The Locked Door (1929)

An enjoyable early talkie crime melodrama. Eighteen months before slimy businessman Frank (Rod la Rocque) is taking his slightly naive secretary Ann (Barbara Stanwyck) on a rum boat. He plies her with booze and tries to have his wicked way with her, but her honour is saved by a police raid...

Now Ann is happily married to Lawrence (William Stage Boyd) and living with him and his young sister Helen (Betty Bronson). To Ann's shock Helen has a new boyfriend... Frank! Lawrence finds out Frank has broken up his friend's marriage with his womanising ways and goes to have it out with the cad. A struggle ensues and Frank lies dead. Lawrence flees and locks the room... a complication being Ann was already hiding in the apartment having arrived earlier to have it out with Frank herself...

A simple enough plot but enjoyably done. The final act with the police investigation by the DA (Harry Mestayer) is quite exciting with a couple of plot twists. An early talkie which avoids some of the flaws of the period though is fairly static, you wouldn't be surprised to find out this was adapted from a stage play. Literally a locked door murder mystery and fine for that.

The Horror of Frankenstein (1970)

A fun and sexy re-telling of the Frankenstein story. Young Victor Frankenstein (Ralph Bates) is a man of passions and plenty of sneers. Obsessed with his dark medical research, he arranges for his father's death simply because he is in the way. Now with his father's castle and money behind him he is ready to push the boundaries of science and make... man...

All this happens while his friend Wilhelm (Graham James) increasingly becomes disgusted of Victor's experiments and buxom maid Alys (Kate O'Mara) looks on with bewilderment (when she isn't in Victor's bed). Victor arranges for human body parts to be stolen from graves by the wonderfully sinister Dennis Price and begins to create his monster (David Prowse)...

Although the story covers no new ground as far as the story is concerned Bates is great as a cocky bonking and utterly amoral young Frankenstein. The only really flaw in the film is the monster itself which hasn't got the best Frankenstein's monster make-up ever. Prowse certainly looked better in his Vader suit.

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!