Busy Bodies (1933)

A classic Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy comedy short with some of their most iconic and ambitious set pieces. Stan and Ollie are working as carpenters at a sawmill, obviously mayhem ensues and much destruction follows. This includes Ollie getting a brush glued to his chin, getting caught (and later catapulted out of) a vent and finally destroying the manager's office after falling off a ladder. Health and safety certainly is absent in the Laurel and Hardy universe!

A superb film. There obviously isn't much story other than to hang on a series of comedy set-pieces and slapstick stunts. But who cares, this is true genius.

Four Sided Triangle (1953)

What is worse than a love triangle? A four sided love triangle. Bill (Stephen Murray) and Robin (John Van Eyssen) are childhood friends and mad scientists who are feverishly working on a machine that can duplicate matter. While their mutual childhood crush Lena (Barbara Peyton) and their mentor Dr Harvey (James Hayter) watch on, the scientists succeed. The British government begins the process of crushing the development with bureaucracy, meanwhile Robin marries Lena... Bill is distraught.

With the help of Dr Harvey, Bill modifies the machine to be able to duplicate living things! He manages to convince Lena to let him duplicate her... creating Helen. Unfortunately Helen is an exact duplicate and also loves Robin and not Bill...

A fascinating film, the science is baffling (with the usual sparkling electricity and dials, though what all the test tubes and flasks bubbling with liquid are for is not explained) but at it's heart this is an interesting examination of what really makes a person. A decent film as long as you suspect enough disbelief.

The Torture Chamber of Dr Sadism (1967)

A macabre but also campy horror, very Hammer-like and not just because of Christopher Lee. The sadistic Count Regula (Lee) is torn apart by wild horses as punishment for murdering twelve virgin maidens. Thirty five years later the lawyer Roger (Lex Barker) and piano teacher Baroness Lilian (Karin Dor) receive strange invites from the Count Regula. As they approach his castle, they find villagers recoiling in fear, though the priest - apparently - Fabian (Vladimir Medar) isn't afraid and joins them for the trip.

They find themselves in a terrifying castle, the guest of Anatol (Carl Lange). He brings Count Regula back to life. The Count reveals that Roger is the last member of his executioner's family and Roger must die to complete his revenge. Lillian will be the thirteenth maiden to die by his hand, this will enable him to complete his twisted experiments and create an elixir of eternal life...

Not the most original of horror films, it seems to take many elements of well-known horror tropes, including a pendulum pit and iron maidens and mixes everything up in a fairly psychedelic and very grotesque romp. Christopher Lee gives a great turn as the evil count (but of course you would expect nothing less!) 

Manhandled (1924)

A top draw actor can lift an otherwise average plodder of a film into something decent, as happens with this film starring Gloria Swanson as a shopgirl (Tessie) with a talent for mimicry. She manages to escape her dreary job thanks to her talent for pretending to be other people. She ends up pretending to be a snooty Russian aristocrat in order to attract customers to a posh establishment.

Tessia soon forgets about her boyfriend Jimmy (Tom Moore) but when he becomes a success himself he comes back for her and accuses her of letting herself be taken advantage of (manhandled as per the title)...

Truthfully this is a fairly forgettable comedic morality play but Swanson's comedy performance is well worth watching, especially the crowded subway train scene.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

A very clever and witty showcase for the Monty Python brand of humour (though not quite as clever as they think it is). 

King Arthur is looking for knights to join his Round Table at Camelot and then help him on a quest to find the Holy Grail. Unfortunately finding these knights isn't very easy. Finally, he does have his knights and he sets off on a quest, crossing bridges of death, fighting killer rabbits and finding a nice shrubbery...

It is all very silly of course and has a number of iconic comedy moments shown often in clips or skits, if you haven't seen this film before you probably have seen quite a lot of it already in clips and memes. It doesn't make much sense, correction it doesn't make any sense. Maybe a little more coherence would have improved the film, but 'tis but a scratch!

All the gang (John Cleese, Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones) are here in various roles. It's liberties with English history are rather large, as is the inventiveness.