) and the antique seller Mr Harvey (Frank Henderson)...

Then a gang is let into the house by Mrs Matthews to empty out the rest of the vault. The two boys are captured but manage to escape and then help the police find the gang's hide out...

A straight forward adventure with plenty for viewers (of all ages) to enjoy. The story is fairly cliched but there is nothing wrong with good old fashioned fun.

House on Haunted Hill (1959)

A hilariously over-the-top and camp horror film. Mr Loren (Vincent Price) invites a mixture of people to a party at a notorious haunted house with his wife Annabelle (Carol Ohmart). Loren challenges the guests to stay a night in return for money. Almost immediately very strange things start to happen, a chandelier nearly falls on Nora (Caroline Craig), unfortunately she survives and is able to scream her tonsils off for most of the rest of the film. Dr Trent (Alan Marshal) says it is just hysteria and not ghosts which Nora keeps seeing...

Then Annabelle is found hung, but was it suicide or murder? Loren delights in showing his guests a pit of acid which is in the cellar. It isn't much of a party, not really swinging... well apart from Annabelle. Though she later appears outside Nora's window causing some more screams. There is something more going on than bumps in the night...

Once we get the twist then the film transforms from a rather silly though entertaining camp horror to something a bit more clever. 

Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire (1987)

A vampire snooker musical, yes you read that right. A very strange film it is too (as you probably would expect). It is based on the real-life snooker rivalry between the old guard (and Dracula-like) Ray Reardon and young buck Jimmy White.

T.O. (Bruce Payne) is the manager of young snooker player Billy the Kid (Phil Daniels), he has a gambling problem and big debts owed to The Wednesday Man (Don Henderson). The Wednesday Man manipulates T.O. into agreeing to arrange a showdown snooker match between Billy and champion Maxwell Randall (Alun Armstrong) who has something of the night about him...

Unknown to Billy the loser of the match will also have to give up their career. Randall isn't quite the washed up has-been Billy is let to think he is.

The story line contains a number of songs, of various quality. The story is fairly light and frequently bizarre. A surreal film, maybe a little too weird to be "good" but definitely memorable and highly enjoyable.

Dead End (1937)

Life on the East Side slum in Noo Yoick where the lives of the poor are overlooked by the rich. The film mostly centres around the adventures of a group of urchins, the Dead End Kids (who make their movie debut here). Around them a series of dramas. An unemployed architect, Dave (Joel McCrea) is torn between two girls. Drina (Sylvia Sidney) is in a labour dispute and is as hard-up as he is, Kay (Wendy Bray) is the mistress of a rich guy and she doesn't fancy being poor again.

Meanwhile gangster Babyface Martin (Humphrey Bogart) has returned to his old neighbourhood. He wants to find his mother and his old squeeze but isn't happy when he finds them...

The film is based on a Broadway show and often plays like one with fast moving action which swiftly moves from character to character on one big set. Life is rough and hard, but there is humour to be found in even the darkest of times. Great film, and great accents.

Go Ask Alice (1973)

A powerful anti-drug film, based on a supposedly real (though probably fictional) diary. Alice (Jamie Smith-Jackson) is a teenage girl who is having a difficult time at school being in the uncool crowd. But then the cool kids take her under their wing and she starts loading up on various drugs. She even starts dealing to kids. Things come to a head when she runs off with a friend and ends up whoring her way across America looking for her next score. She finally confides in a priest (Andy Griffith) and tries to turn clean.

However, now she is regarded as an enemy by the in-crowd who try to get her back on the drugs. She has a psychotic session where she self-harms. Can she come back from the brink and back to her parents (William Shatner and Julie Adams)?

A film of it's time, and that time does include a very good soundtrack. The acting is often a bit hesitant and awkward but it does give everything an authentic feel. 

The Day of the Triffids (1962)

A decent adaptation of the classic sci-fi novel by John Wyndham. The Earth is bathed in light from the heavens from a meteorite shower, everyone is watching the show except for poor sailor Bill (Howard Keel) who suffered an eye injury and is all bandaged up. However, the next day nearly everyone on Earth is completely blind and Bill wakes up to find the world in chaos (once he removed his bandages himself).

