Zeppelin (1971)

Early in the First World War the Germans unleashed a new war machine, the zeppelin. For the first time the British population in their homes were under attack (well apart from the inhabitants of coastal towns who received the odd bombardment from German warships in fact). Michael York is a British officer with German heritage sent to find out more about the zeppelin threat.

The Germans however think he is one of theirs and his knowledge of Scotland is just what they need for their cunning plan to win the war... to land at a Scottish castle and destroy the Magna Carta!

Although historic accuracy may have been jettisoned like a zeppelin jettisoning ballast it is a very intriguing and enjoyable film. Airships have always had an aura about them, large majestic castles of the sky... and packed full of bags of highly flammable gas.

The German plan is quite frankly nonsense but it is a thrilling operation all the same. The raid and the following air battle are excellent action scenes. It is also good to see that the German officers involved were allowed to show courage and honour and not just be one-dimensional evil bad guys. The special effects, especially of the zeppelin, are reasonable. The zeppelin is the star of the film for sure.

Marilyn (1953)

Marilyn is a frustrated, but also self-centred, young woman (Sandra Dorne) married to a bad tempered, rather unpleasant and jealous older man (Leslie Dwyer). She falls for a young man (Maxwell Reed) employed by her husband. You can probably guess what is going to happen...

It is a fascinating view of Britain in the early 1950s, still recovering from the war. A drab world but with a yearning for something more, something more exciting behind the drudgery.

The film is nice enough as British Noir though everything is laid on a bit too thickly. It might be better if the actors employed a bit of subtlety at times. The film does have an interesting mixture of characters, just not always acted that well especially Ferdy Mayne's oily spiv. The only one you can feel sympathy for though is Vida Hope as Rosie, Marilyn's maid who is obviously hopelessly in love with her selfish boss.

Anything to Declare? (1938)

Anything to Declare? is a rather clunky espionage film. Captain Grant (John Loder) is an intelligence agent following peace campaigner Dr Klee (Noel Madison) who has shown a great deal of interest in an anti-gas formula.

Dr Klee, who has an amusingly over-the-top "foreign" accent, is up to no good for sure. He has the rather naive daughter (Belle Chrystall) of the British scientist working on the formula in his sights.

Well it all sounds like it could be pretty good but in reality the film is rather ridiculous and cheaply made. At times it's more like pantomime than high drama. Captain Grant gets beaten up by the bad guys with great regularity - the bad guys are so overtly sinister you wonder how anyone couldn't suspect them! However if you accept the film for what it is, a sometimes unintentionally hilarious espionage romp, then you'll find this film great fun. Just don't expect LeCarre or even Bond. I do wonder though if the vocal coach later worked on Allo Allo...

Fruit Punch (1992)

There are many things in this world I thought I would never get to see. Like world peace. A cure to all disease. A greener future. Fans of Big Brother not getting totally carried away...

But top of all those must be two clean-cut squeaky clean icons of cantopop such as Leon Lai and Vivian Chow getting steamy with each other. Come on, Elvis being found alive behind the counter at a Bradford chippy is more likely surely? But no! This is the film to see Leon and Vivian snog! Incredible!

So what is this but one of those happy HK idol films. The recipe for which is very familiar: grab a load of current pop idols (and in 1992 this was Leon Lai, Vivian Chow, Hacken Lee and Grasshopper), give them a script about young people trying to find their way in the world and how to find love. And stir.

So five guys (and typical stereotype HK guys you'll only ever find in these kinds of films - carefree and funny and somehow are able to live despite no visible income) go into business together... but fail of course.

Hacken steals the show with his shy guy who stutters all the time, but still lands the cute chick. So there is hope for all of us stutterers everywhere. Leon fools around with Vivian but his carefree attitude leaves their relationship on the edge all the time...

Oh well you know it ends up happily in the end after some minor peril involving one of the main characters. Enjoyable fluff just nothing that hasn't been made many times before.

Play Catch (1983)

Play Catch is a gem of the early 1980s, a good old HK slapstick comedy with the right formula of comedy, action and general entertainment HK cinema cracked so often back then. Of course it also has a totally incomprehensible plot. 

Alan Tam plays an illegal immigrant looking for his father, he comes across a crook who smuggles in illegal immigrants played by our hero Eric Tsang who thinks Alan can pretend to be a Triad boss' son (naturally). That Triad boss is being investigated by Olivia Cheng who plays a reporter who unknowingly is carrying a tape recorded by an ICAC investigator (now dead) in which the Triad boss incriminates himself in wanting to kill a judge. Still with me?

And so follows a frantic race against time as the crooks chase the tape, then the girl. And with the police unwilling to help the heroic trio decide to save the judge themselves... unfortunately he's at the circus. Yes really.

Hilarious HK fun, like it used to be.