Glorifying the American Girl (1929)

A story of a girl who ends up lucky in career but unlucky in love in this early talkie. Gloria (Mary Eaton) is singing in a sheet music store with Buddy (Edward Crandall) and Barbara (Gloria Shea). Gloria dreams of being able to sing on the big stage rather than behind a shop counter but is also in love with Buddy (though Barbara also has the hots for the guy...)

Gloria, pushed by her ruthless mother (Sarah Edwards), is discovered by hustler Miller (Dan Healy) and soon leaves her old life behind in order to hit the big time which she eventually does by a Ziegfeld Folly though ends up being screwed by Miller. The second half of the time is a spectacular Ziegfeld show which Gloria is in but of course there is a price to be paid for fame.

The story is well worn but as a historical curiosity the film is well worth watching. The staging and spectacle of the final show is mesmerising with a few big stars of the day also performing (to varying degree of merit).

Deadly Prey (1987)

Ridiculous ultra violent nonsense, fun for all the wrong reasons of course. Colonel Hogan (David Campbell) has set up a mercenary camp in the woods, to train his men he sets them off to hunt down an overweight office worker. Despite the fact they make pretty heavy weather of it, his team are sent to find another victim, someone tougher. More of a challenge. How about ex-special forces, and former comrade of Hogan, Mike Danton (Ted Prior)?

Mike is set off to run into the woods to be hunted down, but soon it becomes clear that he is the hunter as he steadily wipes out the camouflaged bums one by one. Finally Hogan realises who his "prey" is and the hunt becomes personal...

Well there isn't much story but a load of macho nonsense as muscular men fight with knives, rocks and anything else. Cameron Mitchell plays Mike's father-in-law who manages to find where Mike is being held despite the vaguest of information and infiltrates a base of heavily armed mercenaries. Despite the fact Hogan keeps half a dozen hand grenades on his desk you get the impression this army of fortune isn't all that good...

The film is great fun if you like cheesy violent 1980s films. Lets face it who doesn't like a film where a man gets a hand grenade put down his pants?

Missile X: Tehran Incident (1979)

Unintentionally hilarious sub-Bond nonsense. A peace summit is due to be held in the Persian Gulf but the Baron (Curt Jurgens) seeks to attack it using a stolen Russian nuclear missile (which so obviously looks like it has been made out of cardboard). CIA agent Franklin (Peter Graves) is sent to Iran where he meets up with his Soviet counterpart Senyonov (Michael Dante) to find out whats going on.

Quite what their plan is remains a mystery as they seem to aimlessly move from one fight to the other, including a formless brawl in a casino. Luckily for our heroes the Baron's men are low-rent thugs including a man with a metal arm that can project spikes. They all share a lack of ability to fight and shoot straight in scene after scene. 

Franklin meanwhile sleeps with women young enough to be his daughter (at least). As the film progresses you get the impression he might be a little too old to be throwing himself around an Iranian backyard. It probably would have been a decent role for Graves about fifteen years earlier into his career.

It is a fun (if approached in the right manner) if nonsensical film. The film does have a great funk soundtrack, though most of the time it rather jars with the action, sometimes drowning out the dialogue too. This adds to the "joy" of the film of course. The view of Iran just before the revolution is also fascinating and revealing.

The Skull (1965)

A superbly creepy supernatural horror. Maitland (Peter Cushing) and Phillips (Christopher Lee) are keen researchers of witchcraft and always looking for interesting items to further their research. Marco (Peter Wymark) brings Maitland a book about the Marquis de Sade... bound in human skin. But that's not all... he also has the skull of the Marquis de Sade himself!

The skull once belonged to Phillips but was stolen from him... but he is not keen to get it back. He tells Maitland the skull is possessed by demonic forces. This doesn't put Maitland off but when he goes to Marco's to buy it he finds the man killed. When Matland has the skull she soon finds dark forces are also driving him... to kill his own wife (Jill Bennett)...

The film is tremendous fun, maybe verging on cheese at times especially when the skull flies around the room. Everything is saved by the great cast. The horror is mostly by suggestion instead of overt gore but that usually makes for a better horror film.

Knee Deep in Music (1933)

A curious but enjoyable little film. A tycoon (Nat Carr) seeks a song to sell his tinned fish on the radio. He hires Ruth Etting for the job but the search is on for the correct song. This short film though is basically a vehicle to showcase Etting's singing with some light humour and even a bit of music industry satire added to pad the film out.

Her singing is pretty good though some of the other songs ain't so hot. But will any of the songs sell fish? The jury is out on that one.