The Silver Trail (1937)

A rather run of the mill B-western. Bob (Rex Lease) has arrived in town looking for his friend who has written to him about his silver mine. However when Bob gets to town no one seems to have heard of his friend or the mine. The town dudes have stolen the claim of course, and had Bob's friend killed. Bob takes a while though to cotton on that something is amiss even though the bad guys ability to hide their guilt is seemingly zero...

With the help of clever dog Rin Tin Tin Jr and female outlaw Molly (Mary Russell) Bob finds out what has happened to the claim and brings the bad guys to their well deserved comeuppance. Oh and of course gets the girl too...

Although at times slightly stilted and awkward, and with a fairly average plot, this is a decent enough if not spectacular western. The usual stunts, fights and shoot outs. A few songs too. And the good hats win.

Tarzan the Tiger (Serial) (1929)

Action packed serial with the usual cliff hangers and unlikely escapes. Tarzan (Frank Merrill) faces the menace of the Arab army of Queen La of Opar (Lillian Worth). Jane (Natalie Kingston) is kidnapped and Tarzan suffers an amnesia in the usual movie way, a blow to the head!

After several chapters as a rather vague simpleton Tarzan is finally back, cured of his amnesia also in the usual movie way (another blow to the head natch). Can Tarzan rescue Jane, resist Queen La and get his hand on the wealth of Opar?

The first sound Tarzan in a way, not a full talkie rather a transitional silent film with added sound effects including Tarzan's yells! Merrill brings some impressive physicality to the role though not much in the way of acting. However for the role he is perfect.

Spiker (1985)

Although this follows the usual cliched pattern of a sports movie the fact it is about volleyball makes it slightly novel. It follows a number of young hopefuls, including Sonny (Stephen Burns) and Catch (Patrick Houser), who want to make the US Olympic volleyball team under tough Coach Doames (Michael Parks).

Not everyone makes the cut and along the way there are a lot of toil and sweat and mysterious looking training exercises. Sonny and Catch fall foul of Coach due to their love of parties and / or the opposite sex. Team veteran Newt (Christopher Allport) meanwhile has trouble of his own as his wife Marcia (Jo McDonnell) is becoming bored of being a volleyball widow...

The film has little you haven't seen before but is a decent watch even though it is painfully low budget and rather shoddy at times. The acting is slightly awkward but has a natural feel to it. The AOR soundtrack is great and adds to the heavy dose of 80s cheese. We don't get to see if the team actually did go and win gold, though in a heavily stylised way it is implied. The real team did win gold in 1988 incidentally.

The tough and often precarious life of an Olympic athlete is well portrayed. As the Coach said, do you really want it? 

Freedom to Die (1961)

A satisfying little and noirish British crime film. Craig (Paul Maxwell) is a slimy con who breaks out of prison and wants his cut of the loot he helped liberate from it's rightful owner some time ago. Wrestling show promoter Felix (Bruce Seton) is the guy holding onto it and he isn't that keen on Craig showing up...

Mike (T.P. McKenna) is hired to bump Craig off, though it is a bit inconvenient as he was also the one who broke Craig out of gaol. Though as he says himself, he is on an each way bet. Craig meanwhile is telling Felix's daughter Linda (Felicity Young) the truth about her old man, and also appears to have dishonoured her...

A limited film but highlighted by some high drama, genuine darkness and decent performances. The twist at the end is well worth it.

The Black Dragon's Revenge (1975)

There was much money to be made from Bruce Lee's death* for sure. In this film Ron Van Clief goes to HK to discover the truth about Bruce's death with the help of his friend Charles Bonet. However his method of investigation leaves a lot to be desired, some basic questioning and lots and lots of random fighting.

Meanwhile another group are also trying to find out the truth, and they also get into lots of fights. The bad guys want to stop the truth getting out of course. What is the truth about Bruce Lee's death? Well that is never made clear though every conspiracy theory under the sun is given an airing, amid the endless fights.

Well the story is nonsense but the martial arts is decent. It is also great to see so much of HK in the 1970s.

* Though of course we all know his death was faked and really he was recalled to the Shaolin Temple.