The Play House (1921)

A music hall comedy farce where Buster Keaton plays twenty different characters! It seems at the play house Keaton is the big shot... Indeed only show in town as he is everything in the theatre from stagehand down to orchestra to stage performer... but then he wakes up from his dream to his reality as just a humble stage hand.

Mayhem soon follows Keaton around, mayhem which involves a performing ape, minstrels and ends in the play house being turned into a swimming pool...

An incredibly inventive comedy that packs more into a few minutes than most films can pack into hours.

They Came From Beyond Space (1967)

A formation of meteorites lands in Cornwall, a group of scientists led by Lee Mason (Jennifer Jayne) investigate but are soon taken over by invisible aliens (when you are making a low budget sci-fi movie invisible aliens are always handy). Meanwhile Dr Curtis Temple (Robert Hutton) wonders what has happened to his girlfriend Lee and why the scientists need so much equipment...

Dr Temple investigates the site and finds a major operation taking place, even rockets being launched towards the Moon. The personnel at the site are hostile but find they cannot take over Dr Temple as he has a silver plate in his head after a recent road accident...

With the help of his friend Farge (Zia Mohyeddin) Dr Temple develops a detector for the aliens, steals a few ray guns and then ends up on the Moon to face the Master (Michael Gough)...

It is all rather cheesy and very of it's time, it is also very British as the aliens are very polite. Despite the flaws this is a quite reasonable sci-fi film.

Arrest Bulldog Drummond (1939)

Bulldog Drummond (John Howard) is about to marry Phyllis (Heather Angel), or rather try to marry her again. Of course something turns up to delay the wedding day yet again, in this case it is a death ray created by a mad scientist...

Naive genius Richard Gannet (Leonard Mudie) has created a machine that can detonate explosives at a distance. The poor man intends the machine to end war though unscrupulous Rolf (George Zucco) has other ideas and kills Gannet and steals the machine. Despite Drummonds efforts Rolf and his confederate Lady Beryl (Jean Fenwick) make it away with the machine and board a cruise ship... though Phyllis is also on board.

In a far off land Rolf intends to sell the machine to foreign powers and kill Drummond and his friends Algy (Reginald Denny) and Tenny (E.E. Clive)...

A high energy entry in the Drummond series, the science fiction elements (with the usual mad scientist lab of electric arcs) is an excellent addition to the usual chasing around. Rolf is a terrifically sinister villain, though even one of the other characters calls his plots a bit theatrical!

Fun Bar Karaoke (1997)

Pu (Fey Ussawaweth), dreams of her dead mum every night and in those dreams she is building a model house. She is told by fortune tellers that when she finishes the house her dad, who is a bit of a drunk and enjoys karaoke at the seedy Fun Bar Karaoke and young women (especially at the same time), will die...

Her dad is involved with one young lady, unfortunately for him she is a gangster's moll and thus his life is in a spot of peril. He gets used as a punchbag by the hood's men - one of whom Noi (Ray MacDonald) is a ruthless (yet also a bit of a bumbling loser) killer who has the hots for Pu...

So that is the story, its not that bad a film. An interesting story, as with many (all?) Thai films mixed with a dose of superstition. The film has a number of dream sequences that often confuse. Maybe too many dream sequences if we are to be honest.

The print is a bit fuzzy and the sound poor. Its a bit sloppy too, the sound boom appears a few times, one time it nearly hits the actor on the head. How did that pass unnoticed during production?

Peeping Tom (1960)

To say this film is somewhat disturbing would be an understatement. Mark (Carl Boehm) is a film studio worker who has a side line in soft core porn, he also likes to film the look of terror on young women's faces before he kills them...

Mark explains to a potential victim (Anna Massey) how his (mad of course) scientist father filmed him constantly as a child and liked to stimulate fear in him with various props including lizards, filming his reaction. Mark is pretty screwed up and acts incredibly weirdly but then again with his twisted upbringing is it any wonder?

A controversial film to say the least but what made it most shocking was probably the humanisation of the murderer. Mark is as much a victim as the unfortunates he kills, a difficult message to portray back then (even now), the film destroyed the director Michael Powell's career but survives as a testament to intelligent and daring film making.