Circus of Fear (1966)

A gang steal money from a van but in the confusion a guard is shot. The shooter Mason (Victor Madden) is sent packing to a circus (where he is summarily dispatched by a knife man). Inspector Elliot (Leo Genn) tracks Mason down to the circus and finds many mysterious things...

Including Gregor (Christopher Lee) in a black mask, a lion tamer who apparently was horribly scarred. Gregor is training Natasha (Suzy Kendall) but has a secret which the ringmaster Carl (Heinz Drache) is determined to find out. Meanwhile Gina (Margaret Lee) is in a tempestuous relationship with knife-thrower Mario (Maurice Kaufmann) and is found dead with a knife in her back...

After a high energy opening the film does bog down a bit when it reaches the circus but the various sub-plots and red herrings make for a very enjoyable film. One of Christopher Lee's more unusual roles. The identity of Mr Big who organised the robbery and performed various killings is a genuine surprise.

The Lost City (Serial) (1935)

Superbly over the top serial sci-fi adventure. Mad scientist Zolok (William Boyd) seeks to conquer the world with electrical impulses sent from his machine in his secret base in deepest darkest Africa. The impulses are sending weather in the rest of the world crazy...

Engineer Bruce Gordon (Kane Richmond) has electrical machines of his own and he detects where the impulses are coming from and heads off to Africa. There he discovers Zolok and his crazy plans as well as his ability to create an army of giant men. Zolok also has a genius scientist (Josef Swickard) and his beautiful daughter (Claudia Dell) captive...

So all the usual ingredients for a sci-fi serial. Plenty of sparks and humming machines (because in the 1930s unless you had arrays of high voltage electricity sparking away it wasn't SCIENCE), endless fights, cliff hangers and re-used sets and costumes. Nothing we haven't seen before but campy, frenetic fun as a 1930s serial should be.

Terror By Night (1946)

Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Dr Watson (Nigel Bruce) are hired by Roland (Geoffrey Steele) to protect the valuable diamond owned by his mother Lady Margaret (Mary Forbes) as they travel back up to Edinburgh on the train. However before very long Roland is found dead and the diamond is missing! The murderer and thief must be still on the train.

The investigation begins of the other passengers on the carriage, several of whom are suspicious though there are red herrings a-plenty even a mysterious coffin. Sherlock Holmes deduces that Moriarty's henchman Moran is involved...

Although low-budget (nearly all the film takes place on one set) this is an excellent little mystery. Though it is somewhat marred by Watson's attempts at humour and some dodgy accents.

Kill and Kill Again (1981)

Low budget martial arts films of the 1970s and 1980s seldom made much sense but this South African film takes that to another (low) level...

Dr Kane (John Ramsbottom) has developed a way to produce gasoline from potatoes, a side effect of this is a powerful mind control drug. A criminal mastermind called Marduk (Michael Mayer) kidnaps Kane and wants to use the drug to create a perfect society of slaves and take over the world!

Martial artist Steve Chase (John Ryan) is recruited to rescue Kane and stop Marduk. He assembles a motley crew of martial arts stereotypes (big guy, zen master, jokey guy) and they head off to take on Marduk and his army of goons in matching t-shirts...

The film is complete nonsense, the action comes thick and fast but is fairly light. The tone is fairly jokey and heavily cheesy. Even for films of this genre it has so many plot holes and unexplained elements as to defy belief. It is watchable just because it is so so strange and terrible.

The Oklahoma Cyclone (1930)

An early talkie Western and not that good to be honest but not without some charm. The story is fairly straightforward: cowboy Jim Smith (Bob Steele) is looking for his father who appears to be held captive by a gang led by the Black Diablo (Charles King)...

Jim disguises himself as an outlaw, the Oklahoma Cyclone, to infiltrate the gang and finally finds his father and has a showdown with the Diablo. Jim does a bit of singing too and romances Rita Rey...

The film is rather slow unfortunately and the actors are, as so often with early talkies a bit awkward and stiff when it comes to dialogue, but the numerous musical interludes lighten the mood.