Master Ninja II (1984)

The Master was an American TV show about an old ninja, it didn't run for very long but some of the episodes were put together to create TV movies.

So, this is basically episode 3 and 4 of the TV series. No attempt is made to make the join between the two episodes seamless by the way, which is quite funny. Lee Van Cleef plays McAllister, an Army veteran who became the only gaijin ninja master in Japan. However, he is now in the US with his young apprentice Max (Timothy Van Patten) looking for McAllister's daughter, trying to avoid being killed by other ninjas, and fighting injustice (of course!)

In the first story, McAllister and Max help Carrie (Crystal Bernard) with her fight against a corrupt company boss, who was involved in her brother's death. The second story involves terrorists and secret agents and includes guest appearances from George Lazenby (who wears a tuxedo throughout of course) and David McCallum.

Watching this you can see why this only lasted for thirteen episodes on TV. Van Cleef isn't a very convincing ninja master if we are going to be honest. The story is often quite generic 1980s US TV action show but is fun enough if not taken very seriously.

Moon Zero Two (1969)

While mankind was reaching the Moon for real, this film explored what might be happening there in a few decades time: salvaging junk, drinking awful booze in Moon based saloon bars and having purple hair.

Kemp (James Olson) is a former hero astronaut (the first man on Mars) but is now relegated to flying a worn out old ferry and salvaging broken satellites. He is hired by mega rich JJ Hubbard (Warren Mitchell) for a secret and fairly illegal job: force an asteroid that is basically a giant sapphire to crash on the Moon so it can be much easily mined. Kemp, in need of cash, carries this out.

But meanwhile Clem (Catherine Shell) has arrived on the Moon and also need Kemp's help to find her missing Moon miner brother. As he helps her he finds himself drawn into JJ Hubbard's darker and much more deadly plan...

This really is a great film, great fun and action from start to finish. The limited special effects do not detract from the story (and indeed were not that bad for the day anyway). Surely a film that can bring you Bernard Bresslaw as a hired thug in a spacesuit can only be great?!

Portland Exposé (1957)

A tough crime caper told in semi-documentary style.

Tavern owner George (Edward Binns) is leaned on by the mob to fill his place with gambling machines and pinball. Helpless against the ruthless syndicate he agrees but when a mobster tries to rape his daughter (Carolyn Craig), George vows to bring the mob down. He teams up with the authorities to get enough evidence to bring the syndicate down which means putting himself at extreme risk as he rises up the ranks of the syndicate...

This isn't a bad film at all with some Noir-ish touches including the rather brutal disposal of a corpse. The story can grind to a halt at times but the danger to George will keep your interest.

Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders (1996)

A dubious Merlin unleashes horrors on a grandchild's mind.

When a power cut stops his grandson (Mark Hurtado) watching TV, granddad (Ernest Borgnine) tells him a couple of horror stories involving Merlin (George Milan) and his shop of horrors... i mean mystical wonders. In the first story a sneering newspaper critic (John Terrence) visits Merlin's shop to have a sneer. He is given a book of spells by Merlin to help him believe in him. The critic tries out the magic and unleashes all sorts of demonic and hellish magic on the world and himself.

In the second story a little monkey toy is bought by David (Bob Mendelsohn), unfortunately this toy is possessed by dark magic and when it plays the drums deaths occur. Starting with a goldfish and soon progressing to humans too...

Although the stories are not too original they are well done though they seem rather dark for a grandfather to tell a young boy! The moral from the story seems to be Merlin should be locked up! Although quite cheesy at times this is a perfectly enjoyable B-movie horror. You do wonder though if this film is indeed aimed at children or aimed at mentally scarring them?

Crime Smasher (1943)

Fast moving comedy crime fighting antics.

Cosmo Jones (Frank Graham) has done a correspondence course in criminology and now he thinks the police will find his expertise invaluable, the head of the police Murphy (Edgar Kennedy) does not seem very keen though! Meanwhile, socialite Phyllis Blake (Gwen Kenyon) is hanging out with a gang leader but a rival gang kidnap her. Can Cosmo Jones save the woman before he annoys Murphy too much and gets arrested himself?

A fun film with Mantan Moreland helping out with the comedy. The film moves along fairly swiftly and has an enjoyable if not overly taxing story. 

Cosmo Jones was a popular radio character (also portrayed by Frank Graham) and it's likely a long-running movie series was hoped starring this quirky character, but as it turned out only this film was made.