Piccadilly (1929)

Piccadilly is a silent movie classic, set in the stylish world of London night clubs in the late Jazz Age. Wilmot (Jameson Thomas) has a successful restaurant and night club at Piccadilly Circus with a star attraction of dance partners Vic (Cyril Ritchard) and Mable (Gilda Grey).

When Vic quits after disagreements with Wilmot and Mable the club hits trouble, then Wilmot finds in the kitchen the Chinese dishwasher Shosho (Anna May Wong) and falls for her exotic (though quite frankly a bit ridiculous) "oriental" dancing. Shosho becomes the club's new hit dance act but trouble comes when Wilmot falls in love with her, which is a problem for Shosho's lover Jim (King Ho Chang)...

It is stylish nonsense, Wong's "oriental style" dancing is ridiculously stereotyped but her charisma conquers the screen. The film has gorgeous cinematography. A late silent movie, soon talkies would take over but this film really showed what could be done.

Curtain at Eight (1933)

An average murder mystery, average in acting for sure though a chimpanzee and Natalie Moorhead in a brief role do quite well. Paul Cavanagh plays a theatre idol with as many enemies and debts as mistresses (and there seem to be a lot of those). Thus when he killed there are many possible suspects.

Especially as he was killed during a party when the lights were taken out. The investigation is handled by two detectives who have amusingly opposite characters: Aubury Smith plays an elderly laid back and thoughtful role and Sam Hardy is brash and frequently foolhardy.

It isn't a bad film once it gets started but it takes the first half of the film to get started. As a setting for a murder mystery a theatre with all its nooks and crannies is a good one. An interesting point in the film is where one of the characters calls another one "Hitler" as a mild/jokey insult. Of course this was 1933...

Ghost Ship (1952)

A young couple (Dermot Walsh and Hazel Court) buy an old steam yacht even despite the yard owner (Joss Ambler)'s best attempt to put them off. He tells them about the ship's dark past.

The yacht been found drifting at sea with the crew all missing, later found dead washed ashore. He also warns them that the ship is haunted though they laugh this off. Then the couple and the rest of the crew begin to experience ghostly happenings...

A paranormal expert (Hugh Burden) is called in to discover exactly what happened. He spends his time giving a rather dry demonstration of tuning forks (no really) and then calls a medium in for a seance.

A modest but enjoyable film. It is probably the least scary ghost film ever though has an interesting story. Things pick up when we see what actually happened aboard the ship to give it it's reputation.

Battle Beneath the Earth (1967)

Rogue Chinese communists under the control of a mad general (the rather non-Chinese Martin Benson) are using advanced laser burrowing machines to dig tunnels under the Pacific and then under US cities and military bases so they can detonate nuclear weapons.

As far as plot is concerned this film is a winner, completely ridiculous but a winner. However it has a rather cheap and 60s spy film cheesy feel about everything.

It is a British film but set in the US, some of the accents and sets are somewhat suspect. The "Chinese" are also generally played by White actors in the tradition of Fu Manchu. Our heroes led by Kerwin Matthews and Ed Bishop go into the tunnels to stop the Chinese before they can detonate the warheads. Thus this film has a gunfight around nuclear warheads deep underground. It is total nonsense but... so much pulp action fun!

International Crime (1938)

A loose sequel to The Shadow Strikes, again starring Rod La Rocque as the charismatic crime fighter/radio show host/journalist The Shadow. The Shadow has a new assistant Phoebe (Astrid Allwyn) who ends up getting The Shadow arrested after the murder of an international banker.

The Shadow is released but his relationship with the Police Commissioner (Thomas Jackson) remains tense and he ends up cutting the The Shadow off from police news especially after The Shadow broadcasts a wanted criminal live on air.

In a tight spot The Shadow investigates the killing of the banker helped/hindered by Pheobe. He ends up posing as a "Central European aristocrat" (in a rather "Allo Allo" way) to make friends with two foreign suspects who he thinks are investigated with the murder.

It is an enjoyable film with it's sinister foreign criminals, The Shadow is an entertaining character though rather unrealistic but the breezy way he carries out his investigation makes the film fly. As with the earlier film The Shadow as portrayed was quite different to the radio drama / pulp fiction character people knew pretty well.