Capone (1975)

Well as you can imagine a biopic of Al Capone and the Chicago gangster scene in the 1920s is not for the faint hearted, indeed this film can best be described as violence and more violence. Capone is played by Ben Gazzara and we don't see much at all of his early life but rather how he gets involved with Johnny Torrio (Harry Guardino) then a trusted lieutenant of the Italian mafia boss in Chicago.

Capone helped Johnny take over the mob and then assists Johnny in making it big during the Prohibition years. Eventually amid open warfare with rival gangs Al Capone has Johnny (nearly) killed and takes over the mob himself. The story of the film is never trust your lieutenant as he will take over from you in the end, as happens to Capone himself when he is betrayed by Frank Nitti (Sylvester Stallone) and he ends up in Alcatraz...

Well the film is pretty low-budget and it shows at times but it is undeniably thrilling. If only we could see a bit more about Capone's early life and his motivations. That might mean cutting out some of action scenes of course. It is a biopic though not very accurate, a true depiction of Capone's life would probably require a series of films to be honest but this can give you a taste.

Her Private Affair (1929)

This is one of the transitional films from silent to talkies, and shares the flaws of many early talkies... in that there is a little too much talking. The actors still performed in the way they were used to in silent movies (i.e. a little too energetically) yet scenes are static as they had to stay close to the microphone. The dialogue is also a bit stilted and frequently awkward. Still for all that it is an interesting film even if at times it is more like a stage play.

Ann Harding plays the wife of a respected judge (Harry Bannister) who is being blackmailed by a gigolo (Lawford Davidson) who seems to have made a career out of seducing rich women and sucking them dry of cash. She accidentally kills the blackmailer when he forces himself on her...

It really isn't very good, the gigolo and his crazy friend/butler are especially strange roles ansd the story is a bit cliched. However talkies had to start somewhere. The film still has value but mostly for historical reasons.

Corruption (1933)

Preston Foster plays Tim Butler, elected to mayor on a promise of cleaning up the city. The party led by Regan (Warner Richmond) get a bit put out when they discover that Butler was true to his word about exposing graft especially as some of the party supporters are in the firing line.

Butler is first framed with a prostitute and then apparently is guilty of killing Regan, though no bullet is found. A corrupt judge puts him away anyway. Butler is exonerated with the help of his secretary Ellen (Evelyn Knapp) after more corrupt figures are gunned down by a scientist called Volkov (Mischa Auer) with ice bullets.

Low budget and breezy but an entertaining film. There isn't a huge amount of depth, the corruption and the reaction to it being painted rather too broadly but Foster and Knapp make a nice pairing.

Theodore Rex (1995)

She's a cop! He's a... dinosaur!? This is a rather strange buddy cop movie starring Whoopi Goldberg... though one she tried to get out and had to be taken to court. It obviously doesn't show.

The film is set in a future where humans and human-sized dinosaurs co-exist. The film does genuinely look great, the world building and visuals are very well done. The film's problems are in the acting and story departments. Whoopi obviously doesn't want to be there and does the film on autopilot, most of the other actors do little better and without the excuse of a lawsuit hanging over them.

The story makes little sense but involves a mad billionaire who wants to wipe out mankind (natch). Whoopi and her tyrannosaur partner Theodore Rex (George Newbern) are hunting for someone who is killing off dinosaurs and it eventually leads to the big conspiracy...

So the film is awful but hilarious (usually unintentionally) and very worth watching, at least once. In the list of films so-bad-they-are-good this has to rate highly (or is that lowly?)

The Killings at Outpost Zeta (1980)

Although low-budget and frequently fairly shoddy The Killings at Outpost Zeta has some interesting ideas (though fairly similar to films like Alien) and some genuine suspense.

An elite team (including Gordon De Vol and Jacqueline Rey) is sent to a distant planet to find out what has happened to two earlier expeditions which are missing presumed lost. Once on Zeta the team discover a load of horrifically decomposing corpses and the team then start getting bumped off by a mysterious alien creature...

It is quite silly, and the sets look made out of tin and cardboard but it isn't that bad a film. One interesting aspect of the film is the acting, the actors frequently pause awkwardly and mess up their dialogue. Oddly the effect is quite realistic.