The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970)

A stylish though somewhat baffling film. Pelham (Roger Moore) is the typical city slicker with his bowler hat and umbrella. He nearly dies in a car accident caused after he becomes possessed while on the M4 (quite understandable). When he returns to work he begins to notice strange happenings, people say they have met him but he can't remember...

He even seems to have gained a mistress (Olga Georges-Picot) but has no recollection. His wife Eve (Hildegard Neil) doesn't really buy that excuse naturally. Pelham realises there is an impostor who is impersonating him...

Does he have a doppelganger or is it all a figment of his imagination? The film is wonderfully tense and Roger Moore puts in one of his best performances (or rather two performances as the two Pelhams have radically different characters). The psychedelic ending probably asks more questions than it answers!

Crashing Through Danger (1936)

A drama and love triangle involving electric company linemen. Truly there was no subject untouched in the 1930s. Torchy (Ray Walker), Slim (Guinn Williams) and Eddie (James Bush) are three happy-go-lucky lads who work on the electric company power lines, fool about and chase after dames. Their supervisor Pop (Robert Homans) forever reprimanding them... though always with a tear in his eye.

Unfortunately on Pop's final day he is killed due to negligence by the trio. They decide to look after his daughter Ann (Sally Blane) though soon they all have the hots for her and the love rivalry splits up their friendship. Though when a storm strikes and the power to the hospital is in danger of being disrupted will they pull together again?

It is a pretty familiar plot if we are to be honest, the only novelty being the guys are electric linemen and not some other profession. Competent if not spectacular, one could say it might lack a bit of spark...

The Best Pair of Legs in the Business (1973)

A strange film but one with heart. One of the most 70s films you'll ever see too.

Reg Varney is Sherry, an entertainer at a dingy holiday camp. Sherry has delusions of once being a big name, even meeting the Queen. Though his wife Mary (Diana Coupland) knows the truth and that he is grinding out a living at the end of his career. She has had enough of him and his delusions and is getting ready to shack up with Charlie (Lee Montague).

Sherry's life begins to fall apart as he embarrasses himself and his son (Michael Hadley) in front of his future in-laws. When he finds out Mary is leaving him he has a meltdown and the end is in sight...

Perhaps against expectations the film is wonderful, capturing the shambles and grim sadness of Britain in the 1970s more than most films. Appearances by young Johnny Briggs, Jane Seymour and George Sweeney who would one day be very well known also entertain.

Paradise Island (1930)

A rather dated and uninspiring early talkie. Ellen (Marceline Day) arrives in Tonga to get married but finds her husband (Roy Armstrong) to be is a hopeless drunk. As Ellen is the only white woman on the island she soon finds herself the centre of attention from a number of men...

They include Dutch Mike (Tom Santschi), whom Ellen soon finds cannot be trusted, and adventure seeker Jim (Kenneth Harlan). Ellen finds herself to be the prize in a poker game between Dutch Mike and Jim but Dutch Mike has marked cards...

It is light froth which ends in a largely clumsy fight (more like a shapeless brawl) and has a few songs along the way. The film is OK but rather dumb.

Girls Without Tomorrow (1992)

Another hard tale of life as a prostitute in HK. The lives of three of them, a mamasan and her daughter, now a film star, intertwine as the prostitutes get into various troubles, and the mamasan is shunned by her daughter who in turn has to whore herself on the good old casting couch... As you might expect with a HK film from this era it isn't subtle.

The troubles of the girls are myriad, one girl Carina Lau has the problem of not being able to drink anymore and ends up having to leave the hostess job she was highly successful in. She ends up as a jobbing prostitute and is paid to take a very young looking Ekin Cheung's (in his first film) virginity... and of course he falls in love with her...

The film is actually very good, though sometimes a bit confusing with so much going on and the story switching rapidly between the various sub-plots. There is everything here that makes a great HK film: drama, action, humour and a heap of star power. It all comes together with a very powerful funeral scene.

For Ladies Only (1981)

John (Gregory Harrison) is a budding young actor with big dreams when he arrives in New York, dreams that prove very difficult to make a reality. As his career fails to get going he meets Stan (Marc Singer) who tells him there is a lot of money to be made taking your clothes off...

John thus joins Stan at ClubMax and becomes a smash hit stripping for women. He quickly eclipses Stan whose drug habit is taking him downhill fast. However his fame as a stripper is in danger of killing off his lingering hopes of becoming an actor...

A familiar story though in an unusual setting. It also has some interesting depth too, often films about strippers are an exercise in cheese and while the shows are outrageously over the top the acting performances really shine through.

