The New York Hat (1912)

A sweet if insubstantial little film. Mary Pickford plays the daughter of a stern father (Charles Hill Mailes) and dying mother (Kate Bruce). The mother writes to a pastor (Lionel Barrymore) and asks him to finally get her a treat which she had always been denied by her father. He buys her a fancy hat!

Unfortunately the village begins to gossip, not knowing of the letter, and Mary's father destroys the hat in a rage...

Well it's all very straight forward but nicely produced. Mary Pickford portrays her role perfectly.

Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983)

Three women have crash landed on a plagued planet inhabited by a lot of people wearing rags, Wolff (Peter Strauss) - a kind of bounty hunter - is lured by the prospect of a big reward to rescue them. Once there he finds the rescue not as simple as he hoped especially when he hooks up with troublesome local girl Nikki (Molly Ringwald).

Wolff and Niki travel across various cyberpunk set masterpieces also linking up with an ex-colleague of Wolff, Washington (Ernie Hudson). Eventually they arrive at the forbidding HQ of Overdog (Michael Ironside) who drains essence from young woman and also hurls slaves into the Maze, a kind of deadly Total Wipeout with lots of sharp edges...

The film does genuinely look amazing though often unoriginal, at times it looks like a big budget remake of a low-budget Italian remake of Mad Max. Or maybe an overlong early 1980s pop video. The action is lacking at times though promises so much. It was released as a 3-D film so that explains a lot of the action involves things falling towards the camera, they maybe got a little carried away with that. The plot is basically one set piece of mild peril followed by another but amusing enough and there are some good lines especially from Overdog. The film is worth it alone though for the technology of the forbidden world especially the sail powered train!

Religious Racketeers (1938)

The Great LaGagge (Robert Fiske) is a fake fakir who helps troubled rich women with their troubles using the "psychic plane" and relieving them of the burden of having any money. The police are already after him though after an elderly victim dies of shock at his temple during a seance, the press in the form of reporter Elliot (Arthur Gardner) are also on LaGagge's trail.

One complication is that Martha (Helene LeBerthon), a rich but troubled young woman whom Arthur has the hots for, is drawn into LaGagge's net and targeted as his next victim...

Frequently ridiculous, especially the scenes in the temple with the "mystic" powers facilitated by some behind the scenes trickery, but hilarious (unintentionally). Things really go crazy when LaGagge whisks Martha off to Egypt (you'll know it as the Sphinx is in the background!) and then India. Martha and her friend Ava (Betty Compson) are somewhat suspicious though as the great mystic in the desert looks like LaGagge with a fake beard... and funnily enough...

Look out for the real Mrs Houdini who appears in a short cameo.

Missed Date (1986)

Olivia Cheng is a bored housewife who is neglected by her husband (Henry Yung). He puts his business (advertising executive natch - though which seems to mostly include flirting with female clients) first and his wife second even though she works hard to be the perfect wife (which happily for male viewers includes lots of yoga and aerobics).

However when she meets a tennis instructor played by Chow Yun Fat she toys with the idea of an affair but decides she cannot as she is loyal to her man...

But then she finds her hubby hopelessly drunk with a female client and follows them to a love hotel. While her man and the client indulge in the beast with two backs in one room Olivia and Mr Chow chat and laugh in another room in quite an amusing parallel. Yet, of course, both couples leave the hotel at the same time and meet up in an awkward moment.

The marriage is over but the hubby hopes to woo her again yet spends his time smoking at his desk wondering what to do. He is too late anyway, his wife has sailed off with Chow...

A pretty good 80s HK film that is accompanied by a couple of killer cantopop tunes by Andy Lau and Priscilla Chan. Cantopop was designed for such dramatic romantic times.

Sinful Cargo (1936)

Sinful Cargo is a serviceable crime drama involving illegal immigration. Alan (Conrad Nagel) is a Federal Agent sent to Hollywood to investigate the racket and gets involved with reporter Bobbie Reynolds (Eleanor Hunt) and her hapless cameraman Vince Barnett.

The suspicion is that a film production company run by Crane Wilbur and Jack La Rue which doesn't seem to make any films is really a front for the racket. With the help of Bobbie, Alan pretends to be an aspiring actor to get involved with the production company and see exactly what they are producing.

It's not the best of films, Vince Barnett's hapless cameraman is a one joke role and unfortunately that joke stinks. However the plot is interesting enough and Jack La Rue plays a good role. At times the film has the breakneck air of an adventure serial, which isn't a bad thing of course.

This was the first of four movies with Alan, Bobbie and Vince in these same roles, another film was 1937's Bank Alarm.