Mandrake, the Magician (Serial) (1939)

An enjoyable comic book adaptation about a magician who fights crimes with his side kick (Al Kikume), kind of like Batman in a top hat.

Mandrake (Warren Hull) is on an ocean liner doing card tricks, and trying to avoid being shot by random hoodlums. Meanwhile, Professor Houston (Forbes Murray) is perfecting his new radium ray cannon but the technology is wanted by the maniacal villain The Wasp. Houston is kidnapped by The Wasp's henchmen. 

Can Mandrake and Houston's daughter Betty (Doris Weston) save the day in a series of death defying cliff hangers?

This is marvellously pulpy tosh though very entertaining all the same. It has all the ingredients for a decent 1930s serial and works very well overall though will get a bit a repetitive in the end as these serials tend to do. Great fun and The Wasp is a piece of genius.

Charlie Chan in Panama (1940)

One of the best Charlie Chan films as he uncovers an enemy plot to sabotage the Panama Canal...

Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) is working undercover in Panama (selling hats of course). When a group of travellers arrive in town, one of them visits Charlie (his contact) but dies soon after, poisoned by his own cigarettes. Charlie and Jimmy (Victor Sen Yung) investigate the other travellers, one of whom is thought to be a mysterious foreign agent and who plans to attack the Panama Canal while a US Navy fleet is sailing through it...

This is a great film that keeps you guessing until the end (though seasoned watchers / readers of whodunnits from this period will probably guess who the agent is!) The high stakes (the world was at war, though America was not yet involved but probably knew they would soon), intricate plot and good performances (including by Jack La Rue, who always plays a good villain) make this a highly enjoyable film.

Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957)

The Citizen Kane of bad movies, a legend in the trash movie genre. But it is really that bad? Yes.

Flying saucers (wobbly ones at that) are visiting the Earth. For some reason they are bringing the dead back to life, including the rather unfortunate Bela Lugosi (this was indeed his last film). These zombies can be controlled by the aliens for their own nefarious ends. The police and military vaguely mill around and eventually confront the aliens including Vampira and Tor Johnson on their wobbly space saucer...

A very low budget film indeed, and often unintentionally hilarious (such as when a soldier is supposed to be standing in the open but you can see the wrinkles in the "sky" behind him). The acting veers between basic and terrible and the story is very confused (is this a science fiction film or a horror?) 

It is wonderful though because of that, it's cult classic status is well deserved. Everyone needs to see this film at least once.

Robo Vampire (1988)

What on Earth is going on here, it seems like at least three films all spliced together. Well it is by Godfrey Ho...

Thai drug lords have a highly effective though also unusual weapon in their armoury: Chinese hopping vampires! Meanwhile, anti-drug agent Tom is killed in action, but then bought back to life in a knock-off RoboCop-like manner in a highly scientific operation carried out in a battered looking spare room at the police station. This version of the robot policeman however, looks rather laughable with his silver padded jacket and helmet. He battles the vampires, and the drug barons' hoods. Meanwhile, a female agent is captured by the drug lords...

This film makes no sense whatsoever! Godfrey Ho spliced together a Thai action movie with new footage (1984's Paa Lohgan to be precise) with some new footage of the Not-Robocop fighting hopping vampires. The result is incredibly incoherent but the film is undoubtably entertaining and frequently unintentionally hilarious with it's endless but also senseless action scenes. 

This film is pretty amazing, for most of it you won't really believe your eyes and maybe you will wonder if someone spiked your drink. Just be glad a film like this exists.

The Wonderful Land of Oz (1969)

Don't do drugs kids, you might end up making a film like this.

Evil Mombi (Zisca Baum) the witch threatens to turn young Tip (Chan Mahon) into a statue after he creates a man out of a pumpkin (George Wadsworth). He runs away with his pumpkin man to the Emerald City but gets mixed up in a military coup. Tip teams up with the Scarecrow (Michael R Thomas) and Tin man (Allen Joseph) to raise their own army against the revolution...

Where do we start with this film, it is all pretty awful. The sets are cheap and basic, the acting is mostly terrible (apart from Zisca Baum who is pretty good as a witch). If you haven't suffered enough then there are some dreadful songs too. 

Oh there is a badly made puppet cow head too. Its all pretty amazing, though mostly in a bad way.