Who Done It? (1956)

A hilarious farce which helped launch Benny Hill's career. He plays Hugo a bumbling private detective who gets involved with sinister (in a ridiculously over the top way) foreign agents who want to steal the plans for a new weather control machine (and no doubt dominate the world)...

Assisted by Frankie (Belinda Lee) - who does most of the actual dangerous stuff, somehow she possesses the strength of about ten men - he manages to foil the nefarious agents in a huge action set-piece taking part at an exhibition (complete with robot tank which Hugo uses to deal with his police nemesis Gerry Marsh) and a final chase in a stock car race.

It is silly, crude but very funny.

Danger Flight (1939)

Tailspin Tommy (John Trent) is a comic book aviator hero and he is bought to life pretty well in this movie.

Tommy is an amazing pilot and a totally fearless hero (of course) who thinks nothing of taking off his plane in a storm to take supplies to trapped workers. When he can't land he (naturally) sacrifices his only parachute to drop the supplies...

Tommy is also targeted by criminals who try and trap him when he is taking a payroll cargo. In between various flying adventures he also befriends a troubled youth (Tommy Baker) and manages to make him a model citizen.

It is a bit obvious and lacks much in the way of shade but is a good fun adventure film.

Konga (1961)

Unintentionally hilarious British rip off of King Kong.

Dr Decker (Michael Gough) goes missing in Africa for a year, when he finally returns to London he claims he will change the world with the new discoveries he has found. In his own lab he has rather suspicious looking plants which, when a serum is made from them, can greatly increase growth of animals. Naturally he starts injecting his pet chimp, who soon is a huge ape and who will do Dr Decker's bidding... i.e. kill.

Dr Decker is a fascinating character, dark and single minded. Killing means nothing to him, whether it is his cat which he shoots without a second thought or directing Konga to kill his rivals. His long suffering assistant Margaret (Margo Johns) has a bit more moral ambiguity. But only a bit more, she is happy to let Dr Decker continue on his way as long as he loves her. Unfortunately he has his eye on one of his buxom young students...

The film is remarkable cheese, with a man in an ape suit running rampant. The final act however oddly runs out of steam, as does Konga who just stands there while the army expend most of their Cold War stockpile to finally bring him down. Of course one major plot flaw is that when the chimpanzee is given growth serum it turns into a gorilla...

The Love Nest (1923)

A fun Buster Keaton short. Buster seeks to forget his lost love by sailing off on his boat. He ends up having to be rescued by a whaling ship (which for some reason is called the Love Nest) captained by a tough and mean old sea dog (Joe Roberts) who throws his crew overboard for the slightest reason...

Well that's the flimsy story, that isn't the point of a comedy short like this. The plot is just a framework to hang on a lot of sight gags. Some are funny though the film doesn't always hit the mark.

One notable gag is Buster "fishing". He walks down a rope ladder into the water with a gun until he is completely submerged. There is a puff of smoke from below the surface and then he returns up the ladder holding a fish!

Secret Agent (1936)

In this Alfred Hitchcock film Edgar (John Gielgud) is plucked from the front lines in World War 1 to be recruited by the secret service and is reluctantly sent off to Switzerland with only the vaguest of instructions.

He isn't alone though as he has his "wife" Elsa (Madeleine Carroll) and his sidekick The General (Peter Lorre) who plays a rather bizarre crazy foreign type role. Edgar is tasked to find and kill a German agent, unfortunately the identity of the agent is unknown so Edgar and company begin their tricky search.

If we are to be honest this is quite an odd little film though very watchable, at times quite dark. When the first agent suspect is killed by The General we don't see the act but the unfortunate's little dog howls and shrieks. Some of the plot makes little, why for example is Edgar in Switzerland, doesn't a spy need a cover story?