Harlem is Heaven (1932)

This film wanted to showcase fine early 1930s music and dance moves from Bill Robinson. They needed some kind of plot to hang the musical parts of the movie on, unfortunately the plot is rather flimsy.

Jean (Anise Boyer) is in town wanting a job, she meets up with Money Johnson (James Baskett) who offers her one, and he can as he is the rich man in town. Unfortunately those riches are from the proceeds of crime...

Johnson says he is nice to people who are loyal and Jean is loyal for now. She gets drawn into Johnson's criminal doings but soon wants out, but doing so ain't easy... maybe Bill Robinson can help her out.

Well that is more or less what it is about, the story isn't really all that. Some of the acting is fun though. As a "black" film in the 1930s the black actors get to act in normal roles and not the usual ridiculous stereotypes in contemporary Hollywood fare. The best bit is the dancing and music though, its worth watching just for that.

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...