The Great Air Mystery (Serial) (1935)

A superb follow-up serial continuing the adventures of daredevil aviator Tailspin Tommy.

Tommy (Clarke Williams) and Skeeter (Noah Beery Jr) head to Nazil in Latin America to help Betty Lou (Jean Rogers) and Inez Casmetto (Delphine Drew) with the setting up of infrastructure for oil extraction in country. 

However, Inez's father Manuel (Herbert Heywood) and Raymore (Matthew Betz) are two unscrupulous businessmen who want that oil wealth for themselves and concoct a series of schemes to stop Tommy and Skeeter with the help of his rogue squadron of fighters. Luckily, a mysterious aviator in a condor painted plane is often on hand to help Tommy out.

This is a great serial with a lot of amazing aerial stunts (including a crashing airship in episode 1). The serial is based on a comic strip (indeed the original Tailspin Tommy serial from 1934 was the first serial to be based on a comic strip. 

Howard the Duck (1986)

This is either something completely awful or a work of genius (twisted admittedly).

Howard (voiced by Chip Zien) is just an average duck on a world of ducks but then he is bought to a world of humans (Earth!) when a science experiment by Dr Jenning (Jeffrey Jones) goes wrong. Howard is trapped in a strange land, the only friend he has is Beverly (Lea Thompson), the singer in a failing rock band. 

With the help of Beverly and her friend Phil (Tim Robbins), Howard tries to find a way to get home but that might be the least of his troubles when the experiment goes wrong again and unleashes an extraterrestrial evil on the world...

This is a really crazy film, the star being a sarcastic anthropomorphic duck! The special effects, especially Howard's puppetry and suit work, are pretty decent and the film has some good action set pieces including a microlight chase, some good sassy humour, and even a human-duck sex scene! Once you reassure yourself that you are really seeing such a film and not having an acid trip then there is much here to enjoy, and occasionally cringe over. 

Spy Smasher (Serial) (1942)

Spy Smasher battles a Nazi spy in this wartime action serial adaptation of a comic book character.

Alan Armstrong (Kane Richmond) has a costumed alter-ego known as Spy Smasher, he is well named indeed as his job is to battle Nazi spies who have come across to America to cause mayhem. 

The spies are led by The Mask (Hans Schumm) who uses a U-boat as his secret base and puts Spy Smasher in peril by the end of every episode, check out next week to see how he escapes!

This is one of the better action serials with some good perils and good use of stock footage.

Mandrake, the Magician (Serial) (1939)

An enjoyable comic book adaptation about a magician who fights crimes with his side kick (Al Kikume), kind of like Batman in a top hat.

Mandrake (Warren Hull) is on an ocean liner doing card tricks, and trying to avoid being shot by random hoodlums. Meanwhile, Professor Houston (Forbes Murray) is perfecting his new radium ray cannon but the technology is wanted by the maniacal villain The Wasp. Houston is kidnapped by The Wasp's henchmen. 

Can Mandrake and Houston's daughter Betty (Doris Weston) save the day in a series of death defying cliff hangers?

This is marvellously pulpy tosh though very entertaining all the same. It has all the ingredients for a decent 1930s serial and works very well overall though will get a bit a repetitive in the end as these serials tend to do. Great fun and The Wasp is a piece of genius.

Jane and the Lost City (1987)

An adaptation of a wartime comic strip about Jane who... loses her clothes a lot. Happily that tradition continues in this film which is completely puerile and silly but that is exactly how it should be to be honest. 

With the war ongoing, both the British and Germans are in need of money, Luckily there is a fortune in diamonds to be found in a lost city of Africa. Evil Nazi agent Lola Pagola (Maud Adams) and her bumbling assassin Heinrich (Jasper Carrott) are sent to Africa, the British send The Colonel (Robin Bailey), his servant Tombs (Graham Stark) and Jane (Kirsten Hughes)...

The British leg of the expedition gets off to a bad start when their plane crashes due to Nazi scheming, but they are rescued by the hunky American Jungle Jack (Sam Jones). He claims expert knowledge of the African bush though this often seems a bit suspect. When they finally find the Lost City it is ruled by the Leopard Queen (Elsa O'Toole) who is more a bit of a Sloane Queen and longs to get back to Blighty, ok ya?! 

The film is complete farce, overall not the funniest of films but as an adaptation of a comic strip it works really well and it has it's moments. The cast let the film down a bit with some indifferent performances, if the film had been made by the Carry On team - for example - it would have been hilarious. As it is, its perfectly passable.

