Day of the Animals (1977)

The hole in the ozone layer has allowed lots of radiation in and it has sent animals at high altitude MAD!

So the science is maybe a little suspect but this late 1970s disaster movie at least has a good collection of stereotypes (former sports star with a secret, blonde TV woman, butch advertising executive, mum from Beverley Hills) who set off for a hike in the mountains with Steve (Christopher George).

Unfortunately the animals are waiting for their moment to attack and it finally comes after much staring by eagles and vultures. Mountain lions and bears menace the group. The party are struck by human conflict too as Leslie Neilsen decides Steve is a loser and takes a breakaway group in a different direction. Leslie also ends up affected by the radiation and commits murder, attempts rape and then decides to fight a bear in unarmed combat. That thankfully is the last we see of him.

The film is complete nonsense though does have some genuinely scary moments especially the rather unfortunate victim who is bitten by a rattlesnake and then savaged by a dog. A policeman is also attacked by flying rats which is more laughable than anything else. The budget was low but what they had they used well.

Under the Big Top (1938)

Sara (Marjorie Main) has trouble keeping her struggling circus going, even more trouble arrives when her niece Penny (Charlene Wyatt) arrives to live with her. However her niece grows up into a fine young woman (Anne Nagel) who might be the best trapeze artist in the world!

Although to be fair her act isn't that special but Sara says so and she isn't the kind of person to take a back seat to anyone, she rules the circus with an iron fist and also pushes Penny hard. However she does undeniably love her niece. Trouble comes with Penny's two male fellow trapeze artists Ricardo (Jack La Rue - not playing a gangster for a change) and Pablo (Grant Richards). A love triangle develops on the high wire...

Somewhat cliched but a decent story. It does have some unintentionally hilarious elements, such as when the child Penny somehow saves the circus from financial doom by burning it down by accident when she was playing with matches with a monkey, so they could claim on the insurance!

Gammera the Invincible (1966)

A Soviet atomic bomb goes off when a bomber crashes in the Arctic accidentally awakening a gigantic turtle called Gammera who seems to want to destroy the world. How unlucky is that?! Unfortunately Gammera seems to be indestructible so that is quite a problem for Japanese scientist Dr Hidaka (Eiji Funakoshi).

So basically this is Godzilla's cousin in a shell and like his more famous counterpart Gammera also enjoys slowly smashing his way through half of Tokyo. This version of the film adds some American characters to add a more international air to the Japanese original though it doesn't add a great deal to the story. At the end of the day it is still a man in a rubber suit crushing model buildings.

The film is fun but frequently ridiculous. Including the music that appears to rip off the Batman theme. The main problem with Gammera in this film is that he isn't very scary, he just seems to waddle around destroying things by accident.

Sheriff of Tombstone (1941)

Brett (Roy Rogers) and Gabby (Gabby Hayes) turn up in Tombstone. Brett is mistaken for Shotgun Cassidy (Harry Woods) whom the mayor (Addison Richards) has recruited as sheriff in the town.

Brett decides to play along and pretend to be Shotgun. He soon finds out that the mayor has dark plans to take over the town using Shotgun as an enforcer. Meanwhile Brett is also looking for the men who have killed his brother...

A good example of a B-movie western. It is all good clean and straight forward fun with plenty of songs too. Rogers and Hayes make for a good double act.

The Vampire Bat (1933)

An interesting variation on the vampire horror theme. People begin to die in a village in mysterious circumstances, their bodies drained of blood. As there are bats also hanging around the village suspicion is that a vampire is at work...

Dr von Niemann (Lionel Atwill) is the one who suspects (and obviously seems a bit suspicious himself) vampires though the police in the form of Karl (Melvyn Thomas) is sceptical. The villages err on the side of superstition and when the village idiot (Dwight Frye) is found to have a fondness of bats it doesn't end well for him...

The film isn't bad though not that original, it incorporates elements of other horror stories (vampires, mad scientists, mysterious murders), but blends them together well. The low budget means everything is a bit sparse but this adds to the atmosphere.