Piccadilly Third Stop (1960)

An excellent little British crime drama with noir touches. Dominic (Terence Morgan) is a toff (but poor) crook in early 1960s London who introduces US crook Joe (John Crawford) to some nice gambling dens - and soon he in danger of sampling the excellence of the NHS if he doesn't pay his bills. Dominic meanwhile has hooked up with Fina (Yoko Tani), the daughter of a foreign ambassador. During pillow talk she tells him of a ton of cash in the embassy safe and how to get to it. However Dominic is really planning on running off with Joe's wife Christine (Mai Zetterling).

Dominic lures Joe in on a plot to break into the safe, getting into the embassy basement via the London Underground. To break into the actual safe the Colonel (William Hartnell) is recruited, a professional through and through as long as he gets regular scotch. Naturally there is no honour amongst thieves, both Dominic and Joe plan to stiff the other...

A superb slice of the London underworld, ruthless amoral gangsters who think nothing of using people for gain and discarding them without a second thought - though always impeccably dressed. The film builds slowly but surely up to a grand (though pretty dark) finale and some exciting scenes on the underground tracks.

Ghosthouse (1988)

A strange horror film, poorly done at times but quite inventive. Years ago a young girl (Kristen Fougerousse) who likes killing cats quickly progresses to killing her parents with the help of an evil doll. We fast forward to the present and radio ham Paul Rogers (Greg Rhodes) hears strange music and screams over the radio waves. Naturally he decides to track down the source of the signal with his girlfriend Martha (Lara Wendel) to an empty old house in the countryside...

There they find another bunch of young people, the guy Mark (Ron Houck) is also a radio ham and it is his and his girlfriend's Susan (Mary Sellers) voices Paul heard... though they haven't made these noises.... well yet. The attacks soon come though as do the reappearances of the young girl. The attacks involve various grisly attacks involving exploding jars, killer fan blades and even a guillotine which literally cuts a teen girl in half! Meanwhile weird caretaker Valkos (Donald O'Brien) is wandering around menacing them...

The film is terrifying... as in terrifyingly badly made with the film often cutting randomly mid-scene and the usual indifferent-to-bad acting. However the horror is inventive and frequently gruesome. It is also unintentionally hilarious, especially Martha who spends most of the film in a bad mood.

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.