The Spiral Staircase (1946)

A dark tale of a serial killer, and terror in a dark house.

A serial killer has been terrorising a community, killing "defective" women (in other words the disabled). In a house owned by the grumpy and ailing Mrs Warren (Ethel Barrymore) and Professor Warren (George Brent), the mute Helen (Dorothy McGuire) who works there, is now considered a potential next target. 

Dr Parry (Kent Smith) wants to get Helen out of the house and get her treatment to recover her voice. Is the killer somewhere close at hand?

A superb and updated take on the dark house mystery, an atmospheric tale with excellent performances. The film is enhanced by little touches of humour and character. A very good film.

The Ninth Guest (1934)

A confusing though fast paced mystery.

Eight guests are invited to dinner at a mysterious house by an unnamed host. The guests all have reason to hate one of the other members so things are a bit fractious. Then a voice from the radio tells them they will be murdered one by one unless they manage to outwit their host, the ninth guest. To underscore the threat they can't leave as he has had the gates connected to the mains, plus various other traps...

Naturally the other guests do not take to this well and start accusing each other of being this ninth guest. The story moves on from there as the guests die off in various ways. It does sound a bit Agatha Christie, though this film (and the original story) predates And Then There Were None / Ten Little Indians (1945) (1965) (1972) by a number of years...

Donald Cook and Genevieve Tobin star as two of the guests, who manage to work out their mutual antagonism as they help solve the mystery of who is the ninth guest. The story is a little complicated with a lot of red herrings (maybe a few too many) but an enjoyable watch.

Battletruck (1982)

In the post-apocalypse landscape, with oil a scarcity worth killing over, its time to drive around in a huge gas guzzling lorry.

With governments and societies either collapsed or on the brink, the wastelands are full of gangs fighting each other in bad customised vehicles. Straker (James Wainwright) is a warlord who drives around in an armoured lorry, his daughter Corlie (Annie McEnroe) escapes his camp though and meets up with lone biker Hunter (Michael Beck). Straker is soon out to storm the compound there Corlie is hiding out...

Yet another Mad Max clone, and this one is filmed in New Zealand so the similar accents add to the Mad Max feel. The film is pretty silly of course, it doesn't make much sense and is very violent but it pretty entertaining at times.