Ambush in Leopard Street (1962)

A limited though not unappealing British crime drama.

Ageing criminal Harry (Michael Brennan) plans one final blag, stealing diamonds on their way to a jewellery. However, he needs to find out when the gems are on the move. He uses his brother-in-law Johnny (James Kenney) for a honey trap, seducing the lonely secretary of the jewellers Jean (Jean Harvey). The plan is flawless but Harry hasn't counted on local hard man Big George (Charles Mitchell) wanting to scoop the loot for himself...

A low budget film though with an interesting story which uses that budget well. The cruelty and inhumanity (and humanity) of the world of crime are well explored through fairly three dimensional characters. It could have been better with a bit more money behind it and a lot more pace but it's not bad by any means. 

Rebellion (1936)

A reasonable if not particularly interesting Western though notable for being an early starring role for a movie legend.

It is 1850 and California has joined the United States but law and order there is in the hands of brutal and corrupt men who oppress the Mexicans. The US send Captain John Carroll (Tom Keene) to investigate, he soon falls foul of Harris (William Royle) with an alcoholic judge (Robert McKenzie) in his pocket. Carroll links up with a rebel (Duncan Renaldo) and his sister Paula (Rita Hayworth) to persuade them to switch their allegiance to the USA...

An interesting Western, it lacks much in the way of action compared to other Westerns of the period. The film is mostly notable for being one of Rita Hayworth's (here billed as Rita Cansino) first starring roles.

Jackie Brown (1997)

Low key compared to some of his other films but this is one of Quentin Tarantino's best.

Jackie (Pam Grier) is an ageing flight attendant working for a budget airline, she's augmenting her salary with some less legal work on the side. She smuggles money for Ordell (Samuel L Jackson) but gets caught by the Feds in the form of Nicolette (Michael Keaton). He tries to get her to turn on Ordell.

Jackie meanwhile has a plan to get her hands on Ordell's ill-gotten gains and get the Feds to get rid of Ordell for her. She will also need the help of her bail bondman Max (Robert Forester)...

Influenced by blaxploitation movies and with an amazing soundtrack of mostly 1970s soul this is a very cool movie. Not as fast moving or violent as some of Tarantino's other films though has loads of cool dialogue and a great involving story. It also has a great cast also including Robert De Niro and Bridget Fonda.

Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise (1940)

Charlie Chan hunting a criminal on a cruise ship, what more could you want?

A notorious strangler has struck again and again and it is thought he is one of the passengers on a cruise ship that has docked at Honolulu. The strangler is being hunted by British policeman Duff (C. Montague Shaw) but after Shaw is murdered at Charlie Chan's (Sidney Toler) office, the famous Chinese detective joins the cruise ship and hunts for the criminal as the boat heads for California. The strangler could be one of a party of people on the boat.

There are a number of potential suspects though, could it be Dr Suderman (Lionel Atwill), Professor Gordon (Leo G. Carroll), Walters (Charles Middleton) or Pendleton (Leonard Mudie)? They all look suitable villainous in their various ways. Charlie Chan comes up with a fiendishly complicated ruse to trick the strangler to unmask himself...

Another entertaining entry in the long-running Charlie Chan series. At times Chan seems a bit lost as to whom the strangler is and his final plan does seem a bit risky!

Forbidden Jungle (1950)

Limited but largely inoffensive sub-Tarzan nonsense.

Big game hunter Burton (Don Harvey) turns up in the jungle with a group of natives and a tiger in a cage, however he is not here to massacre defenceless animals, he is hunting for a boy. A boy who is rumoured to have been bought up by chimpanzees after his parents were killed in a plane crash. That does sound a bit familiar doesn't it?

Tawa (Robert Cabal) has in fact been bought up by Trader Kirk (Forrest Taylor) and his friendly natives who live alongside chimps. Burton tries to lure Tawa back to civilisation using the image of the lights of Broadway as the best thing in the universe. This is truly a very strange film.

Not a great deal happens in this film, it has all the usual jungle and noble savage tropes and is padded out with plenty of stock footage of wild animals. Ray "Crash" Corrigan also turns up with his gorilla suit to do his usual unconvincing ape act. Not a good film by any means but watchable enough especially if you like seeing chimpanzees messing about.