Invasion of the Animal People (1959)

A Swedish cheesy alien invasion film, but made pretty incomprehensible by a badly executed American edit. John Carradine narrates the tale of an alien invasion, the aliens of course are after Earth women in the shape of Diane (Barbara Wilson). A group of scientists led by Engstrom (Stan Gester) investigate a meteor and some strange happenings in the frozen wastes of Northern Sweden (which the American edit seems to want to place in Switzerland - even though Lapland is mentioned a lot!)

The meteor turns out to be a spaceship, an alien monster destroys the scientists' plane and threatens a geologist and his ice skating girlfriend...

The Swedish original was a reasonable if not incredibly original science-fiction film but the American edit seems to take most of the sense out of it. A curious film with some truly laughable special effects (of course).

Ghosts on the Loose (1943)

Low wattage mirth and spookiness. The East Side Boys (an ensemble of characters who appeared in many a film in the 1940s) are decorating a house after one of the Boy's sister (Ava Gardner) gets married.

Naturally there is a mix-up and they enter the wrong house... one that is being used by Nazi spies led by Bela Lugosi. The spies want to get rid of the Boys and so play at spooks with various hidden trapdoors and panels behind pictures...

When we get onto the actual spookiness the film is fairly good though not very original. The earlier wedding segment does drag a bit with various gags which are stretched a bit thin. Luckily the film stays modest. Its a passable time waster but not much more.

Bar-Z Bad Men (1937)

A decent if not unexceptional B Western with some twists. Jim (Johnny Mack Brown) arrives at a ranch he is a new partner in. However before very long his partner Ed (Jack Rockwell) is shot in an ambush and his ranch's herd is larger than it should be. A neighbouring ranch owner, Hamp (Frank La Rue) has accused Ed of rustling.

Jim thus has to find out what is really going on. Hamp's foreman Brent (Dick Curtis) is behind the reverse rustling to further the nefarious schemes of townsman Sig Bostell (Tom London) to get hold of Ed's land...

So fairly a standard Western ranch war tale, despite the reverse rustling twist the story line is pretty straight forward. Jim defeats the baddies with some decent fighting (though as usual with these Westerns everyone seems to need about 20 shots to make one hit!) and horsemanship. Hemp's daughter Lois (Lois January) plays the love interest for Jim, will he get the girl in the end? There are no surprises there either!

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)

A very strange film, apparently a Christmas tale though it spends quite a lot of time displaying nuclear missiles and bombers! Martian children are watching Santa Claus on Earth TV and are sad that they have no toys and joy, no Christmas! The leader of the Martians, Kimar (Leonard Hicks) decides to go to Earth. However, for a change the Martians are not bent on destroying the world or stealing our women... no, instead they want Santa Claus!

The Martians manage to kidnap the real Santa (John Call) and two children (Victor Stiles and Betty Conforti) and take them to Mars. Santa manages to defeat the Martians and bring Christmas to Martian children! Hooray!

Obviously very silly, and not a little trippy. It is also pretty low budget though that adds to the fun, the Martians are all in green and have antennae growing out of their heads of course! The special effects are fairly cheap (though better than some serious science fiction films). The man in the polar bear suit is hilarious.

The Looking Glass War (1970)

An excellent Le Carre adaptation, though one which differs from the book somewhat. The Department is a fading section of British Intelligence desperate to recapture former glories. When they find out about apparent Russian missiles in East Germany they see the chance to regain their standing by sending a man in to verify the information...

Polish layabout Leiser (Christopher Jones) is whom LeClerc (Ralph Richardson) and Avery (Anthony Hopkins) find to infiltrate the Iron Curtain. Leiser doesn't care about politics, he just wants to live in the West and chase girls. However he is trained to be a killer and some basic spycraft and then sent over. What could go wrong?

A lot in fact, from the start the operation is bungled and the East Germans are never far away from Leiser, who hooks up with local girl Anna (Pia Degermark) and travels across Germany in an old lorry leaving the odd body behind...

Dark and bleak but also having a touch of "Swinging London". Leiser is a bit of a blank slate, his motivation is rather vague, his characterisation a bit undeveloped. The film looks beautiful though and has a cynical edge to the glamour and sunshine.