Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936)

Charlie Chan faces Boris Karloff, what more could you want?!

Years before a famous opera singer called Greville (Karloff) is thought to have died in a fire, but really he has spent his time in an asylum with no memory. That all changes though when he sees his former wife is in town performing at the theatre. He escapes and heads to the opera. 

When the people responsible for the fire (his wife and her lover) are killed at the theatre, Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) is bought in to investigate. Naturally Greville is suspected but is all that it seems?

The theatre setting and costumes give the film a feeling of the macabre at times and Karloff of course helps with the air of menace he can provide. All the ingredients for a good (if not one of the best) Charlie Chan films are there. The in-joke about Frankenstein is hilarious.

The Visitor (1979)

An entertaining if somewhat confusing and bizarre piece of science-fiction / horror.

The forces of good and evil are battling across the universe. On little old Earth a young girl called Katy (Paige Conner) is possessed by telekinetic powers and a desire to cause evil, her poor mum Barbara (Joanne Nail) gets crippled after Katy (accidentall? Maybe, maybe not.) shoots her in the spine. Police detective Durham (Glenn Ford) is convinced there is something going on with Katy, though the girl's demonic pet falcon soon sorts that out...

Meanwhile, Jerzy (John Huston) has arrived on Earth to find Katy and prevent her mum becoming pregnant again as the second child will be bad news for the universe...

It is all rather confusing with often strange visuals and a bizarrely inappropriate soundtrack. The demonic horror does work at times though, the film may have been better if it had concentrated on that and not the outer space battle stuff. However, the nonsense and oddness does make the film pretty unintentionally funny. Conner plays a great role as the demon child, though as with most 8 year olds it probably wasn't entirely acting.

New York Confidential (1955)

A tough and compelling crime drama.

The Syndicate run crime in the USA, in New York its headed by Lupo (Broderick Crawford) who is trying to arrange a billion dollar payday but this requires the help of Washington DC (a whole other level of hoodlum). Meanwhile, Nick (Richard Conte) is bought in from Chicago to make a hit. He soon gains Lupo's confidence and rises up the ranks. But trouble is brewing for Lupo, Nick and Lupo's daughter Katherine (Anne Bancroft)...

This is a dark Noir for sure. Nick makes an unlikely kind of hero considering the number of people he kills and maims but you do root for him. There is a real sense everyone is doomed though in this heartless and ruthless world. A very good film that doesn't waste much time.

First Spaceship on Venus (1960)

An East German science-fiction epic and it is equal parts amazing and weird.

An artefact from a meteorite strike is found to have come from Venus and contains a message. An international team of astronauts is sent off to Venus to discover what happened to the apparently advanced civilisation on the planet. Their mission soon runs into many hazards in outer space. When they reach Venus they discover the civilisation is in ruins, having destroyed themselves somehow while preparing to attack Earth. However, a super weapon is still aimed at Earth...

Although dubbed into English, this film stands out from other films of the period and genre with it's inventive set design and the thoughtful weighty plot. This isn't a space opera with all American heroes, in fact the film has a rather refreshing international feel about it. The film is pretty odd though, a lot of that is probably due to how the film was edited to fit the English dialogue. 

The Lady in the Morgue (1938)

A fast moving crime drama.

The body of a woman called Alice Ross is found hanging in a cheap hotel room, the police (Thomas E Jackson) call it a case of suicide. Private detective Bill Crane (Preston Foster) is hired by the healthy family of Kathryn Crawford (Patricia Ellis), who fear that Alice is really Kathryn, to investigate discreetly. However, the body disappears from the morgue and the police think Crane and his buddy Doc (Frank Jenks) have something to do with it.

Crane begins to unravel a complicated plot involving a mysterious women dancing in a bar, a jealous band leader and two rival gang leaders who were both involved with the missing/dead woman. He handles the case in breakneck fashion and with plenty of wise cracks.

This is an uneven film though held together by decent performances by the leads. There is quite a lot of story here and it is squeezed into a typically short B-movie length, some pruning of the story may have worked wonders. However, it is an enjoyable film for all the flaws.