Gang War (1940)

A low budget "race movie" starring, made by and aimed at black Americans, and a fast moving snappy crime tale.

Killer Meade (Ralph Cooper) takes over a Harlem gang and then enters a war with a rival gang leader (Laurence Criner). Meanwhile, he is wooing Maizie (Gladys Snyder) though she is engaged to another man. Maizie doesn't want Killer to end up... er... killed. When Killer goes to finally finish off his rival, Maizie calls Lieutenant Holmes (Jess Lee Brooks). Killer ain't going to be taken alive though...

A breezy and cool film, much of the plot is detailed via newspaper front pages displayed in the screen. This gives more of the limited run time to more interesting things like shooting, and a lengthy scene at the club with various acts. The film is exciting though suffers at times from the low budget and limited acting abilities of some of the cast, though not the leads who all do a decent job. In fact this is a surprisingly good film.

Mars Needs Women (1968)

A rather bizarre science-fiction film, about the Martian need for Earth women...

Mars is dying due to reasons, the Martian Dop (Tommy Kirk) leads a team to Earth to find some suitable fertile females for breeding purposes. Dop announces this plan to the US military beforehand for some reason. Dop and his team begin selecting suitable females. Pole dancers and flight attendants seem to be the preferred choice (natch). 

However, Dop selects the female scientist Dr Bolen (Yvonne Craig) for his target and falls in love with her. The authorities are meanwhile searching high and low for the Martians...

This is a pretty awful film to be honest. The overall premise is sound perhaps though crudely implemented and overall the film is pretty sleazy and cheap. The story makes little sense of course and often is (unintentionally) hilarious.

Thru Traffic (1935)

Amiable melodrama that ironically doesn't get into high gear.

Two rival racing car drivers Martin (Paul Kelly) and Dan (Russell Hardie) have their careers cut short in a bad accident. They decide to go into business together with a garage. However, crooked politicians who want to involve the garage in their kickback scam and a love triangle with Pat (Marguerite Churchill) put their friendship in peril... 

It's a decent enough film, a typically fast moving B-movie that lacks a bit of depth. Everything is a little rushed due to the short B-movie running time. Its fine though, a perfectly inoffensive film but could have been better.

Double Nickels (1977)

A low budget and even lower plot car chase marathon but despite everything somehow this is a very good film.

Smokey (Jack Vacek) and Ed (Ed Abrahms) are Californian highway patrolmen who get involved with George (George Cole) and his car repro business to earn a little more dough. However, they discover that the cars they are repossessing are really stolen. George finds that he also has been duped by the Mr Big. The three of them team up to sort things out amid many car chases.

This is a low budget film with basic acting, indeed many of the cast are obviously none-actors but it does give the acting and film in general a genial and natural air. There is no need to worry too much about the acting or basic plot though, most of the film is car chases and sometimes are done very well. 

The film probably won't please everyone but i love low budget and basic films from this era. It works really well and is a very enjoyable film.

Journey to the Center of Time (1967)

Low budget and fairly low quality time travel science fiction fare, some of the ideas are quite interesting though.

Dr Gordon (Abraham Sofaer), Mark (Anthony Eisley) and Karen (Gigi Perreau) are working on a science project to see into the past. Unfortunately they can only see 24 hours into the past. Their backer Stanton (Scott Brady) tells them they need to show some better results or he is pulling the funding. During a last gasp experiment various things go bang and they can see into the far future. In fact they can't just see the future... they are there.

After a short period where they get involved in a short battle between future human barbarians and light blue skinned aliens, they are sent into the far past and get menaced by rather dodgy looking dinosaurs (even though they've only gone back 1 million years)...

This film is nonsense and takes place mostly on one set padded out with a lot of stock footage. The lab does have the necessary amount of dials and flashing lights so you know that SCIENCE is taking place! Various weird events take place and are explained using large amounts of scientific mumbo jumbo, thus this film can be seen as the forerunner of many awful Star Trek episodes. The film isn't very good but is entertaining enough to be able to hold your interest.