The Roaring Road (1919)

A light hearted early auto race film with added romance. JD Ward (Theodore Roberts) is the Bear (unfortunately to demonstrate this the film cuts to an actual bear for a few moments, which was probably a better actor). He owns a business selling cars and wants to be the first to have one of his cars win the big auto race for the third time...

One of his salesmen Toodles (Wallace Reid) wants to win the race as a driver, he also wants to marry the Bear's daughter Dorothy (Ann Little) who is known as the Cub. The Bear is not that keen on Toodles taking part in the race as he doesn't think he is good enough, and he wants him to wait a few years before he marries the Cub. (Are you still with me?)

So that is the plot, and it is a fine little film with some good humour though cab be rather hard to follow at times. Although Reid was the film's star Roberts steals the show with his typical silent movie era villain act.

The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970)

A stylish though somewhat baffling film. Pelham (Roger Moore) is the typical city slicker with his bowler hat and umbrella. He nearly dies in a car accident caused after he becomes possessed while on the M4 (quite understandable). When he returns to work he begins to notice strange happenings, people say they have met him but he can't remember...

He even seems to have gained a mistress (Olga Georges-Picot) but has no recollection. His wife Eve (Hildegard Neil) doesn't really buy that excuse naturally. Pelham realises there is an impostor who is impersonating him...

Does he have a doppelganger or is it all a figment of his imagination? The film is wonderfully tense and Roger Moore puts in one of his best performances (or rather two performances as the two Pelhams have radically different characters). The psychedelic ending probably asks more questions than it answers!

Shadows Over Shanghai (1938)

An enjoyable spy caper set in Shanghai during the Japanese invasion of China. An amulet which can raise funds to help buy the Chinese weapons in their fight against the Japanese ends up in the hands of Irene (Lynda Grey). She heads to Shanghai to try and get on a boat to America. However brutal Soviet agent Sargoza (Robert Barrat) is determined to get the amulet for himself...

Sargoza is foiled by happy-go-lucky reporter Johnny (James Dunn) and the slightly mysterious Barclay (Ralph Morgan) who seems to always have a friend who can help and a plan. To complicate matters the Japanese in the form of Yokohama (Paul Sutton) are also after the amulet and, while the bombs are dropping on Shanghai, will stop at nothing to get it...

A low budget film but makes the most of what it has, especially with the heavy use of stock footage during the bombing. Dunn provides the humour though his wise cracks can sometimes fall a bit flat.

The Robot vs The Aztec Mummy (1958)

Some films are so bad they are good. Some are just bad. Despite the sheer nonsense of the premise this film falls a bit closer to the latter than the former unfortunately. Which is a shame as you want a film about a robot fighting an Aztec mummy to be nothing short of great...

The main problem with the film is that it takes too long to get going, the actual meeting and battle between the robot and mummy is right at the very end (and isn't the most amazing battle in movie history if we are to be honest though is mercifully short). The film is slow because it includes a recap from the two previous mummy films in the series so at least you can save time by just watching this one and not the others i guess.

As to the film plot, the mummy Popoca (Angelo de Steffani) is guarding ancient treasure which mad (of course) scientist Dr Krupp (Luis Aceves Castañeda) wants for himself. As the mummy usually kills all who try and steal the treasure Krupp builds a cyborg robot (Adolfo Rojas) to destroy the mummy. Then he plans to use the loot to build an army of similar robots and conquer the world. Though if we are to be honest i suspect the world's armed forces would have the ability to defeat an army of robots that move incredibly awkwardly and slowly.

Like the robot the film isn't very good, the best part of the film is the title. However it is worth watching once just for that.

The Phantom Fiend (1932)

A shadowy fiend called the Avenger is committing murders in London, telephone operator Daisy (Elizabeth Allan) has actually heard one of the victims just before she was offed. Meanwhile the slightly strange foreign musician Angeloff (Ivor Novello) has taken up as a lodger with Daisy's parents...

As Angeloff is rather mysterious and enigmatic (though this is laid on a bit thick) and Daisy takes a bit of a shine to him the family begin to suspect he is the Avenger though that may be more to do with the fact Daisy fancies him...

While quite atmospheric the story is rather plodding and at times a bit hard to follow, the dialogue in this early talkie sometimes a bit muffled. An interesting if not great film with some indifferent acting at times. However it is worth watching for Novello who also played the same role a few years earlier in Hitchcock's silent movie of the same story. Jack Hawkins also makes one of his earliest film appearances.