Scorpion (1986)

A rather static action drama, enlivened by some occasionally decent fight scenes.

The Scorpion, Steve Woods (Tonny Tulleners) is an elite agent who helps stop a bunch of hijackers on a plane single handedly. He is later tasked with protecting a terrorist-turned-informer from harm, and there are many out to do him harm. Then The Scorpion's childhood friend is killed in one of the fights, now it's personal...

Who was Tonny Tullenders? Well he was a martial arts fighter who once beat Chuck Norris in a contest, apparently this got him this film role despite the fact as an actor he is completely wooden. But he is a good fighter. Unfortunately, Chuck Norris does not appear in this film.

The fight scenes on the whole arn't much better though that may be down more to the direction than anything else. Its all rather generic and unfortunately a bit dull.

Topper Takes a Trip (1938)

Light hearted supernatural antics.

Following on from the first Topper film, Topper (Roland Young) is now in the divorce court but the case is thrown out thanks to help from ghost Marion (Constance Bennett) and a clever dog (Asta the dog)! 

The troublesome Mrs Parkhurst (Verree Teasdale) takes Mrs Topper (Billie Burke) to France where she tries to arrange for a reason for a divorce, meanwhile ghost Marion also takes Topper to France to try and reconcile him with his wife so Marion can finally go to heaven...

We also see Cary Grant due to the re-use of some edited footage from the first film. This is a light fun film that is very nicely made. Topper appeared once more in Topper Returns in 1941.

Superchick (1973)

A rather light piece of sexploitation fluff.

Air stewardess Tara (Joyce Jillson) flies across the country every week and has a man in every port (an interesting twist on the sailor cliché) including Johnny (Tony Young), a beach bum with gambling debts who is wanted by the mob. The mob reckon they can use Tara to commit an airborne robbery but they reckoned without her karate skills!

Well this film is what it is, a light hearted film which shows off plenty of cleavage and skin, and fairly softcore sex. The plot is ridiculous and the acting frequently awful but it is a funny and entertaining enough film, though maybe not fully as the makers intended.

The Crime Doctor's Gamble (1947)

The Crime Doctor heads to gay Paris!

Dr Ordman (Warner Baxter) has gone to Paris to lecture, and definitely not get involved in investigating a crime. Of course, very soon he is helping his detective friend (Marcel Journel) out with a murder as the main suspect could be insane. 

The Crime Doctor investigates the case which involves art forgery, an old family dispute and a knife thrower act!

The ninth entry in the Crime Doctor series, and pretty enjoyable too. Although set in Paris, the crime procedural is fairly standard for a B-movie of the period, but the setting adds a little bit of freshness and novelty.

The Magic Christmas Tree (1964)

A wacky little Christmas movie.

Mark (Chris Kroesen) dares his two friends to go to an old house which he says is lived in by a witch. After his friends scarper, Mark encounters an old woman (Valerie Hobbs) and she gets him to help get her cat Lucifer out of the tree. 

Mark falls and hits his head and finds that the old woman really was a witch. She gives him a magic ring which will help him to grow a magic Christmas tree that can grant him three wishes...

Well there is more to thing than meets the eye but i think you can guess what that is. A strange little film which feels like it's largely improvised. The film isn't that brilliant but it is not without some charm, and a bit of fun.

Blood Street (1988)

Terrific straight-to-video nonsense.

Joe Wong (Leo Fong) is a private investigator hired by the wife (Kym Paige) of a hoodlum MacDonald (Stan Wertlieb) to find her missing husband. 

Joe soon finds himself drawn into a complicated, and somewhat bewildering, gang war between MacDonald and rival gang leader Boyd (Richard Norton). Joe having to use his martial arts skills to protect himself from the gangsters and crooked cops...

The film does not make a lot of sense (or any sense at times) but it is great fun. The martial arts and other action scenes are high impact and well done, the story line (such that it is) does not get in the way of the action scenes, the next of which is never far away. It is low budget, sleazy, incomprehensible and cheap.

And it is brilliant.

The Brighton Strangler (1945)

A rather dark, if somewhat implausible, tale of murder in the dark streets during the Blitz.

Reginald Parker (John Loder) is a successful stage actor though he is starting to tire of his role as a murderer, the Brighton Strangler. 

When he is hit on the head during a bombing raid on London he has amnesia but a chance enounter unlocks a memory in his brain and he now believes that he is really the Brighton Strangler! He heads to Brighton and begins to kill for real...

