Uptown New York (1932)

The old love triangle. Max (Leon Ames) and Pat (Shirley Grey) are a young couple in love, but Max's parents have other ideas for him and marry him off to a rich woman and send him off to Europe to study. While he is away Pat meets Eddie (Jack Oakie) a boisterous vending machine operator. The manner of their meeting is unusual though as Pat is stuck in a restaurant toilet and Eddie has to get her out through the window!

They begin an edgy relationship but when Max returns to New York things get complicated in Pat's life. Max wants her as his mistress though Pat stays with Eddie despite it not being the smoothest of rides...

Its a charming film and enjoyable with some snappy dialogue especially from Oakie. The first half of the film is probably the best, things do turn a bit melodramatic later on. Its quite a familiar story: the girl turn between two lovers, one rich and one poor. Good performances, especially from Oakie who switches from brash wise guy to sensitive soul, help elevate the film.

A True Mob Story (1998)

Andy Lau plays a somewhat unusual character in HK triad films: the loser triad member. As a minor boss he's more like the whipping boy for the smug elder bosses who basically treat him like a gopher and ration his pay. His wife was killed several years before by a vile thug Andy half blinded but his son is looked after by mamasan Suki Kwan.

As Andy gets dragged further and further into trouble he meets barrister Gigi Leung... who just happens to be the girlfriend of Alex Fong, the cop who's out to bust Andy! (HK movies are always full of such amazing coincidences). Gigi falls in love with the lovable Triad boss putting her career at risk, naturally, but is it two-way?

The thug who killed Andy's wife makes a comeback and puts Andy in peril, but the bosses won't help and he finds himself the fall guy for a drugs operation. Now what...

Its a Wong Jing film so you know what to expect: violence, lots of it, especially against women. Blood, gore, death, sexual violence and torture. He delivers though with this film, one of his best films. All in all this is an excellent HK triad film, very well played by Andy Lau.

The Trap (1922)

Also known as "Heart of a Wolf", this film stars Lon Chaney as Gaspard, a happy go lucky if rather simple minded miner in Quebec with an idyllic family life with his girl Thalie (Dagmar Godowsky). However things soon go wrong when Benson (Alan Hale) arrives on the scene. He ends up stealing Gaspard's mine and his woman!

Gaspard, his life crushed, spends several years in a dark depression. In that time karma seems to have bit back at Benson and Thalie hard who are both on the downward curve. The mine is struggling and her health is failing fast. Lon, meanwhile, now has a heart set on revenge instead of happiness...

Its rather formulaic and melodramatic and Chaney overplays Gaspard's character somewhat with his famous facial expressions but this is a decent enough film. Somewhat improbable but undeniably compelling.

The Road to Ruin (1934)

A rather unsubtle but engaging morality play. Ann (Helen Foster) is a good college girl devoted to her studies and parents. However she is befriended by Eve (Nell O'Day) who has a rather looser attitude to life. Ann starts to drink, smoke and has awkward sex with Tommy (Glen Boles)...

Well its a slippery slope of course. Its not long before Ann and Eve are drunks, drug addicts and Ann is sleeping around with a bad older man (Paul Page). There is worse to come for poor Ann...

Luckily this film is more sincere than an exploitation film though does take time to get going. There is a sad inevitability about innocent Ann's downfall. Its a story as old as the hills: it always ends up being the girl's fault.

Castle in the Desert (1942)

Unstable historian Paul Manderley (Douglas Dumbrille) lives in a castle deep in the desert cut off from the outside world. A visitor dies of poison one night and the death is covered up by Manderley due to Mrs Manderley (Lenita Lane) being a Borgia and having a past linked to poison. Then Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) is mysteriously invited to the castle...

For an isolated country house... er... castle there certainly seems to be a motley collection of guests including a doctor, a sculptor and a private detective. Number 2 son (Victor Sen Yung) is also there to help with an eccentric mystic (Ethel Griffies) tagging along to "help".

It is all a glorious muddle and a shameless romp reusing every "Middles Ages" prop the studio had in it's store including two suits of armour! A great, if unoriginal, example of a dark house mystery.