London is in chaos, including a train crashing into the buffers at the station. Here Bill finds another person who can see, schoolgirl Susan (Janina Faye). Together they cross to France to hopefully find help. They link up with the sighted Christine (Nicole Maurey) and continue onto Spain where the Royal Navy is looking to pick up survivors. If the situation wasn't serious enough there are also the triffids, bizarre plants from outer space that can move and have the taste for human flesh. They roam the countryside in huge packs looking for human survivors. However, they have a weakness for ice cream van music...

Meanwhile, on a lighthouse bickering couple Tom (Kieron Moore) and Karen (Janette Scott) are also besieged by the triffids. They finally stumble on a way to kill the plants (though it is that simple you wonder why no one else had thought of it already...)

A fast moving film full of sci-fi horror. The triffids look ridiculous though are scary. Some of the scenes of the film are harrowing, such as the train crash with the blind survivors desperately scrambling around. The plot doesn't make a huge amount of sense but it is an enjoyable sci-fi romp.

The Woman Eater (1958)

A strange film, a typical 1950s monster film though with a rather slow restrained manner despite the fact it includes a tree which feeds on women. 

Evil scientist Dr Moran (George Coulouris) discovers a tree in the Amazon which feeds on human flesh (of the female kind) and in return provides a serum which can bring the dead back to life (though presumably not half-eaten women).

He brings the tree back to England, along with native Tanga (Jimmy Vaughn) who regards the tree as his god, and feeds it a steady diet of women from the streets of Soho so he can obtain the serum. Sally (Vera Day) gets a job with Moran but soon wants to leave. However, Moran has fallen in love with her and decides to share his secrets with her...

A creepy film with a ridiculously looking tree (though thankfully we don't get to see it much). So many questions of course, why does the tree only want to eat beautiful women? Why did the tribe allow Moran to take their deity away? Naturally nothing really makes sense. Good campy fun.

Women in Blue (1943)

A fascinating if somewhat dated short film showing the training of new recruits to the US Navy Women's Auxiliary Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES). The narrator (Hugh James) explains that the recruits learn how to march and learn important information such as how the Navy is run (unfortunately the narrator was able to resist the temptation to quip "badly"). Then they can take over base duties from men who can be sent into combat (to their universal delight of course).

Dangerous Paradise (1930)

A somewhat clunky early talkie. Heyst (Richard Arlen) is a hermit (though rather well dressed) who has his own island in the South Seas. On a visit to Surabaya he encounters Alma (Nancy Carroll) in a bar who is a rather harassed young musician. The bar owner Schonberg (Warner Oland) makes no secret of his aim to get into Alma's pants so the young girl stows away on Heyst's boat...

Unfortunately some bad men also soon arrive on Heyst's island. They are convinced there is treasure to be found despite Heyst's protestations. Can Heyst and Alma survive this incursion and (obviously) fall in love?

A reasonable little (and short) story though suffers from sound problems at times with the dialogue being unclear or drowned out. The film is interesting to see the future Charlie Chan as a sexual sleazeball.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)

An excellent and bleak spy drama, and a very good John Le Carre adaptation. Leamas (Richard Burton) is a burned out spy running British intelligence operations in Berlin. Back in London Leamas is given a new mission to pose as a defector with the aim of discrediting Mundt (Peter van Eyck) of East German intelligence. 

Leamas builds a new identity of a washed out drunk, though enters a relationship with naive young communist Nan (Claire Bloom). Once he defects Leamas is interrogated by Mundt and his rival Fiedler (Oscar Werner). Leamas soon realises that he is just a pawn in a bigger game, and to his horror Nan is another pawn...

A deep and rich spy drama. The inhumanity, grubbiness and cruelty of the Cold War spy game has seldom been better portrayed. Burton's and Werner's performances are truly excellent. One of the best L'Carre adaptations, maybe one of the best spy movies of all.