Pool of London (1951)

A deliciously gritty tale of merchant seamen and crime in early 1950s London. Dan (Bonar Colleano) and his shipmates including Johnny (Earl Cameron) and Harry (Leslie Phillips) have arrived back in London. Dan has a petty smuggling thing going on but his contacts including an acrobat Charlie (Max Adrian) have bigger plans...

In fact Charlie plans a robbery stealing diamonds and use Dan to get them to the Continent. The robbery takes place but a watch man dies, Dan now knows he could get the blame. Meanwhile Johnny has sparked up an romance with Pat (Susan Shaw) but Dan asks him to take a small package onboard...

An interesting slice of early 1950s British crime and the London docks. Not without plenty of violence, crime and racism. Enjoyable is James Robertson Justice who spends his time in port locked in his cabin with a book of poetry and several bottles of brandy!

Planet of Dinosaurs (1977)

A 1970s science-fiction film thus everyone is in rather uncomfortable looking polyester jumpsuits (and big moustaches are obviously space fleet regulation for the men). A malfunction on their ship maroons the crew on an uncharted planet with few supplies and no idea when/if help is coming. One big problem is that the planet is inhabited by dinosaurs...

The survivors are led by Captain Lee (Louis Lawless) but his decisions are always questioned by butch Jim (James Whitworth) - who relishes the chance to go full caveman - and the annoying company owner Harvey (Harvey Shain) who would relish most a cool drink. The rest of the crew including Nyra (Pamela Bottaro) give random screams and grunts as the situation vaguely demands.

Much of the film is fairly aimless as they wander around swamps and hills, with the occasional monster attack. The dinosaurs are a reasonable example of stop-motion animation. The best thing about the film is the synth heavy prog rock-ish soundtrack which is oddly jarring from the actual onscreen action. Despite the film's (many) flaws it is entertaining tosh and has an unexpected ending.

The Devil Diamond (1937)

A pleasing comedy-crime caper. A cursed diamond is sent to be cut up before it can be sold on. A gang of crooks led by Morgan (Robert Fiske) however want to steal the diamond(s) and they concoct a rather bizarre plan involving them pretending to be helping aspiring young boxer Lee (Frankie Darro) train while waiting to steal the diamond.

The diamond is sent to retired diamond cutter Peter (Burr Caruth) at the boarding house he owns and is managed by his daughter Dorothy (June Gale). Meanwhile Jerry (Kane Richmond) has also turned up at the boarding plan pretending to be a researcher but really he is there to protect the diamond and foil the criminals...

The film is quite strange. The tone is quite light and the story is mostly about Lee's confusion with his suddenly disinterested trainers and his attempts to get away from love struck Yvonne (Rosita Butler). Dorothy is also interested in Jerry of course. There are also a lot of semi-comedic slap stick fights.

The Iron Mask (1929)

In one of the last silent movie epics Douglas Fairbanks reprised his role of D'Artagnan in this sequel to 1921's The Three Musketeers. King Louis XIII (Rolfe Sedan) receives news that his wife has given him a heir - but there is a problem, the heir has a twin. Cardinal Richeliu (Nigel de Brulier) fears the twin could cause trouble for France and must be kept secret. D'Artagnan's lover Constance (Marguerite de la Motte) - who had been the midwife - is banished and later dies. D'Artagnan finally discovers the existence of the twins and is assigned to act as the baby heir's guardian. However the evil de Rochfort (Ullrich Haupt) takes the twin away and raises him in secret...

Twenty years later the baby is now a man and is King Louis XIV (William Bakewell). De Rochfort arranges for the (evil and vain) twin to replace his brother. The true king is imprisoned and put in an iron mask so that no one could know of his identity. However a message is gotton through to D'Artagnan. The musketeers return for one last battle to save the true king...

A true swashbuckling silent movie epic, and also available in transitional form with a sound prologue and narration by Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Although early on the film it gets bogged down a bit with flashbacks and trivia, in the second half of the film it is non-stop action, and lots of blades of course. It is lavish and grand with exquisite sets and costumes and an army of extras, a fitting end to this era of Hollywood.

R.O.T.O.R. (1987)

A hilariously bad 1980s sci-fi action film. Barrett Coldyron (Richard Gesswein) is developing the ultimate crime fighting robot called R.O.T.O.R. (which sounds like it should be a helicopter). Those pencil pushers at City Hall are impatient and want the robot on the streets A.S.A.P. of course, Barrett quits but it doesn't really matter anyway as a mishap involving some earphones and a comb causes R.O.T.O.R. to come to life (no really). He leaves the police lab and heads off on a bike...

It isn't long before his primary program as judge, jury and executioner comes into play when he kills a civilian for... well it isn't quite clear why. The girlfriend (Margaret Trigg) flees and R.O.T.O.R. begins a relentless (though rather inept) search for her. While the police seem to be uninterested in the carnage Barrett enlists the help of a female bodybuilder / scientist (Jayne Smith) to defeat R.O.T.O.R...

R.O.T.O.R. does seem to have a lot of weaknesses though, including car horns, 1980s soft rock and string... To save money the robot cop actually just looks like a beefy man with a moustache in black leather - like someone in a Village People tribute band rather than the ultimate crime fighting machine. But there is so much to enjoy here, such as the cheesy police robot which wears a police cap, the fact Gesswein is dubbed, the fight scenes which make no logical sense. An incredible film for all the wrong reasons, but tremendous fun.