Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965)

An intriguing science-fiction film though rather disjointed, but there is a good reason for that. The film is originally the Soviet film Planeta Bur which was been edited and dubbed into English. Basil Rathbone was bought in to film some scenes from a moon base and Faith Domergue scenes from a space ship.

Despite all of that, this is a pretty decent example of space exploration as the man reaches Venus for the first time and discovers a planet inhabited by dangerous plants and violent reptiles. The explorers, which include Gennadi Vernov and Georgi Zhzhyonov, get into a variety of scrapes as they explore the planet.

The visuals are frequently impressive, although of course dated now they have the required strange other worldly feel. The film does have a number of problems though, the dubbed dialogue is often quite strange in order to match the original Russian lip movements, because of that it sometimes isn't quite clear what is going on. Rathbone and Domergue don't really add anything to the film, it is pretty obvious they are tacked onto the action. However the film has plenty to enjoy.

Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny (1972)

A very strange film. Santa (Jay Ripley) is stuck in Florida, his sleigh embedded deeply in about 2cm of sand, just before Christmas Eve. To avoid a disaster for children everywhere Santa calls for help from some local kids, they bring their pets and various other animals to try and pull Santa's sleigh free. A man in a rather unconvincing gorilla outfit also has a go.

It doesn't work and Santa begins to tell the kids some fairy stories to cheer them up... Jack and the Bean Stalk in fact. Why? Well that doesn't make such sense really, though there was a lot of handy footage from an earlier film that could be recycled...

The film is incredibly cheaply made and shoddy and has endless awful songs. It is supposed to be a children's film though sometimes seems rather dark and surreal. You may wonder what it is exactly which has made a large dark stain on the back of Santa's trousers. The Christmas movie genre is not generally known for good films but this must rank as one of the worst? Amid the weirdness and awfulness is true joy for those inclined of course.

Condemned! (1929)

A good early talkie. Michel (Ronald Colman) is a Parisian thief who has been sent to the brutal Devil Island prison. There is no escape the hard and unpleasant warden (Dudley Diggs) growls at the newly arrived convicts. The prison is between a jungle full of fever and the seas full of sharks...

The warden desires a house boy for his nervous wife (Ann Harding) and chooses the suave Michel. The nervous wife soon thaws for Michel but gossip reaches the warden who puts Michel in solitary and wants to send his wife back to Paris. Michel plans to escape... with her.

This is one of the better early talkies, not static as they often were. The plot is a little unbelievable though the leads give good though not flawless performances.

The Black Sleep (1956)

With it's list of veteran stars and low-budget setting (mostly taking place in a "castle") this film is a real throw-back to 1930s and 1940s B-movies. However, it isn't quite as much fun as it could have been. Dr Gordon Ramsey - yes really - (Herbert Rudley) is a condemned man in the Tower of London, who can hear the gallows being built. He is visited by Sir Cadman (Basil Rathbone) who gives him a mysterious potion which makes it appear like he has died and escaped the noose...

But really he is alive and now safe in Cadman's castle he learns of bizarre and horrific brain experiments. Cadman is experimenting on unfortunates, learning how to modify their brains. Some of his victims he has turned into horrific monsters, some violent enforcers (Lon Chaney Jr), raving nutcases (John Carradine) or mute servants (Bela Lugosi). Ramsey seeks a way to defeat Cadman, though in the end the biggest danger to the mad scientist comes from his own creations...

It has all the ingredients to be a great film, though can at times be a little slow. Chaney and Lugosi were rather underused in the film, a shame especially for the great Bela Lugosi as this was his last film. The film is well worth watching, just with a degree of regret.

La Grande Illusion (1937)

One of the best war films, though not a great deal of "war" takes place in it. Captain de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay) and Lieutenant Marechal (Jean Gabin) are French officers captured early in the First World War by Captain von Rauffenstein (Eric von Stroheim). Officers are shown respect and the French officers are sent to a fairly cushy prison camp where they are given a remarkable degree of freedom by the Germans. They use that degree of freedom to try and escape.

After being recaptured the officers are sent to a much tougher fortress where escape is much harder. By now von Rauffenstein, his body horribly mutilated by war injuries, is in charge of the prison. He takes de Boeldieu in hand, aristocrat to aristocrat. Marechal and the others he does not because of their humble origins. The two aristocrat officers muse on their ways coming to an end, the common man is rising no matter who wins the war.

Although a war film, it is as much - if not more - about class. However the subject is dealt with remarkable subtlety and nuance. The divide between the classes is stark, de Boeldieu has much more in common with von Rauffenstein than the other French prisoners but the film does not make them as villains, merely doomed players in the relentless passage of time in a fast changing world.