Police Dog (1955)

A fairly light police drama but not a shaggy dog story. After PC Frank Mason's (Tim Turner) partner is shot by a burglar spiv (Cecil Brock), Frank decides to become a police dog handler. Frank is given Rex to train up and look after. Frank takes Rex home but this soon causes tension and jealousy between Frank and his girlfriend Pat (Joan Rice). Frank meanwhile is also keen to find the gunman...

There is nothing too surprising here, it has the usual depictions of British life in the 1950s, everyone humble but cheerful. The dog training scenes are interesting though and Rex plays a good role (an actual retired police dog).

Christopher Lee and John Le Mesurier have cameos as fellow police officers to Frank, Lee being unkeen on dogs and getting bit!

The Rage of Paris (1938)

A delightful little romantic comedy. Young French girl Nicole (Danielle Darrieux) is in New York desperate for a job. An embarrassing mix-up brings her into contact with Jim (Douglas Fairbanks Jr) but then she is embroiled in a plot with waiter Mike (Mischa Auer) and housemate Gloria (Helen Broderick) to ensnare a millionaire Bill (Louis Hayward)...

The plan is for Nicole to marry Bill and then help facilitate Mike's dream of having his own restaurant. The plan works as Nicole and Bill are soon engaged but Jim is a friend of Bill and he realises the plot. He has plans for Nicole himself...

A fun little film, predictable and light but very well done. The film looks fantastic, much of it set in fancy houses and hotels, it is an Art Deco treat. The performances especially from Darrieux and Fairbanks Jr are also top class. Darrieux in particular gives the film such joie de vie to really elevate it to something special.

Terror at Tenkiller (1986)

A slasher horror film though one of the slowest moving ones ever. Young ladies Leslie (Stacy Logan) and Janna (Michele Merchant) head off to a remote cabin in the woods for a vacation to escape the psycho ex Josh (Kevin Meyer). Their holiday resort includes all the usual facilities: a lake, great food, peace and quiet and a maniac killing people in the night...

Although in between the fairly infrequent murders there is a lot of aimless talking and mundane activities. There isn't a huge amount of suspense as the identity of the murderer is clear. There is a creepy old man with a beard called Preacher (Dale Buckmaster) but he gets killed pretty quickly by murderous hunk Tor (Michael Shamus Wiles)...

The padding is ridiculous. The film has about twenty minutes of story. The acting, when there is some, doesn't exactly set the world on fire. The music sounds like a bored animal meandering across a set of keyboards. So it is a terrible film but if approached in the right way (ruthlessly take the piss out of it) then there is some enjoyment to be gleaned from this drivel. But not a lot.

The Guy from Harlem (1977)

Blaxploitation films were not generally known for their high production values but this film is pretty low-rent even for the sub-genre however that doesn't mean it isn't enjoyable.

Al Connors (Loye Hawkins) is a private eye covered in loud late 70s fashion who is hired by the CIA to protect a Princess (Patricia Fulton) from an African country. Some vague bad guys try and kidnap the Princess but Al foils them with some badly choreographed fighting, and also ends up having sex with her...

And then Al is given a different job (completely unrelated to the first case), a hoodlum (Steve Gallon) hires him to save his daughter Wanda (Cathy Davis) who has been kidnapped. Al saves Wanda (and has sex with her too). Al then has a showdown with Big Daddy (Wayne Crawford)...

So the film is terribly acted and has awful production values. Obviously it is also hilarious. It is a film for men in flares brawling awkwardly, a film for crazy wallpaper and flubbed lines.

American Aristocracy (1916)

The age old story: boy meets girl, boy has to fight pirate arms smugglers. Cassius (Douglas Fairbanks) is an entomologist who stumbles into the 1910s high society in a US port, which basically consists of a lot of rich men and their bored wives and daughters. Geraldine (Jewel Carmen) is one of those bored gals, she is looking for a real man...

Cassius becomes infatuated with Geraldine but he lacks the vital ingredient to get into her high society circle: a lot of cash. His new friend Percy (Albert Parker) however offers to help him pretend to be dashing and loaded. However Cassius then discovers Percy is a gun runner supplying arms to the Central Powers in WWI...

A light action comedy with the usual incredible athleticism from Fairbanks. The film is a bit slow to get started (though has some interesting satire on American society of the period) but soon warms up, maybe a bit predictably but it is enjoyable enough. The film is notable for being the first film outing of a very young Douglas Fairbanks Jr, who has a bit part as a paper boy.