The Dude Ranger (1934)

A very familiar B-movie Western story wise but a good example of the type. Ernest (George O'Brien) arrives from out East to take up his inheritance of a cattle ranch. However, when he gets there he finds the ranch has thousands of livestock missing and as he has been mistaken as just another cowhand he decides to play along to try and find who is behind the cow theft. He suspects the boss Sam (Henry Hall) could be behind it, though when he gets the hots for Sam's daughter Anne (Irene Hervey) things get complicated...

Naturally it is really someone else who is behind the crime (LeRoy Mason) and everything gets sorted out just in time for Ernest and Anne to kiss. The story may lack originality but the film is well made with an emphasis on plot rather than badly choreographed gunfights who so often ruin films of this type. The film does maybe lack a bit of action though having said that.

Sid Saylor provides light relief as a singing sidekick to Ernest.

The Cosmonaut Cover-Up (1999)

A documentary which claims that Yuri Gagarin was not the first man in space, in fact it was test pilot Vladimir Ilyushin. However, his flight into space went wrong and he crash landed in China and was badly injured. 

This is a great story though little actual evidence is provided. Rather disappointingly Ilyushin himself declined to speak on camera about it despite the film makers claiming he was going to. So, all we really have is a lot of hearsay, obscure old news snippets and unsubstantiated claims. 

However, despite that this documentary is well worth watching due to the Soviet era footage of space development and training much of it is completely compelling and fascinating.

The Accursed (1957)

A group of former resistance fighters are assembled by their former leader Colonel Price (Donald Wolfit) for one purpose: to find out which one of them is a traitor! Price is waiting for his man in Berlin, Dehmel (Colin Croft) to bring him the identity of the traitor... but Dehmel is bumped off as soon as he arrives at Price's country home.

Then a Major Shane (Robert Bray) arrives, supposedly because his car has broken down, but is soon transpires that he was looking Price's now-dead informant and he becomes involves in the search for the identity of the traitor/murderer. More murders and attempted murders begin to take place...

Although this has the veneer of a spy drama, this is really a classic country house whodunnit with the Major taking the role of the authority outsider who uncovers the culprit with the oldest trick in the book. The film is quite slow but has a good sense of suspense and a good cast including Anton Differing, Christopher Lee and Jane Griffiths.

Penny and the Pownall Case (1948)

A bright and breezy little crime yarn, based on the 1940s comic strip Jane. Penny (Peggy Evans) is a young model who is drawn by artist Blair (Christopher Lee) in a slightly racy strip. However, the comic strip is really a way for Blair to communicate with his fellow Nazis seeking to escape capture by the British.

Penny discovers the name of a murdered agent by her room mate and police secretary Molly (Diana Dors) and then finds the name has something to do with Blair. She goes with Blair to Spain, also there though is the police in the form of Carson (Ralph Michael) who is hunting for Nazi fugitives...

A light story, it moves along apace and has a straight forward plot. Penny spends most of the film changing her clothes, including quite a lot of screen time in her underwear. The film is short but not without interest, early roles for Dors and Lee (his first screen appearance as a villain).

Ten Little Indians (1965)

A good and stylish version of the Agatha Christie classic. A mixed group of people are invited to a remote mansion in the Alps. The host UN Owen has yet to turn up but his voice is heard as a recording tells the guests they have all got away with murder. The deaths begin almost immediately. The guests soon realise that one of their number is bumping them off and using the nursery rhyme Ten Little Indians as an inspiration.

So who is UN Owen? Is it the Judge (Wilfred Hyde-White), Mr Blore (Stanley Holloway) or Ann Clyde (Shirley Eaton) or one of the others? One by one the guests are bumped off in a variety of manners even including a crashing cable car! 

The film has a great feel with plenty of suspense. The performances are very good on the whole. The voice of UN Owen was Christopher Lee, well who else? 

The film compares well to the 1974 version.