A dark tale and the medical details are somewhat ridiculous, but the film is pretty atmospheric and well directed though the short film can drag a bit at times. The ending is particularly memorable.

Dance Hall Racket (1953)

An appalling piece of exploitative sleaze.

A criminal is killed at a dodgy night club owned by Tim Farrell (Umberto Scalli) with Vincent (Lenny Bruce) as his murderous henchman (who is very handy with a knife). 

A Federal agent is sent in to investigate and he discovers the club is a front for a diamond smuggling racket. Vincent meanwhile has plans to replace his boss permanently...

This is pretty grim stuff, badly acted and plotted. The cheese factor is high but when a dog (which doesn't do much other than lie around) outacts most of the humans then you know things are bad...

The sheer ridiculousness can be compelling at times but "so bad it's good" can only take you so far.

The Take (1974)

A cool tale of a crooked cop who still wants to take the hoodlums down.

Detective Sneed (Billy Dee Williams) arrives in New Mexico to help out the local police who are struggling with the mob led by Manso (Vic Morrow). 

Unfortunately, Sneed is already on the take and has the help of Oscar (Sorrell Brooke - aka Boss Hogg!) to handle the ill gotten gains. Other cops are also on the criminal payroll and Sneed plays a dangerous game taking the gangster cash while also giving the appearance he is doing his job - or is he really doing it?

This is a great film, even if the plot is a bit basic and doesn't make complete sense at times. It is very stylish, likely taking inspiration from blaxploitation films, and has plenty of action as well as plenty of heart. Williams plays a good role.

Inspector Hornleigh Goes to It (1941)

The third and (unfortunately) final Inspector Hornleigh film.

Britain is at war and Inspector Hornleigh (Gordon Harker) wants to join the hunt for fifth columnists but instead he and Bingham (Alastair Sim) are sent undercover into the army to find out who is stealing army jam! 

However, soon Hornleigh is on the trail of suspected nazi spies, the trail leading to a suspicious dentist then an even more suspicious school and then a thrilling finale on a Royal Mail train...

It is a shame they never made any more Hornleigh films as Harker and Sim had great chemistry together and the film has a perfect mix of serious police work and humour. 

Star Reporter (1939)

A fast moving crime/reporter B-movie, so fast moving that there is scarcely time to breathe.

Randolph (Warren Hull) is a young idealistic newspaper owner (and reporter) who is dedicated to the public good and fighting crime. To that aim he has supported the election of the new DA Burnette (Wallace Clarke), though he also wants to marry Burnette's daughter (Marsha Hunt). 

However, when the DA fails to prosecute the gangsters then Randolph turns against Burnette. The reason though is because the DA knows a terrible secret about Randolph's father...

This is a great film that packs in an incredible amount of story and drama into a pretty short running time. The film is exposition heavy to drive things along, though maybe a little too fast. To be honest i do prefer shorter films but this is one which could have probably done with an extra fifteen to twenty minutes! 

It is still highly enjoyable, indeed one of the better B-movies of the late 1930s.

Mission Stardust (1967)

In space, but its full of cheese.

A mission to the moon soon runs in to trouble as the technology stops working. The astronauts led by Rhodan (Lang Jeffries) discover they are not alone. A race of super-advanced aliens (who oddly enough look just like us) are already on the moon. 

However, their leader Crest (John Karlsen) is dying but there is a medicine that can save him on Earth. Unfortunately, enemy agents and robots are out to make matters complicated...

An enjoyable science fiction film though the decent start does tail off and lose energy once the film returns to Earth. The film is full of cheese though and sexy space escapades with some interesting variations on the space exploration / alien encounter theme.

Enforcer from Death Row (1976)

A multi-national agency has lost their agents so needs a new man to sent in to Manila to fight a deadly gang, of course the obvious choice for this new recruit is a man on death row...

The execution of Young (Leo Fong) is faked and he is sent to the Philippines with a new identity. This identity seems blown pretty early on, though the film is pretty unclear as to what exactly is going on. Young has to battle a criminal gang led by Nomad including his ninjas (who are pretty inept) and his henchmen who enjoy torture maybe a little too much...

This is a pretty terrible film. Very disjointed and makes no sense what so ever. Cameron Mitchell gets top billing though only appears in one scene at the very end. The action is sometimes pretty good, though at other times comically bad. The film is certainly an experience!

Raiders of Ghost City (Serial) (1944)

An enjoyable American Civil War era Western serial, though with a war propaganda edge.

