Bells (1982)

There are many ways to kill people especially in Hollywood movies, in this one (which is also known as Murder by Phone) the method of murder is to send sonic death signals and electric shocks down the line. When one of his former students is killed in this grisly manner, Nat Bridger (Richard Chamberlain) heads into the city to try and find out what exactly is going on. A man with a grudge (Robin Gammell) is carrying out these killings, the telephone company isn't really helping much by using it's huge corporate power and influence to bury the problem.

Nat, with the help of Ridley (Sara Botsford) and the police (Gary Reineke), begins to unravel the plot and the cover-up. The film is full of tension and suspense especially in the final act as Nat challenges the killer to call him so his location can be traced. 

A fantastic film but one which will probably leave you with an irrational fear of the telephone. Luckily nobody speaks on the phone anymore and nobody has worked out a way to kill people using SMS or Twitter... yet.

Bloodline (1979)

Quite possibly the worst film ever made, a hideous film in so many ways, and of course very watchable because of that. 

After the owner of a pharmaceutical company is killed (he is climbing a mountain dressed in what looks like a Spiderman outfit and his rope is cut), his daughter and heir Elizabeth (Audrey Hepburn) is under pressure to sell the company by the board members (a host of stars including James Mason and Omar Sharif) who all have their own money troubles.

Elizabeth decides to not sell and she is now in danger. She manages to survive a number of botched murder attempts. Meanwhile, a detective (Gert Frobe) investigates the death of Elizabeth's father - mostly by talking to a computer (which speaks back of course with a wonderfully retro synthesised voice). There is also a strange snuff-video subplot which doesn't seem to have much of anything to do with the main plot...

The film is a car crash (and also includes a number of car crashes). It is incredibly trashy and shoddy. A perfect adaptation of a Sidney Sheldon book then. The dialogue is banal, the editing rough, the plot makes little sense. Quite why such a great cast wanted to be involved with this is the true mystery. Like the board members in the film they obviously needed the money. 

The Barber Shop (1933)

Another W.C. Fields comedy short as he drawls his way through being a rather inept barber. To be honest he doesn't do anything right, even throwing a baseball seems to end up in mayhem. Barber O'Hair is the character's name (of course) and has a pretty sad life, his wife is a vegetarian and he never gets any meat. He does enjoy sitting outside of his shop all day and chasing away dogs. Not the funniest W.C. Fields short but a decent and charming performance as always.

The Big Noise (1944)

One of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy's later films, the jokes are by now a bit too obvious but still usually hilarious. Professor Hartley (Arthur Space) is an eccentric inventor who is always coming up with madcap schemes. His latest invention is a new explosive which he is told he must protect (thanks to a bit of mischief). He calls a detective agency but only the janitors are available, but the prospect of good living and cash leads the janitors (Laurel and Hardy) to pretend to be detectives...

Meanwhile a gang is planning to rob Hartley of jewels but when members of the gang hear about the explosive they want to steal the explosive instead and sell it to the enemy (insert a bit of wartime propaganda here). Laurel and Hardy are set off with a fake bomb hidden in an accordion to lead the thieves away, but of course they have the real bomb...

A very funny film even if the jokes are often so obvious you can spot them coming a mile off. There isn't much plot, more a framework for a series of comedy set-pieces. The visual gags are very good though. Not the best Laurel and Hardy film by any means but still has plenty of the duo's magic to make the film very worth watching.

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.