High Treason (1929)

High Treason is one of the earliest British "talkies" and also an early science fiction film, being set in the "near future" of 1940. However, despite being only set eleven years into the future the world is a very different place (though quite familiar to us today). 

Two power blocs jockey for position in an uneasy peace. Arms manufacturers don't like peace of course as its bad for business so they engineer a war between the Atlantic States and Europe by bombing the Channel Tunnel. Ironically, big business manipulating two states into a war actually happened in South America a few years later in the 1930s...

Dr Seymour (Humberston Wright) leads a peace league which is opposed to the seemingly inevitable war. Injured in an explosion he calls upon his daughter Evelyn (Benita Hume) to stop the bombers... one complication is that the bombers are commanded by her ex Deane (Jameson Thomas)...

As you can imagine the world in 1940 is an Art Deco masterpiece with aeroplanes and airships flying over skyscraper filled cities, video calling and fencing being the interval act at a dance. While the film looks a treat, the story is a bit hokum and the peace message is hammered on rather too thickly. 

War is averted by a rather neat twist (though you can see it coming). Peace in our times, well for a few years anyway.

Shake Hands with Danger (1980)

A safety film detailing the various grisly ways heavy machinery can mangle human flesh if you are not careful and the guys in this film certainly arn't. One of the guys is shown changing the wheel on a large excavator and ends up demolishing a house! 

What makes the film unintentionally hilarious is the gritty country & western soundtrack. As the song says, being distracted or hungover might cause you to fall from a JCV or have your hand cut to pieces in a grinder. So lay off the Jack Daniels and pay attention!

 

Pterodactyl Woman from Beverly Hills (1997)

A very strange and often funny film (for both the wrong and right reasons). Dick (Brad Wilson) is a palaeontologist who accidentally disturbs a sacred site in the desert, a shaman called Salvador Dali (Brion James) puts a curse on him, his wife is now a pterodactyl! Back home in Beverley Hills Dick's wife Pixie (Beverley D'Angelo) does indeed begin to feel strange. During the day she exhibits strange behaviour such as eating a live fish whole in a supermarket. At night she transforms and spreads her (actual) wings...

Her family, including her children (Aron Eisenberg and Sharon Martin), struggle to come to terms with this change in Mum. Dick finds it kind of works in the bed department though. However, they end up with a new addition to the family and decide it is time to find the shaman and get the curse lifted...

A light film, charming despite the strangeness and absurdity. The film is a bit disjointed but great fun, picked with odd characters. Barry Humphries makes a great cameo playing three different characters in one scene, including Dame Edna! The film isn't great but it is certainly different and enjoyable.

Bulldog Drummond Comes Back (1937)

Another in the long running Bulldog Drummond series, the hero this time played by John Howard for the first time. Drummond's fiance Phyllis (Louise Campbell) is kidnapped by the crooked duo of Valdin (J. Carrol Naish) and Soldanis (Helen Freeman) who seek revenge on Drummond. They set him a number of cryptic clues, getting him to charge about the countryside. Finally he is led into a trap where they plan to blow him up!

Drummond is assisted by Algy (Reginald Denny) and Tenny (E.E. Clive) of course. The Colonel (John Barrymore) also assists secretly by donning a number of disguises. The film is all rather breakneck as Drummond is sent from place by place by the clues, like a movie serial condensed into a single feature at times. Drummond is taken to a couple of places more than once which can make the film drag a bit but no doubt assisted with the budget.

The plot is simple and a bit silly, the evil plans of the criminals are so elaborate and long winded they resemble Bond villain schemes! The film is good camp fun but not much more.

The Coveted Coat (1924)

A charming little film by Gaston Quiribet which uses stop motion for a variety of special effects, part of his Q-Riosities series. Two tramps fight over a fine coat on a scarecrow. One of them warns the other that he took the coat yesterday but it is bewitched by dark magic! Whatever the wearer wishes happens to him. The tramp explains that that got him into loads of trouble including a car accident and receiving a beating from a jealous lover. Is he being completely truthful though?

The film is mostly a showcase for a number of cinematic tricks, rather than having much of a narrative, and very clever the tricks are too. The film is an interesting curiousity.