Minesweeper (1943)

A decent little war movie with a dose of romantic melodrama and the propaganda kept mostly in the background. Richard Houston (Richard Arlen) is a former Navy officer who deserted due to gambling debts. When the war breaks out he decides he needs to re-enlist. He takes the name of Smith and joins up with friendly Fixit (Guinn Williams).

He starts serving on a minesweeper, work frequently dangerous though for a rookie he seems to learn very fast (if only they knew eh?) He is also after Mary (Jean Parker) even though she is also involved with Smith's crewmate Nash (Russell Hayden).

When Houston/Smith accidentally causes the death of Fixit he admits his secret to Mary. However the Navy are already onto him. Time for a final dramatic set-piece of course. Redemption via self-sacrifice is how we'll win the war sailor.

Scars of Dracula (1970)

Dracula (Christopher Lee) is dialed up to eleven in this instalment of the Hammer Dracula saga. Dracula is bought back to life by a vomiting bat, he kills a young woman, the villagers burn down his castle but Dracula slaughters the womenfolk in the church in revenge...

Meanwhile in a nearby town Paul (Christopher Matthews) is getting into trouble of the horizontal jogging kind with the burgomaster's daughter. On the run he ends up at Dracula's castle. His brother Simon (Dennis Waterman) and Sarah (Jenny Hanley) turn up at the castle looking for him. Only Sarah's crucifix saves her from being the next blood snack of Dracula...

A wonderfully creepy film, Dracula has immense power in this film assisted by Klove (Patrick Troughton). Some of the effects are a bit cheesy (especially the bats) but the gore and bloody violence are high on the scale.

Sky Patrol (1939)

More high flying antics with Tailspin Tommy (John Trent). Tommy is training new pilots for the sky patrol, one of the pilots being Colonel Meade (Boyd Irwin)'s son Carter (Jackie Coogan) who has a phobia of firing guns but despite that is passed for service...

Sky patrol is looking for smugglers. Carter comes across a mysterious plane which shoots him down and he is captured by the smuggling gang who are illegally gun running. Tommy and Skeeter (Milburn Stone) seek to rescue him and stop the smugglers.

A fairly straight forward action film, the plot is simple but doesn't get in the way of good old fashioned heroism and daring. A good adaptation of a comic strip with some neat flying sequences.

The Naked Witch (1961)

Rather low-rent and incomprehensible exploitation. A student (Robert Short) is researching the grave of an alleged witch. The witch (Libby Hall) who is beautiful and naked (and that has to be emphasised so much they even named the film after it) embarks on revenge...

It is all very strange with a soundtrack that sounds like a monkey on LSD playing the organ. The problem with the film is that there isn't very much story and the film is padded out with a pseudo documentary at the start and even a bit of a travelogue. When we finally see the (naked) witch well we are already struggling to stay awake.

Not very good, though did we mention that the witch was naked... except that as it was the early 60s she wasn't really of course.

Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police (1939)

A superb country house romp. It is Bulldog Drummond (John Howard) and Phyllis' (Heather Angel) wedding day... again. Will they finally manage to get married this time? Well you can probably guess the answer to that. All is going well in Drummond's old country house before the Professor (Forrester Harvey) arrives telling them about a fortune...

Civil War treasure is hidden in the house apparently, though Drummond promises to long suffering Phyllis that they will get married first. However when the Professor is found dead all plans go to pot...

A classic country house film complete with hidden passages, mysterious goings on, the unknown identity of a killer and even medieval torture equipment! Tenny (E.E. Clive), Algie (Reginald Denny) and the Colonel (H.B. Warner) are on hand as usual. Drummond and Phyllis still did not manage to get married, better luck next time!