The Return of Chandu (Serial) (1934)

Princess Nadji of Egypt (Maria Alba) is in danger. A strange cult from the lost (or so people thought) island of Lemuria want the blood sacrifice of an Egyptian princess to help bring their goddess back to life and Nadji fits the bill perfectly. Nadji has some help though in the shape of Chandu (Bela Lugosi) master of the mystic arts of the Orient...

So begins this serial, which is highly entertaining yarn of Oriental mysticism (very popular in the 1930s) though maybe a bit slow compared to some serials. Nadji becomes possessed by the cult led by Vindhyan (Lucien Prival) and spirited away to Lemuria. 

The action switches to the Pacific where Chandu, his sister Dorothy (Clara Kimball Young), nephew Bob (Dean Benton) and niece Betty (Phyllis Ludwig) search for Nadji with the help of the the white Yogi (Josef Swickard) but are pitted against the Lemurian's slave army of natives. Can Nadji be saved and the dark cult defeated? Stay tuned next episode to find out...

A fun serial full of campy nonsense, as usual many of the sets and costumes are recycled from other productions. Including the doors from King Kong. A notable thing about the serial is that Bela Lugosi plays the hero for a change. The serial is vaguely a sequel to the 1932 film Chandu the Magician though Lugosi played the villain in that one!

Ator: the Fighting Eagle (1982)

For every Conan there were dozens are cheap rip-offs and here we have Ator, an Italian example and not bad at all if you take it for the nonsense it is. The Spider God rules cruelly over the land but prophecy says that the son of a hero called Ator will defeat the Spider God and his chief priest Dakkar. When that son is born the mysterious Griba (Edward Purdom) spirits him away before Dakkar's soldiers, who wear a lot of horns and unconvincing armour, can kill him.

Ator (Miles O'Keeffe) is given to a couple of peasants who raise him as their own son alongside their actual daughter Sunya (Ritza Brown). Ator, who somehow seems to have found a magic hairspray tree, falls in love with Sunya and wants to marry her despite thinking she is his sister (actually he doesn't think there is anything wrong with this). Luckily his parents reveal that they arn't brother and sister after all so incest outrage averted. Unfortunately Dakkar's troops kidnap Sunya (for some unexplained reason) on the wedding day...

Ator finds Griba who tells him his destiny to kill the Spider God. He meets up with a beautiful thief (in skimpy armour) Roon (Sabrina Siani) and they begin a quest across the land to finally achieve their destinies (in Roon's case to loot the Spider God's treasure)...

Despite the rather odd incest note and some ridiculous costumes the film holds together as a decent - if cheap - sword and sorcery film. Naturally the Spider God when he is finally revealed is ridiculous but you would be disappointed if he looked anything other than a cheap rubber prop lets face it.

A cute little bear cub is shown throughout the film, as it probably does the best acting in the film it holds the film together.

Alice in Wonderland (1915)

Another version of Lewis Carroll's famous story, we've reviewed the 1903 version before.

This one stars Viola Savoy as Alice and is a very charming (if sometimes a little creepy) little film that captures the fantasy of the story well. Some of the character costumes and effects are very well done indeed especially the Mock Turtle.

However the film is a bit disjointed though mostly because of lost footage. Being 1915 the film makers were still a bit hesitant to do that many close-ups.

The Thief of Bagdad (1940)

Gorgeous looking but frequently ridiculous Arabian adventure, filmed in Technicolor. Sultan Ahmed (John Justin) is convinced by his evil Grand Vizier (Conrad Veidt) to disguise himself as a poor man so he can know his people. Naturally the Vizier seizes the opportunity to take power and throw Ahmed in a dungeon. Ahmed escapes with the help of the young thief Abu (Sabu).

However the Vizier's evil is not yet over. Travelling to Basra with Abu, Ahmed falls in love with the Sultan's beautiful princess (June Duprez) whom the Vizier also has plans for having exchanged a flying horse to the Sultan for the daughter. When the princess refuses the Vizier in favour of Ahmed he uses evil magic to blind Ahmed and turns Abu into a dog...

The film looks amazing in Technicolor : blue mosques, purple cloaks, crimson palaces the works. The story is maybe a little nonsensical but that really is the point, this is a fairy tale fantasy and one of the best.

The Giant Gila Monster (1959)

Very low budget monster and rock & roll thrills. Deep in Texas a giant monster (which just happens to look like a normal lizard - but scaled up) has gone on a rampage. Killing kids who just want to make out in their souped up hotrods and drink coke.

Local mechanic Chase (Don Sullivan) and his French girlfriend Lisa (Lisa Simone) know that something is amiss but the authorities don't realise what is going on until the monster attacks a train. The monster then heads to town where the youth have gathered for some rock & roll, can Chase save the day with a car load of nitroglycerin?

