Passenger to London (1937)

A British agent is bring some retrieved government documents back from Paris but he is being hunted by enemy agents and is killed on the train to the coast. He manages to hide the plans in the luggage of fellow passenger Barbara Lane (Jenny Laird). Frank Drayton (John Warwick) is on a mission to retrieve the plans.

Frank hunts Barbara down to a cheap hotel owned by the ridiculously haughty Dorothy Dewhurst. Frank hits it off with Barbara though finds it difficult to find the plans. The enemy agents are meanwhile also closing in on Barbara and the plans...

A fun little quota quickie. The story is a little limited, some of the characters a bit one dimensional (especially the enemy agents Vautel (Paul Neville) and Veinberg (Ian Wilmot) who are almost self-parody) but Warwick and Laird work well together. The film is short and doesn't waste much time.

Cause for Alarm! (1951)

Ellen (Loretta Young) seems to be the perfect all-American housewife in the early 1950s, doing the vacuuming in her lovely frock while also nursing her ill former serviceman husband George (Barry Sullivan). But all is not well, George thinks his wife is killing him...

Overcome with paranoia (as well as a weak heart) George thinks Ellen is having an affair with Doctor Grahame (Bruce Cowling) and slowly poisoning him. Finally George gets a gun to kill Ellen but keels over dead. But the nightmare has only just begun for Ellen. George had written a letter to the DA detailing his paranoid fears. Now with a dead George who will believe it was a delusion. Ellen must get that letter back!

So its a film about trying to get a letter back, but also so much more. In flashbacks we learn more about George's character and it isn't good. Ellen also makes herself more suspicious and guilty the more desperate she becomes... A simple but well made little piece of domestic noir. The plot stretches credulity a bit though.

Day of the Panther (1988)

There haven't been many Australian martial arts films but this is one of them and while largely unexceptional is a fun enough ride.

Jason Blade (Edward John Stazak) is a top martial artist and special branch officer in HK who comes to Perth after his partner Linda (Linda Megier) is killed investigating the criminal Zukor (Michael Carmen) by his head henchman Baxter (James Richards).

Blade joins Zukor's gang as part of his plan to get close and finally get revenge. The Perth police meanwhile want him out of town as Zukor is an important man, and a drug lord...

Well forget the plot it isn't really important. Or the (lack of) acting. These kind of films are about the fighting, and there is a lot of it. Some of it is pretty good too amid the mostly ill-judged tomfoolery and awful 80s fashions. Stazak is a pretty good fighter, which is just as well as he isn't that good an actor.

The Green Hornet (Serial) (1940)

Classic comic book style thrills in this serial as playboy newspaper owner Britt Reid (Gordon Jones) decides to become a modern day Robin Hood and investigate a sinister syndicate behind a number of deadly industrial accidents...

With the help of his loyal servant, and technical wizard, Kato (Keye Luke) Britt creates a masked persona called the Green Hornet. With the help of his souped up car (which can apparently do 200mp/h) and his gas gun the Green Hornet begins his battle against the syndicate in a series of death defying stunts and cliffhangers...

So it is usual movie serial fare but done so well. Everything is performed at breakneck speed and energy, there isn't time to notice some of the flaky plot points such as the lack of any real explanation as to why a rich man would want to start wearing a mask and tangle with brutal crooks. However this isn't the time and place for lengthy exploration of Reid's disposition, there is a cliff hanger to set up in a few minutes!

The Green Hornet is played more as a vigilante than later super heroes who lacked the same cool air of ambiguity. This was an adaptation of a radio serial, interestingly while masked as the Green Hornet Jones' lines were dubbed by the radio actor of the radio serial Al Hodge.

Way of the Black Dragon (1979)

Allison (Cecilia Wong) is a young Thai girl who is kidnapped by gangsters and trafficked to HK. She is just one of a number of poor girls sent to HK as drug mules and then sold to a grim life of prostitution or as wives to unsuspecting locals. Allison's fate is the latter and she is to become the wife of local worker and kung fu expert Chen (Carter Wong). When Chen finds out the real reason Allison was in HK he wants to help her get back home to Thailand (and marry her for real) but she'll also need the help of US agent Bill (Ron Van Clief)...

Along with Allison's brother Hsiao Ho (who just so happens to be a handy fighter too) our heroes work to bring down the evil syndicate led a rather laughable gwailo villain. There are a lot of fights, many of them rather random (the film makes little sense of course). The film starts off rather slow though improves a lot when Van Clief finally makes an appearance about half way through the film. The action then comes pretty thick and fast.

Sometimes sleazy, often violent, none of the film really makes a lot of sense but for a chopsocky 70s martial arts action film it does the job. The quality of the film making is rather suspect but the terrible dubbing makes the nonsense entertaining.