Man With 100 Faces (1938)

A fun crime caper. A mysterious criminal, who is the master of disguise, called Crackerjack has gained notoriety. He also raises the ire a gang of US crooks led by Sculpie (Noel Madison), when he beats them to a bag of diamonds on a mid-air heist. 

Crackerjack is Jack Drake (Tom Walls) who uses his ill-gotten gains to fund charities like childrens' hospitals and also to live the high life in a posh hotel, he even writes about his exploits in a best selling book! In that hotel is his ex-beau the Baroness (Lilli Palmer) who feels that she knows who Crackerjack is...

Crackerjack foils another of the US gang's heists and, with their society backers, hatch a plot using the Baroness to lure Crackerjack to their country home hideout. However, the master of disguise is always one step ahead...

A great little film, light and breezy. A ridiculous and endearing tale of a gentleman thief and a luscious look at the high life in the late 1930s.

Target Earth (1954)

An interesting take on the 1950s "alien invasion" theme. Nora (Kathleen Crowley) awakes after an attempted overdose, she finds all her neighbours seem to have gone, in fact the whole city seems to be empty! Finally she runs into Frank (Richard Denning), who also had been out of it for some time - though in his case due to a mugging. They explore the eerie empty city, finally they hear piano music and discover Jim (Richard Reeves) and Vicki (Virginia Gray) getting hammered in a bar!

Soon after the four discover something else is stalking the streets. The US has been invaded by a mysterious army of robots from outer space. The foursome flee to a hotel and hole up there until escaped convict Davis (Robert Roark) forces them to help him facilitate his own escape from the alien robots. Meanwhile the US Army races against time to find a counter to the robots, if they don't... well they are going to nuke the city!

This is a great sci-fi film, full of suspense with it's empty streets and air of mystery. A lot of that mystery is lost though when we finally see the robots, which are ridiculously clunky. However, this film is elevated above other films in it's sub-genre by how it explores the human reactions to an alien invasion not just lots of laser gun firing. A great little film.

Blood Theatre (1984)

Quite simply one of the most baffling films ever made. Murdock (Rob-roy Fletcher) adds another movie theatre to his chain, unfortunately it is one which was the scene of a massacre on the opening night. Murdock, when he is not being bullied by his "assistant" Miss Blackwell (Mary Woronov), sends some of his employees to prepare the theatre for re-opening. Jennifer (Jenny Cunningham), Adrian (Andrew Cofrin) and Malcolm (Daniel Schafer) all encounter much weirdness, such as flying movie film canisters and Jennifer even encounters a strange old man (Jonathan Blakely) who tries to strangle her.

The deaths begin as opening night nears, including sassy employees Selena (Joanna Foxx) and Darcy (Stephanie Dillard) - which is a bit of a shame because they are probably the best part of the film. Opening night itself becomes a bit of a blood bath with various and innovative methods of execution including decapitation by a projection room shutter. Jennifer encounters the old man again, and apparently she reminds him of someone from his past...

By then you won't really care as the film makes zero sense. It is hilarious though (and intentionally) with randomness and weirdness throughout. The film includes a fake trailer for Clown Whores of Hollywood. To be honest that film would probably have made more sense. A kind of genius.

Trapped (1949)

A taut and tough noir. The Feds are on a case of counterfeit dollar bills, they need the plates to stop the near perfect fake bills being printed. They arrange with the plate's creator Stewart (Lloyd Bridges), for him to help the Feds track down the plates in return for parole. The Feds arrange for him to "escape" and he links up with his old squeeze Dixon (Barbara Payton).

Unknown to Stewart and Dixon, the Feds already have a line on Dixon. Agent Downey is posing as small-time hustler Hackett (John Hoyt) and he arranges for himself to become part of Stewart's plan to get the plates back from Sylvester (James Todd). Downey and the Feds' plan runs into trouble when Stewart decides that escaping to Mexico with Dixon and a pile of cash is preferable to going back to the jail...

A great crime film with plenty of double dealing and intrigue, not a small amount of violence too. All you want in a really good noir crime film.

Towed in a Hole (1932)

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy decide to get a fishing boat... not that they get anywhere near the sea in this comedy short! 

The boat is bought from a junkyard and needs some work doing to it, of course nothing can go wrong there can it? Or should we say nothing can go right?

Stan and Ollie suffer various mishaps as they try and fix the boat, leading to a bit fall out between the guys. Finally, however the boat is ready to take to the docks... it is all going to OK now isn't it?

Not the best Laurel and Hardy comedy short though still very good fun with plenty of slapstick and comedy timing magic.