The Girl and Her Trust (1912)

An interesting little short feature. Grace (Dorothy Bernard) is the telegraph operator at a railway station. When a bunch of tramps led by Alfred Paget try and rob $2000 being transferred by train, Grace saves the day by telegraphing on ahead to get help and also holding off the tramps in her office...

This is a great little film with a strong female character, obviously rather rare in cinema back then. Good early use of editing and camera angles help make this a cutting edge film for it's day and not just a camera being kept statically in front of a stage play. Well worth the watch.

The Day Time Ended (1979)

The makers of this film obviously had budget for special effects and were going to use as many as possible, no matter if it made sense to the plot (such that there is). The result is a bit of a mess though not without charm. 

A nice middle class family arrive home at their funky modern house in the desert, all solar panels and modern art (and to be fair it looks amazing). However, weird things start happening. Strange lights at night appear at night, these third encounters involve stop motion monsters and time warps.

Grant (Jim Davis) waves a pistol around rather ineffectually as one of the aliens, the family encounters, looks like a flying teasmade and stops bullets in mid air and vaporise them. However, the teasmade is stopped by a wooden interior door. Little Jenny (Natasha Ryan) isn't afraid of the aliens and leads the family into a time warp into the future...

The film doesn't make much sense, after a night of having their lives turned upside down and being menaced by monsters, they all seem cool about being seemingly marooned in the far future in a strange land. In fact apart from a mild case of awe and minor terror they don't seem that freaked out about anything. The alien antics, which randomly switch from monster attacks to time warps and UFO light shows, are also hard to explain. The film is nonsense with little plot but entertaining fun all the same.

Nabonga (1944)

A standard jungle adventure with the obligatory big ape played by a man in a suit and a white woman who has grown up in the distant jungle but still looks like she just came out of a beauty salon! 

Years ago, Stockwell (Herbert Rawlinson) made off with a fortune in gems along with his young daughter Doreen (Jackie Newfield). Their plane crashes in the jungle, Doreen befriends a gorilla (Ray Corrigan) who has been wounded...

Some years later Ray (Buster Crabb) is in Africa looking for these gems. His father took the blame for Stockwell's crime and Ray wants to clear his name. With the help of Tobo (Prince Modupe) he heads into the jungle to the realm of a mysterious white witch. Carl (Barton MacLane) and Marie (Fifi D'Orsay) are also on the trail though Carl just wants the gems for himself! Ray discovers that the white witch is Doreen, now a young woman (Julie London) and guarded by her friendly gorilla Samson. Doreen isn't interested in giving the gems back...

Standard jungle adventure fare with Buster Crabb fulfilling the Tarzan-like hero role with some bare chested wild animal fighting. The film is pretty low budget with limited "jungle" scenes which make the most of stock footage. Samson the gorilla's suit is a highlight as is Doreen's rather fetching jungle print cocktail dress. Remarkable what you can pick up in the deepest darkest jungle.

The Mirror Crack'd (1980)

An excellent Agatha Christie adaptation packed full of stars. Hollywood has invaded a quiet English village to make a film being directed by Jason Rudd (Rock Hudson) and starring wife Marina (Elizabeth Taylor). However, at a reception local girl Heather (Maureen Bennett) dies of poisoning. Was the poison really intended for Marina?

Miss Marple (Angela Lansbury) and her nephew Inspector Craddock (Edward Fox) investigate the murder in their own separate ways. There are a number of suspects including the shifty producer Martin (Tony Curtis) and Marina's unstable rival Lola (Kim Novak). But was the crime not quite as it appears?

A delightful film that really plays up the contrast between the hysteria and exaggeration of Hollywood and the staid conservatism of a 1950s English village. The film doesn't move very quickly but it certainly is highly enjoyable.

Reptilicus (1961)

Everyone was doing a monster movie in the 1960s, and here is the Danish "Godzilla", a rather ridiculous looking reptile which destroys Copenhagen. The preserved remains of a strange beast are found by Svend (Bent Medjing) a miner. Back at the lab, Professor Martens (Ashjorn Andersen) is carefully analysing the remains. When a mistake thaws the remains out the remains begin to regenerate...

During a thunderstorm the regeneration completes rapidly, the result being a huge armour plated killing machine. The Reptilicus (as it is called) escapes and begins to destroy. US General Grayson (Carl Ottosen) is tasked with stopping it but the army weapons have little effect as the creature descends on the city...

A very strange film with odd stilted dialogue and stiff acting, plus incredibly ropey special effects. For some reason the creature spits green goo, which has little effect on whatever it hits. It also has a lot of trouble destroying even the most cardboard of building. The film is complete nonsense and also hilarious and hugely enjoyable of course.