A gang of Confederate agents are stealing gold shipments bound for Washington. Government agent Steve Clark (Dennis Moore) is sent across to California to investigate, helped by Wells Fargo agent Idaho Jones (Joe Sawyer). 

In fact, the real mastermind behind the theft is Morel (Lionel Atwill) who isn't operating for the Confederacy after all but rather a group of Prussian spies...

A great serial with a good variety of cliff hangers including runaway train cars and burning sheds! The inclusion of Prussian spies was likely to give the serial a bit of a wartime propaganda edge but works well, Atwill and his accomplice Virginia Christine make an excellent pair of villains which gives the serial the bite the slightly bland heroes cannot.

The Speckled Band (1931)

An early Sherlock Holmes talkie.

Sherlock Holmes (Raymond Massey) helps a young heiress (Angela Badderley) after the death of her sister and growing menace from her brutal step-father Dr Rylott (Lyn Harding). One mystery is that the sister's last words were "speckled band"...

A good Sherlock Holmes adaptation which is only marred by the poor quality of production at times, especially the sound. Holmes and Watson (Athole Stewart) are very well portrayed here but also pretty different to the popular series of Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone which would come in a few years time.

Baby Ghost (1995)

An incredible piece of rubbish that somehow keeps your attention.

Hapless child photographer Winslow (Joe Estevez) ends up trapped in the high rise office building he works in by a strange little ghost, called a baby ghost but looks more like a little green lizard. 

Also trapped in the building is a tarot card reader (Erin O'Bryan) and a couple of members of staff. There are also a couple of useless thieves who have broken into the building.

A shoddy film which looks like it was shot on a budget of about 17 pence. Expect dodgy acting, awkward scenes which make little sense, padding which often reaches epic levels of boring and very rough special effects. Despite all the drawbacks this is a great watch, definitely in the so bad it's good camp.

Devil's Cargo (1948)

One of the latter three Falcon movies, with a magical air.

The Falcon (Michael Calvert) is having a bath (!) when he is approached by Delgado (Paul Marion). Delgado tells the Falcon he has killed a man to defend his wife's honour, he wants the Falcon to hold a key for him and then give it to his lawyer. Delgado is arrested but later found dead in jail. Hoodlums seize the key off the Falcon, but when they try to open the locker the key is for, the locker blows up! The Falcon investigates the plot involving Delgado's wife Margo (Rochelle Hudson) and the lawyer Mallon (Theodore von Eltz), with the help of his clever dog (Brain Trust)!

This is a very different Falcon to the ones played by different actors earlier in the series, though closer to the original character envisaged by it's creator in the 1930s. Calvert was a real magician which is probably why he performs magic tricks at various stages of the film (for no actual plot reason), there is a funny meta moment when someone says a photo of the actual Michael Cavert looks like the Falcon! The performing dog is wonderful, the film itself is fun and quite tongue in cheek at times, and also pretty nonsensical. It shouldn't really work but somehow does.

Murder in the Orient (1974)

A basic but enjoyable martial arts romp.

During World War 2, Japanese soldiers buried millions of dollars worth of gold somewhere in the Philippines. They put the map to the treasure on two swords (of course!) Now in 1974 the powerful Golden Cobra gang have one of the swords and are hunting for the other...

One of the gang's thugs kills a girl who knows where the sword is (well obviously that helps), this involves Paul (Ron Marchini) and the girl's brother Lao Tsu (Leo Fong). Both of them are highly skilled in kung fu which is going to come in handy...

The plot doesn't really make a lot of sense and is pretty basic when it does, and the acting is pretty ropey... but who cares? No one watches films like this for the acting, they watch it for the action! The action isn't bad at all and the film has plenty of early 1970s cheese.

The Return of Mr. Moto (1965)

The Mr Moto character is bought back for this average crime B-movie, Henry Silva isn't bad in the role but he certainly isn't Peter Lorre.

Someone is blowing up oil wells in the Persian Gulf, and the friend of Moto (Silva) who is in the oil business is killed by a deranged ex-Nazi (Martin Wyldeck). Moto goes undercover (though his disguise is rather poor, but apparently enough to fool the foolish bad guys) to try and discover who is behind an audacious plan to control the world's oil supply...

A rather low-energy and cheap B-movie, it is a passable little film though can't be said to be that good. The story is slow and unexceptional that plods along without much urgency. 

Unfortunately this was it for the Mr Moto character on screen. One fun appearance is Antony Booth as a cowardly assassin.

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.