The Mummy (1959)

Many years ago the ancient Egyptian princess Ananka is buried in a tomb according to the law by the high priest of the god Karnak, Kharnis (Christopher Lee). However, Kharnis violates the tomb due to his love for Ananka. He tries to bring her back to life but is caught by the other priests. He is mummified and told to stand guard over Ananka for eternity...

Many years later the tomb is discovered and looted... i mean scientifically explored by Banning (Felix Alymer), his son John (Peter Cushing) and Whemple (Raymond Huntley). Despite the warnings of the strange man Bey (George Pastell) of doom if they desecrate the tomb they press on. Banning discovers the scroll of the dead and inadvertently brings Kharnis back to life. The shock drives him mad...

Now back in England some years later, Bey brings Kharnis to England with him with one aim: kill the men who desecrated the tomb of Ananka...

This is a superb occult horror film, though uneven in pace. The scenes set in ancient Egypt give the film an extra dimension and a romantic sub-plot which gives the "monster" some meaning.

High School Hero (1946)

Part of the Teen-Agers series of movies (not that any of them were). Things are going badly at school. The football team is useless and the school newsletter headed by Betty (Noel Neill) is doomed unless she can find some news. There is plenty of potential news though, the governor (Pierre Watkin) is going to visit the school and the principal (Milton Kibbee) and history teacher (Belle Mitchell) are - kind of - having a thing.

The "teens" get up to various hi-jinks including getting Dodie (June Preisser) to pretend to be a player on the team, and Freddie (Freddie Stewart) getting mixed up with the singer Chi Chi (Lita Baron) - who earlier does a bizarre horse based musical number...

Complete nonsense of course but charming enough with light goofy humour a-plenty. There are a number of cool jazz numbers too, Freddie Stewart had a really good voice. Just don't expect any actual teens.

Bloody Pit of Horror (1965)

A bizarre film containing much torture and death, though all with a strange air of camp. The Crimson Executioner is a notorious maniac who is put to death in his own castle. Hundreds of years later that castle is inhabited by a deranged bodybuilder called Travis (Mickey Hargitay). When an erotic film crew turn up at his castle, he initially turns them away but when he sees his ex Edith (Luisa Baretto) is amongst them he changes his mind.

Then the deaths begin, in horrible and bizarre manner including a strange spider web with booby trapped darts (which is in fact a complete flop). Rick (Walter Brandi) manages to avoid being killed by an incredibly slow bed of nails. Having beaten up Travis' rather poor henchmen, he discovers Travis' torture chamber where he prances from torture to torture, including putting Edith on a rather slow grill...

It is all rather weird. Despite the sadism and torture, the sheer campness of the Crimson Executioner as he jumps around just makes everything so absurd. Somehow it makes a film detailing the painful torture and destruction of young men and women rather silly and very cheesy.

Yor: The Hunter from the Future (1983)

A fantastic movie. Fantastically confused, fantastically cheesy and fantastically odd. But just fantastic. Yor (Red Brown) is a buff Conan-esque like figure with great hair who saves Pag (Luciano Pigozzi) and Kalaa (Corinne Cléry) from an unconvincing beast in a wild land of animal skins and axes. Yor is a bit of a lost soul who doesn't really know where he comes from, Pag and Kalaa (who takes a shine to Yor) tag on along with him on his vague quest.

He discovers another woman Roa (Ayshe Gul) who seems to have a similar ancestry to Yor, and also takes a shine to him to Kalaa's fury. Luckily Roa is soon despatched by some unconvincing ape men. Yor and company finally arrive at a mysterious island ruled by the Overlord (John Steiner). The movie then switches from a low budget sub-Conan action film to a low budget science-fiction romp as Yor discovers his parents were from outer space. Yor leads the revolt against the evil Overlord and his army of rather immobile robots...

A terrific film really, it might be all rather cheap and unoriginal but it is also very much fun. We have to wait a long time for the appearance of the main villain, the Overlord but he is worth the wait in all his Darth Vader cosplaying glory.

Things to Come (1936)

An extraordinary film, though it's vision of the future might be considered rather flawed nowadays. It is 1940 and the world is on the verge of war. Cabal (Raymond Massey) and Passworthy (Edward Chapman) argue about whether war will occur and what will happen. Cabal is proved right, and the world is hurled into a war which lasts for decades. The world is reduced to the level of savagery under the control of jumped up warlords like The Boss (Ralph Richardson).

Well not quite all of the world. There is a faction, which includes Cabal in it's ranks, who have continued the pursuit of progress and science and now possess a fleet of incredible flying wings which easily defeats The Boss's ragtag band. The world is united in progress. We then jump to 2036 and Cabal's and Passworthy's descendants live in an Art Deco wonderland od underground cities, and everyone wears cloaks. However, the latest project to send people around the Moon raises the ire of artist Theotocopulos (Cedric Hardwicke) who thinks the relentless march of progress must finally be stopped...

The film is very interesting rather than being overtly entertaining. The far future part of the film looks amazing (though future society despite the wonders of science seems to be as patriarchal as the 1930s). The downsides of endless scientific progress are not explored, bashed aside as irrelevant when they are mentioned. But what a vision, perhaps that is how it could have been... or be?