A Man Betrayed (1936)

Frank Powell (Edward Nugent) has been selling shares in a new oil field. He finds out that his company is not really drilling for oil but instead has lost the money. His boss William Carlton (John Hamilton), overcome with remorse, commits suicide but his henchmen use their gangland connections to make it look like murder...

Frank is framed for the murder but manages to escape from the law. Assisted by his preacher brother Curtis (Lloyd Hughes) he sets out to clear his name. That's when the film really gets going and the action is thick and fast... and also sometimes confusing. Frank comes across as rather naive and wet but preacher Curtis is handy with his fists!

Not a bad little crime caper. The film, although fairly short, has plenty of strange tangents including one where Curtis has to fight in a boxing match in order to get help from some gangsters! Of course the guy Curtis is to fight is the man of the gangsters who framed Frank...

The Golden Eye (1948)

One of the last few Charlie Chan films (who by now is being played by Roland Winters). An interesting enough mystery though you get a sense of fatigue in the series by now.

Charlie is called in to help a mine owner Mr Manning (Forrest Taylor) who is in danger. The mine, supposedly all spent, is also producing a mysteriously large amount of ore. Manning is badly injured in an accident and Chan (who is posing as a curio trader) investigates the case for Manning's daughter Evelyn (Wanda McKay).

Chan is helped (in theory) by his Number Two son Tommy (Victor Sen Yung) and chauffeur Birmingham (Mantan Moreland). The police in the form of Lt. Ruark (Tim Ryan) is also on the case.

As a mystery it is fairly serviceable. Winters didn't have the same spark as the earlier actors who played the role and the film lacks the wit of earlier entries in the series. The story plods somewhat but has some surprises in store for the patient.

Darna: The Return (1994)

Darna is the Filipino version of Wonder Woman and in her skimpy outfit is definately a wonder! 

Darna (Anjanette Abayari) is a super heroine, who fights crime but can turn back into a normal person too. A natural disaster wipes out her village and during the melee she is blindsided by an unidentified assailant and the source of her power (a stone) is stolen. Darna, in her civilian guise as Narda, consequently goes a little crazy but her auntie and little brother take her to refuge in Manila.

However once there she is menaced by a smug crime boss. Meanwhile a TV evangelist is saying to her swaying crowd of believers that only her way is the way to salvation as Manila will soon be swept away by a deluge. But Narda's stone is recovered and Darna is reborn and she begins to fight the crime wave of the crime boss, including plucking his helicopter out of the air.

The evangelist turns her attention to Darna... for lo it is the daughter of her arch-nemesis Valentina and she plans to wipe out the human race, or Manila anyway. Showdown time, now did you ever think you would ever see one scantily clad woman beat another one with a TV aerial? Well you can now...

Darna saves the, rather confusing, day in a blizzard of low-budget special FX. It is cheesy but easy on the eye.

Night Work (1930)

A light hearted film which, like the main character, is a bit goofy but has a heart of gold. Willie (Eddie Quillan) works at the department store as a lowly window dresser but he is also the scapegoat for angry customers and regularly fired to appease them (before quietly being re-hired later on).

Willie's life then changed when he meets Mary (Sally Starr), a nurse at an orphanage. Thanks to her he ends up sponsoring a child though with his meagre salary it is a bit difficult to manage. So he ends up working a second job in a nightclub and more adventures follow...

It is a bit unsubstantial perhaps but a perfectly fine little film. There is an enjoyable musical interlude by Marjorie Kane half way through to look out for.

The Deadly Affair (1967)

An enjoyable Le Carre adaptation (of "Call for the Dead"). James Mason plays Smiley (though due to the rights to the Smiley name being sold for another film he is known as Dobbs in this film).

When a Foreign Office civil servant (Robert Flemyng) commits suicide (officially) after Smiley (we'll stick to the book name) has security cleared him Smiley begins to investigate exactly what is going on. How exactly is his wife (Simone Signoret) involved?

The investigation leaves Smiley himself in serious danger as he tracks the assassin... or is it himself who is being tracked?

London is grim and grey, as murky as the world of spies. An interesting and rich film with a terrific cast supporting Mason including Maximillian Schnell, Harry Andrews (making a brilliant Mendel), David Warner, Roy Kinnear and Kenneth Haigh.

The tempestuous relationship between Smiley and Ann (Harriet Andersson) is an interesting sub-plot throughout.