To Live (1994)

The Cultural Revolution, one of the most terrible and bloody periods in history, is recalled in all this horror in this masterpiece starring You Ge and Gong Li. They are a couple who start off quite wealthy but lose everything due to You Ge's gambling as China is shattered by military conquest and then civil war. Reduced to the status of peasants they have to fight to survive, to live, in Mao's China.

The couple and their childrens' lives and experiences are used to show how China changed under Mao, with communist propaganda affecting everyday life, collectivisation and later the chaos of the Cultural Revolution. This final act results (in a round about way) in tragedy...

Great events are sometimes best told through the eyes of normal people at the bottom of society as is the case with this film. Sometimes you wonder how people can survive such hardships, to live. These people did.

Extravagance (1930)

Alice (June Collyer) is spoilt, her mother flogs herself to the bone to give Alice everything she wants. When she marries Fred (Lloyd Hughes) she expects things will continue as they have been but Fred's business is struggling and he can't afford to buy her the sable coat she desires. While he is slogging his guts out she is partying all night and leaving him with a pile of bills...

Alice finds a way to raise some money, she meets a sleazy stockbroker called Morrell (Jameson Thomas) who'll help her get money though there is a price to pay. You know what that is.

It is an early talkie and suffers from some awkward dialogue. The overt adultery and greed in this pre-code film is fascinating though ultimately the film is a bit too silly especially the melodramatic ending. Morrell is a great bad guy though.

Money Means Nothing (1934)

Rich girl meets poor guy, they fall in love and then the rich girl tries to adapt to her new, less affluent, life.

So that is the basic premise of this film, Julie (Gloria Shea) is a rich and spoilt Manhattan girl who is obviously looking for a bit of rough trade. She meets Kenny (Wallace Ford) in a run-down but trendy dive after some escapes with criminals. Kenny and Julie finally fall in love and Julie decides to marry him despite opposition from her family.

Julie settles into her new life of poverty in Brooklyn believing that love will solve everything and that money means nothing. Tyre salesman Kenny is not so sure and some dark events threaten to break their lives apart...

So the plot isn't any special but this is a well meaning little film with a decent supporting cast including Edgar Kennedy and Maidel Turner though some of the attempts at comedy don't always hit the mark.

Uptown New York (1932)

The old love triangle. Max (Leon Ames) and Pat (Shirley Grey) are a young couple in love, but Max's parents have other ideas for him and marry him off to a rich woman and send him off to Europe to study. While he is away Pat meets Eddie (Jack Oakie) a boisterous vending machine operator. The manner of their meeting is unusual though as Pat is stuck in a restaurant toilet and Eddie has to get her out through the window!

They begin an edgy relationship but when Max returns to New York things get complicated in Pat's life. Max wants her as his mistress though Pat stays with Eddie despite it not being the smoothest of rides...

Its a charming film and enjoyable with some snappy dialogue especially from Oakie. The first half of the film is probably the best, things do turn a bit melodramatic later on. Its quite a familiar story: the girl turn between two lovers, one rich and one poor. Good performances, especially from Oakie who switches from brash wise guy to sensitive soul, help elevate the film.

The Trap (1922)

Also known as "Heart of a Wolf", this film stars Lon Chaney as Gaspard, a happy go lucky if rather simple minded miner in Quebec with an idyllic family life with his girl Thalie (Dagmar Godowsky). However things soon go wrong when Benson (Alan Hale) arrives on the scene. He ends up stealing Gaspard's mine and his woman!

Gaspard, his life crushed, spends several years in a dark depression. In that time karma seems to have bit back at Benson and Thalie hard who are both on the downward curve. The mine is struggling and her health is failing fast. Lon, meanwhile, now has a heart set on revenge instead of happiness...

Its rather formulaic and melodramatic and Chaney overplays Gaspard's character somewhat with his famous facial expressions but this is a decent enough film. Somewhat improbable but undeniably compelling.

The Road to Ruin (1934)

A rather unsubtle but engaging morality play. Ann (Helen Foster) is a good college girl devoted to her studies and parents. However she is befriended by Eve (Nell O'Day) who has a rather looser attitude to life. Ann starts to drink, smoke and has awkward sex with Tommy (Glen Boles)...

Well its a slippery slope of course. Its not long before Ann and Eve are drunks, drug addicts and Ann is sleeping around with a bad older man (Paul Page). There is worse to come for poor Ann...

Luckily this film is more sincere than an exploitation film though does take time to get going. There is a sad inevitability about innocent Ann's downfall. Its a story as old as the hills: it always ends up being the girl's fault.

