Laffing Gas (1914)

Charlie Chaplin as a dental assistant? Well you can probably guess what this slapstick comedy is like! Laffing Gas (also known as "Laughing Gas" in regions where spelling was more important) comes with Chaplin's career still in it's fairly early stages. The genius of his later comedies isn't quite there yet but this film isn't bad at all.

Of course it doesn't really have much of a story, being more a series of slapstick stunts. Some pretty violent too involving bricks and plenty of punching. It is what is it, there is no pretense at high art in a film like this. It was designed to make people laugh and forget their worries for at least a short time, and in 1914 that was just what people needed.

A Shriek in the Night (1933)

A competent but unremarkable Golden Age style murder mystery starring Ginger Rogers and Lyle Talbot as rival reporters trying to investigate (and get under the nose of detective Purnell Pratt) a series of murders in a swish Art Deco apartment block in New York.

Rogers and Talbot are in a will-they-won't-they relationship as well as rivals. I'm not sure they have that much chemistry between them though.

The mystery is decent enough and the film is enjoyable, the film takes a while to get going though the ending is pretty intense. The acting and camera work is a bit stilted though. The best thing about the film is Ginger Rogers who shines as you would expect with some perfect comic timing. The film is quite light hearted for a murder mystery though that was quite common in the early 1930s.

The Lucifer Complex (1978)

The world has apparently been destroyed in a great war in the 1980s, and a survivor (William Lanning) lives on a remote island with just snakes and a mainframe with all of humanity's knowledge for company. He narrates the film, recounting the events that led up to the present.

These involve a nefarious Nazi plot to revive the Third Reich with clones of world leaders. Robert Vaughn is a secret agent sent to uncover the plot and defeat the Nazis, who in most cases are the most laughable examples ever.

The film has problems, the main being the way the story is driven by the narrator which just lacks any energy or suspense. Action scenes cut to yet another shot of the narrator looking bored at a monitor. The film also takes quite an age to get going. It's not all bad, as a campy bit of sci-fi neo-nazi evil plan cinema it is quite passable.

The Mandarin Mystery (1936)

Eddie Quillan stars as Ellery Queen in this light-hearted and fast paced crime drama. The rarest stamp in the world (the Chinese Mandarin) has been bought to New York by Ms Temple (Charlotte Henry) but it is stolen before she can sell it to Dr Kirk (George Irving), a murder also takes place. Inspector Queen (Wade Boetler) and his cheeky amateur detective son Ellery are on the case...

Being a Golden Age type detective story it is fairly nonsense of course. Don't expect much reality in the police investigation which mostly involves rushing around a suite of hotel rooms and of course the amateur detective Ellery is allowed to control the investigation. However do expect some nice twists in the case and a few unexpected turns. The relationship between father and son Queen makes the film though. A total joy.

Curse of the Swamp Creature (1966)

Never mind what is the best film of all time, what is the worst film of all time? In Curse of the Swamp Creature we have a real contender. Its an utterly awful horror film involving a mad scientist (of course) played by John Agar who is conducting depraved experiments on the locals and feeding his failures to the alligators.

Meanwhile a team of oil prospectors have arrived in the area and get mixed up in his crazy experiments which culminates in creating a bizarre fish-man...

The film could be a cheesy delight of course but unfortunately it is executed very poorly. The acting is terrible, the budget is below low-budget (way below). The dialogue and sound effects seem to have been added post-production, unfortunately a lot of the sound effects are late or even missing. The monster is quite cool though, but looks more gormless than terrifying.