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.

Night Alarm (1934)

Hal Ashby (Bruce Cabot) is a newspaper reporter determined to find out who is behind a spate of arson attacks in the city. The mayor is feeling the pressure to stop the attacks, but he is also under pressure from an industrialist bankrolling him.

He thus tries to pressurise the newspaper led by Sam Hardy. A complication is that the industrialist (H.B. Warner)'s daughter Helen (Judith Allen) is working for the paper too and gets involved with Hal...

Although pretty predictable Night Alarm is a decent watch with good performances by the leads Cabot and Allen with an exciting conclusion... though no surprises that it involves a fire! Actual fire footage is well woven into the film to elevate it above it's slim B-movie budget.

The Scarlet Claw (1944)

Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Dr Watson (Nigel Bruce) are in Canada for a conference on the occult where Lord Penrose (Paul Cavanagh) tells about a murderous monster in the village of La Mort Rouge. Just after an argument on the existence of the supernatural the Lord receives the shock news his wife has been found with her throat slashed.

Holmes and Watson begin investigating the case, he sees that Lady Penrose was actually a former actress who had been involved with a murder case with another actor Alastair Ransom (Gerald Hamer). Ransom is supposed to be dead but Holmes thinks he is still alive and hiding in the village, desperate to keep his new identity secret...

Although an original story and not based on an Arthur Conan Doyle story this is a very entertaining Holmes romp with great chemistry between Rathbone and Bruce. Cavanagh also does a good turn as the Lord obsessed with psychic phenomena.

Picture Brides (1934)

Picture Brides is a pre-code tale of mail-order brides and miners in Brazil, and also a tough tale of brutality, sleaze and rape but it is so over the top it simply can't be taken that seriously.

A group of miners have sent for white women (including Dorothy Mackaill and Mae Busch) to marry, also along with them Mary (Dorothy Libaire) who has been tricked into thinking she has a job waiting for her...

Instead she is to be married to Dave Hart (Regis Toomey) who is somewhat indifferent to her and has a dark secret, he is wanted by the US police. Von Luden (Alan Hale) the brutal foreman wants Mary for himself... and unfortunately for her and Hart he knows the Hart's secret.

Its sleazy but sharp with some good dialogue. Von Luden is a real villain, almost to pantomime levels. In one scene he uses a seventeenth century tapestry as a ruse before he gets Mary near naked and tries to rape her. He also likes to shoot native workers who have the nerve to ask to be paid after months of hard labour! However he carries out one evil deed too many...

Hard Guy (1941)

Bar owner Vic Monroe (Jack La Rue) has a rather unlikely scam going. He arranges for his female employees to meet and marry rich men but then engineers a quick annulment making a profit from the settlement. When dancer Doris Starr (Gayle Mellott) marries Anthony Tremaine (Howard Banks) all ends in chaos when Anthony's father (C. Montague Shaw) turns up and threatens to disinherit him, sparking a riot.

Now Jack's nefarious / ridiculous plot goes into action. His friend poses as Doris' father to negotiate an annulment settlement to keep things quiet. Meanwhile detective Tex Cassidy (Jack Mulhall) is investigating the club and involves the ex-governor's son Steve Randall (Kane Richmond). Meanwhile Vic leads Doris on to think he will marry her. When she finds out he doesn't mean it she threatens to blow his whole scheme. He kills Doris and frames Anthony Tremaine. Julie (Mary Healy) the sister of Doris begins to investigate the club and Vic's schemes with the help of Steve and Tex...

So it's all rather ridiculous. Vic's scheme is nonsense of course and some of the characters (such as Tex) are incredibly one dimensional. However the film flows reasonably well and has enough of a spark and good enough job from the leads to be at least watchable.