Up the Junction (1968)

Bored rich girl Polly (Suzy Kendall) heads into the poorer areas of London to look for some rough trade. Grim reality and great rock and roll from Manfred Mann ensue.

Really this is a way of exploring social issues prevalent in late 1960s Britain. The real story grittier stories behind Swinging London. That included industrial unrest, domestic violence, politicial protests and back street abortions. Suzy tries to recreate the working class realism she craves with Dennis Waterman though it's only a facade she can build. A fake working class life. She can leave it if things get too tough, something her new friends cannot do...

It is a wonderful period piece. At times it can be quite a dreary film but that's because it doesn't try and sanitise the 1960s as some films have tried.

Gigolo & Whore (1991)

Gigolo & Whore is a pretty low rent HK sleeze romp starring Simon Yam, Carina Lau and Alex Fong. It is also pretty fantastic.

Carina is a mainlander who has come to HK for her fortune, and seems to think the best way to do this is lying on her back. She comes to this conclusion after she meets Simon, HK gigolo par excellence, and her lunatic cousin who is already a "chicken" or prostitute. So Simon teaches Carina how to sell sex... the only snag being she's fallen in love with him.

Alex Fong, meanwhile, is depressed and Carina is called upon to wake him from his depression. This she does... but Alex falls in love with her. Then Simon realises he is in love with Carina after all. Yay!

So the story line is utter drivel. But why is this such a watchable film? For the late 1980s / early 1990s HK excess! This is a film of fast cars, booze, opportunity, sleaze and depravity. Its nostalgia for a time when you could arrive in HK with nothing and in a short time be drinking incredibly expensive brandy out of women's shoes. Which naturally happened a lot.

Whispering Footsteps (1943)

Marcus Bourne (John Hubbard) is a bank clerk who returns from vacation to find that he has a startling resemblance to a murderer in a neighbouring town.

More murders occur and Marcus finds himself under suspicion from the police (Cy Kendall) and his fellow boarders. Though is given alibis by women who fancy him (which seems to be all of them).

The story is a bit plodding and basic with plenty of annoying and somewhat one-dimensional characters including Rose (Juanita Quigley) who screams at the slightest scare, Sally (Marie Blake) as a lonely librarian, Harry Hammond (Charles Halton) as a cardboard but lecherous bank manager and overtly horny Helene (Joan Blair).

Although a crime story the film is more about small town gossip and prejudice. It has some nice noirish touches though overall is somewhat rushed.

By Appointment Only (1933)

A reasonable if ultimately uninteresting film and certainly one that couldn't be made today as it features an older man flirting with a thirteen year old girl!

Dr Travers (Lew Cody) is a suave and cocky doctor who feels guilty after he couldn't save one of his patients who died in his surgery. He makes the young daughter of the deceased woman, Judy (Sally O'Neal) his ward, not that his fiancee (Aileen Pringle) is that impressed...

Judy matures into an attractive young woman by the time she is eighteen (not that the Doctor seemed unattracted to her beforehand, the fact he liked her to call her uncle adds to the slight creepiness). His fiancee by now is really pissed off. Luckily there is a more reasonable suitor who is Judy's own age but we do get a bit of a four sided love triangle.

However all of this sounds far worse in text than it is onscreen, this isn't Lolita by any means. Instead it's a fairly average light hearted romantic drama. It could have been more but it is what it is.

Betsy Ross (1917)

A film about Betsy Ross (Alice Brady) who was the woman who made the first American flag.

This is a charming though not exactly enthralling little period piece about her life from strict religious upbringing to chasing after a British officer (Frank Mayo). However before she can marry him her beau is struck down in a duel with her sister Carissa's (Lillian Cook) husband.

Later she is commissioned to create the flag by Washington (George MacQuarrie) but there is some trouble with her brother-in-law but everything ends up well in the end and they all go home happily for tea. The film is a bit light if we're going to be honest, but improves as time goes on. It all looks pretty lovely.

King of the Newsboys (1938)

Jerry Flynn (Lew Ayres) is a happy-go-lucky guy living in the poor part of town and with the hots for Mary (Helen Mack). Jerry has no real prospects and in the end Mary's head gets turned by a gangster (Victor Varconi) and she gets a taste for the good things in life...

To prove Mary wrong that he'll never make anything of himself Jerry starts up a newspaper distribution business and thanks to some sharp business ideas he is soon the biggest name in town. Despite both being successes neither are really happy especially when they meet again at the races. When Flynn expands his business to move in on Mary's new squeeze's territory things start getting tricky...

A fast paced and sometimes light-hearted drama. The story is quite far fetched but enjoyable. Alison Skipworth plays a nice role as Jerry's foster mother.