Raffles (1939)

A jolly crime caper. Raffles (David Niven) is a top-class cricketer by day and a master criminal by night. He is responsible for a string of daring crimes across London as the "Master Craftsman", taunting Inspector Mackenzie (Dudley Digges). 

However, Mackenzie gets a clue. Raffles is planning to steal the jewels of Lady Melrose (Dame May Whitty) in order to raise funds for his out of luck chum Bunny (Douglas Walton). Raffles and Bunny are guests at the home of Lord Melrose (Lionel Pape) along with Gwen (Olivia de Havilland), Raffles' new love interest. Mackenzie also invites himself to the house...

To complicate matters a much more mundane thief (Peter Godfrey) is also after the jewels. Raffles ends up stopping this theft and ends up with the jewels himself. Back in London, Raffles plans to fence the jewels but Mackenzie by now knows who the Master Craftsman is. Can Raffles evade the long arm of the law?

A light and fast moving crime drama that ends up a bit of a romp. It is slightly marred by the terrible British accents by some of the American actors but Niven plays a great role. Not very substantial but definitely fun.

One of Our Aircraft is Missing (1942)

A superior WW2 propaganda film. The cheekie chappie crew of a Wellington bomber bail out over the Netherlands after their plane is hit (though it continues on without them to eventually crash into a pylon back home!) The air crew, led by Haggard (Hugh Burden) and Corbett (Godfrey Tearle), meet up with Dutch locals and an English speaking teacher (Pamela Brown) who helps them get to the coast and evade the German patrols. However, the journey is fraught with danger, from the Germans and collaborators.

Finally they end up at the home of de Vries (Googie Withers), who at first appearance is a collaborator but is really fighting the Germans behind the scenes. She helps the air crew get a boat and they reach the North Sea and (eventual) safety...

A tense wartime drama, although made for propaganda purposes it is elevated by the shades of grey, realism and an attempt of some humanisation of the enemy. The Germans are still the bad guys but some attempt is made to make them more than cardboard characters. Our heroes are normal chaps who are trying to do their best not chisel jawed super men. A good film though a little slow at times. Notable for being Peter Usinov's film debut, though he is hardly recognisable until he speaks!

Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968)

As with Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet, this is an edited version of the Soviet science-fiction film Planeta Bur with added footage of mysterious women of Venus led by Mamie van Doren who wear sea shells and have some silver paint on their bellies! The astronauts, which include Gennadi Vernov and Georgi Zhzhyonov, are supposedly American but don't ask why their space ship has red stars on it!

Venus is a strange world inhabited by various rubber monsters including a flying reptile the Venus women regard as their god. However, when the astronauts kill the creature the Venus women call up a volcano and earthquake...

The film is very surreal. Despite the fact the film is made from two completely different ones the result is reasonably coherent though does at times drag slightly. The film is dubbed and the dialogue is sometimes rather clumsy to match the original Russian speaking lips!

The Finishing Touch (1928)

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are tasked with finishing a house in record time by Sam Lufkin, what could go wrong? a framework Actually let us rephrase that, what would go right? Because a building site is just an endless opportunity for slapstick mayhem. The poor policeman Edgar Kennedy gets dragged into the destruction, a hilarious scene sees him covered in tar and then a load of roof slates fall on him and stick to him!

To make matters worse, the nurse (Dorothy Coburn) of a hospital next door is demanding that Stan and Ollie make as little noise as possible. As you can imagine this is a forlorn hope...

This is a very funny and very silly film, the story is pretty basic and largely a framework for a series of comedic situations. The slapstick doesn't always work but the film races along a such a pace that you don't have time to dwell on it when it doesn't.

Twins of Evil (1971)

An excellent Hammer horror. Twins Freida (Madeleine Collinson) and Maria (Mary Collinson) are sent to live with their Uncle Gustav (Peter Cushing) in the countryside. Unfortunately their uncle is the leader of a fanatical Puritan sect who hunt for witches and burn them alive. The girls also live in the shadow of the castle of Count Karnstein (Damien Thomas), who really is a servant of Satan.

Despite the pleadings of the teacher Anton (David Warbeck) that their methods are flawed, Gustav's Puritans continue to pursue and burn young girls. Meanwhile the Count inducts Freida into the dark path of the vampire. Her insatiable lust for blood really does turn the village upside down...

Although nothing too original, this is a fun Hammer horror and vampire film which takes advantage of real identical twins for some big bosomed identity switching. The film has plenty of fake blood, dubious "Satanic" rituals and a big slice of cheese. All you really want from an early 1970s Hammer horror.