Penny and the Pownall Case (1948)

A bright and breezy little crime yarn, based on the 1940s comic strip Jane. Penny (Peggy Evans) is a young model who is drawn by artist Blair (Christopher Lee) in a slightly racy strip. However, the comic strip is really a way for Blair to communicate with his fellow Nazis seeking to escape capture by the British.

Penny discovers the name of a murdered agent by her room mate and police secretary Molly (Diana Dors) and then finds the name has something to do with Blair. She goes with Blair to Spain, also there though is the police in the form of Carson (Ralph Michael) who is hunting for Nazi fugitives...

A light story, it moves along apace and has a straight forward plot. Penny spends most of the film changing her clothes, including quite a lot of screen time in her underwear. The film is short but not without interest, early roles for Dors and Lee (his first screen appearance as a villain).

Tintin and the Blue Oranges (1964)

There have been a number of Tintin movie adaptations, the most well known being animations but this was the second of two live-action Tintin movies made in the 1960s starring Jean-Pierre Talbot as the young reporter. In this original story Professor Calculus (Felix Fernandez) wants to end world hunger. He is sent a blue orange from a fellow scientist Zalamea (Angel Alvarez) but this is stolen by thieves.

Tintin, Captain Haddock (Jean Bouise) and Calculus head to Spain to see Zalamea. Calculus is kidnapped to help Zalamea perfect the blue oranges by an Emir who wants the invention for himself...

It is a light film, fairly fun though sometimes a bit slow. The film includes a little too much silliness and gags which often don't quite work. What does make the film at least a bit enjoyable though are the main characters, Tintin and Haddock really do look like they have come to life from the pages of a comic book. Overall though it is a bit dull which is a bit of a shame considering how great the comics are.

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.

Sky Patrol (1939)

More high flying antics with Tailspin Tommy (John Trent). Tommy is training new pilots for the sky patrol, one of the pilots being Colonel Meade (Boyd Irwin)'s son Carter (Jackie Coogan) who has a phobia of firing guns but despite that is passed for service...

Sky patrol is looking for smugglers. Carter comes across a mysterious plane which shoots him down and he is captured by the smuggling gang who are illegally gun running. Tommy and Skeeter (Milburn Stone) seek to rescue him and stop the smugglers.

A fairly straight forward action film, the plot is simple but doesn't get in the way of good old fashioned heroism and daring. A good adaptation of a comic strip with some neat flying sequences.

Dick Tracy's Dilemma (1947)

Superior comic book adaptation as Dick Tracy battles The Claw...

The Claw (Jack Lambert), a criminal with a hook, has stolen some furs. However Dick Tracy (Ralph Byrd) knows that he is just a violent murderous thug so someone else must be the mastermind of the robbery. So begins a complicated case for the super detective assisted (in theory) by Pat Patton (Lyle Latell), Tess Trueheart (Kay Christopher) and over-the-top thespian Vitamin Flintheart (Ian Keith).

It is all very pulpy and trashy but that is the point. The Claw steals the show with his sinister super villain act. At times quite noirish.

Danger Flight (1939)

Tailspin Tommy (John Trent) is a comic book aviator hero and he is bought to life pretty well in this movie.

Tommy is an amazing pilot and a totally fearless hero (of course) who thinks nothing of taking off his plane in a storm to take supplies to trapped workers. When he can't land he (naturally) sacrifices his only parachute to drop the supplies...

Tommy is also targeted by criminals who try and trap him when he is taking a payroll cargo. In between various flying adventures he also befriends a troubled youth (Tommy Baker) and manages to make him a model citizen.

It is a bit obvious and lacks much in the way of shade but is a good fun adventure film.

Dick Tracy (1945)

Superb pulpy noir detective thrills. Dick Tracy was originally a comic strip of course and has been translated into a fast paced romp here. Morgan Conway plays Tracy as he should be: bold, intelligent and tough. Anne Jeffreys plays Tess Trueheart his long suffering girlfriend.

In this case a maniac known as Splitface (Mike Mazurki) is killing random victims who don't pay his extortion demands. It's a difficult case with multiple suspects though Tracy's detection skills usually involving chasing people around.

The film is made with a good deal of camp, swagger and humour, including when Tracy supposedly goes to a club incognito but everyone knows who he is anyway!