Although a cult classic, this is a pretty awful film all in all. The "monster" is just a lizard attacking models and with the camera zoomed in close to make it look large (and not always succeeding). It is great fun though, largely because it is such nonsense.

The Flying Serpent (1946)

The Flying Serpent is a typical low-budget monster thriller, with some of the best acting by the ridiculous looking "beast". George Zucco is mad archaeologist Dr Forbes who has discovered the secret Aztec treasure and what's more has also discovered the flying serpent god Quetzalcoatl who was guarding the treasure and now does Forbes' bidding.

Forbes sets Quetzalcoatl off to kill his "friend" Dr Lambert (James Metcalf) when he angers him. Richard Thorpe (Ralph Lewis) is a mystery writer working as a radio investigator who arrives in town to investigate the murder of Lambert. Forbes decides to set his flying serpent god to kill Thorpe too... He survives that attack but is joined by Forbes' step-daughter Mary (Hope Kramer) to try and find out exactly what is going on.

So far so good (if not that original a story). Naturally the Quetzalcoatl looks ridiculous, in the start of the film it is kept in the shadows and to be honest the film would have been better off if the monster had been kept that way. However the attacks of the Quetzalcoatl are genuinely scary. Zucco also plays a good role.

The Lost World (1925)

The Lost World is based in Arthur Conan Doyle's famous novel about a "lost world" with surviving dinosaurs and other amazing beasts on a plateau in South America. Paula White (Bessie Love) brings the journal of her father Maple to London, in the journal are descriptions and drawings of beasts thought long extinct. The scientific community are sceptical naturally but Paula launches an expedition to the plateau with Professor Challenger (Wallace Beery) and a motley crew of other explorers.

When they reach the plateau they find Maple White was right, there is a lost world of dinosaurs and giant apes. Naturally there are plenty of dangers for our humans to survive including a giant apeman and a volcanic eruption. Plus a bit of a love triangle with Paula, Ed Malone (Lloyd Hughes) and Sir John Roxton (Lewis Stone) - probably better places for that kind of thing to be honest when there are Allosauruses feasting on Pteranodons in the background. An entertaining film with good stop-motion special effects, especially for the day.

On a historical note, this was the very first film to be shown on an airliner during a flight (Imperial Airways).

Gorgo (1961)

A huge monster is released by a volcano and proceeds to destroy a major city. No this isn't a Godzilla film but something very like it...

Gorgo actually isn't the monster who unleashes mega mayhem, although a dinosaur like beast twenty metres tall he is driven off by Irish villagers and eventually captured by Bill Travers and put in a circus in London.

Unfortunately for London Gorgo's much bigger mum comes looking for her son, shrugs off the best efforts of the Royal Navy and British Army and destroys half of London while looking for Gorgo. Never get between a mother and her child, especially when the mother is a sixty metre tall armour plated killing machine.

If you like seeing someone in a rubber suit destroy a model city then this isn't bad at all. A pretty decent example of the monster genre. The human actors are rather forgettable but Gorgo and his mum are terrific.

Alice in Wonderland (1903)

Lewis Carroll's classic story has been made into a film many times but this is the first and is a very impressive piece of early cinema, restored by the BFI. Starring May Clark as Alice, she follows a large rabbit down a rabbit hole and... well I'm sure everyone knows the story.

The use of special effects, especially when Alice shrinks and grows to full size again is very impressive. It was, at the time in 1903, the longest film yet made in the UK.

The film has a real charm about it (especially the army of children as playing cards), portraying the somewhat trippy tale with the right amount of dreaminess.

Repeat Performance (1947)

Repeat Performance is a late 1940s Noir with elements of fantasy. It stars Joan Leslie as actress Sheila who at the start of the film is standing over the dead body of her husband (Louis Hayward) holding a gun.

It is New Years Eve and Sheila is distraught, at the stroke of midnight she wishes the dark turn of events that led to the death of her husband could not have taken place and she could re-run the year. Her wish comes true.

Once she realises what happens she tries to change the events that led to her husband's death but finds that some things are just fated to happen. The film is melodramatic and has an appealing inevitability about events with some terrific performances from Leslie and Hayward.

The Final Programme (1973)

A very strange early 1970s British science-fiction film, oh based on a Michael Moorcock novel you say? Enough said!

The Final Programme stars Jon Finch as Jerry Cornelius - a playboy genius scientist in a velvet suit who drives an old Rolls Royce around with various pills littering the passenger seat and a special holder for his bottle of scotch. He is therefore the hero the world has been looking for.

In a world that seems to be falling apart (though little explanation is given as to why) Cornelius is looking for microfilm of the final programme - written by his father - which is the design for the next stage of humanity. The new Messiah to take the world forward?

Well its very much of the Age of Aquarius for sure. Most of the film makes little sense (unless you are high perhaps) but is so strange and so cool you don't really mind. What a long strange trip it is. The scene where nuns are playing slot machines for example and the room full of brains in tanks. Mind bending.