Tragic Fantasy : Tiger Of Wanchai (1994)

The streets of Wan Chai in HK never looked so bloody, every Karaoke lounge and bar is a battleground complete with heaps of dead hoodlums.

Simon Yam plays the part of a parking attendant who rises to boss in the triads, but of course as soon as you rise then there are rival bosses who want you to fall. We've seen it all before of course many times in HK cinema, but this is especially quite gritty. However at the same time the film doesn't engage you fully, it lacks that extra special something. So no X-factor, though has plenty of XXX factor. Violence aplenty and not a small amount of sex.

The film is basically a HK triad romp: Simon looks cool and his love Marianne Chan looks hot, and action is interspersed with some cool mid-90s cantopop tunes, including a bit where Roy Cheung is firing an AK-47 in slo-mo to a musical accompaniment. Lau Ching Wan plays the usual (for these films) bumbling character, the film certainly doesn't lack for 1990s HK star power.

It's supposed to be based on a true story but let's just say it's maybe a little itty bit exaggerated...

Murder at Midnight (1931)

A parlour game at a posh mansion ends in disaster when a man is shot for real by Jim Kennedy (Kenneth Thomson) when the blanks are exchanged for real bullets in a gun. Inspector Taylor (Robert Elliot) turns up to investigate the accident (or murder) but things take a turn for the worse when Kennedy is shot dead too.

The investigation begins in earnest and the usual collection of stereotypes (haughty matriarch (Clara Bandick), nervous young man (Leslie Fenton), flighty maid (Alice White), sinister butler (Brandon Hurst) et cetera are under investigation. Is Kennedy's wife Esme (Aileen Pringle) the culprit? Luckily criminologist Philip Montrose (Hale Hamilton) is on hand in the best traditions of Golden Age type detective stories to help the hapless police out...

The film is a nicely done whodunnit, if rather unoriginal dark house mystery. Many films with similar storylines were made in the 1930s, if one lesson is to be learned from all of these films is that its not a good idea to agree to being shot by a gun supposedly loaded with blanks! The pacing is good and the performances acceptable, not all early talkies were hamstrung by awkward pauses.

Pool Sharks (1915)

W.C. Fields and his rival Larry Westford are both trying to woo Marian West. First there are some antics at a picnic which involve lots of falling over, kicked backsides and other slapstick.

Then the two rivals head to the pool hall where after a number of amazing trick shots it all descends into a big fight and more slapstick. Truthfully its not the best silent comedy you'll ever see but not bad. It had some interesting camera work including some close-ups (still not that common in 1915) and stop-motion animation during the pool shots.

It was also W.C. Field's first film which is probably the most notable thing here.

The Phantom (1931)

A notorious criminal, The Phantom, is due to be executed in jail but just before he can be sent to the chair he stages an audacious escape: climbing a wall, jumping onto a passing train and then climbing aboard a ladder carried by an aeroplane. Well that is quite a promising start...

The Phantom vows to kill the man who put him away, he even says when he is going to do it. The police obviously think they can get The Phantom easily, but of course things do not go to plan...

The premise is promising but the execution is at times shocking. Overall the film is rather shoddy and rushed. The acting is also pretty awful especially from Allene Ray, Violet Knights and Tom O'Brien who must play one the worst police officer roles in history. Of course being an early talkie some of the silent movie actors had not yet transitioned to the different disciplines and method of acting in a sound movies, so everything is a bit awkward and overly dramatic. It isn't all terrible and is worth watching despite everything, there is a kind of campy appeal about the whole farce.

Mrs. Pym of Scotland Yard (1940)

The deaths of two women in mysterious circumstances and no apparent cause forces Scotland Yard into extreme measures: appointing a female detective for the case. Amid much late 1930s misogyny Mrs Pym (Mary Clare) and her sidekick Shott (Edward Lexy) get on with the case.

Both murdered women attended the same seances and left all their money to the a psychic club led by Professor Mencken (Anthony Ireland) and his assistant Miss Bell (Irene Handl) so there is some cause for suspicion...

Meanwhile rich industrialist Frank Wood (Vernon Kelso) seems very keen for his devoted niece Maraday (Janet Johnson) to attend the seances despite her fiance's (Nigel Patrick) scepticism and she seems to the next to be targeted. How is this all connected and can Mrs Pym solve it before she is kicked off the case?

It is all gloriously breezy hokum with plenty of 1930s mysticism and nonsense. The story itself is ridiculous though the method of murder is certainly innovative. It shouldn't be taken very seriously then it can be truly enjoyed.