High School Caesar (1960)

A hilariously bad example of the high school drama genre (though are any of them any good?)

Matt (John Ashley) is the school's bad boy with his gang of followers but feared and hated by everyone else. The school mafia boss beats up weaker kids for their lunch money and gets copies of tests which he can sell to other kids. He also wants to be the school president but is up for election against Kelly (Lowell Brown) who wants none of that nonsense! Soon, much of the rest of the school also decide to stop the tyrannical rule of Matt...

Lets cut straight to the chase, this is a pretty awful film with a lack of action and endless wooden and stilted dialogue. It does have a few bright moments though including the character of Matt who isn't quite the one dimensional baddie you might think at first. In fact the more you know about his background (rich but neglected) the more you understand and he plays the role well. Much of the rest of the film though can be binned.

Mysterious Mr. Moto (1938)

Mr Moto is on form on this adventure ranging from a French prison to the foggy streets of old London town.

In order to infiltrate a gang of assassins, Mr Moto (Peter Lorre) has himself incarcerated on Devil's Island. There he helps Paul (Leon Ames) to escape. 

Now in his confidence, Mr Moto travels with Paul to London to be his Japanese valet. Moto discovers a plot to kill the industrialist Anton Darvak (Henry Wilcoxon), however he doesn't know who the leader of the gang is and begins an investigation in the seedy side of London and also fine art...

This is an excellent instalment in the Mr Moto series with the Japanese detective having to employ his skills in disguise as well as fighting. The "English" accents are hilariously bad. The reveal of the evil mastermind is good, though probably predictable.

Velvet Smooth (1976)

A blaxploitation epic full of hilariously bad fights.

Strange looking men in masks are muscling in on King's (Owen Watson) street hustles. Velvet Smooth (Johnnie Hill) is a female private detective who King hires to find out who is behind the attacks. The "investigation" seems to consist of random fights all over the place and hanging out in Velvet's stylish 1970s apartment. The police are also investigating in the form of Lt Ramos (Frank Ruiz), Sgt Barnes (Moses Lyllia) and a Kojak impersonator!

The story is fairly basic and easy to follow but this film is about the violence. There is a lot of it and it is nearly all bad. Endless fights in the streets and warehouses, obviously (if not very good) choreographed but also very ineptly. It helps to make the film highly entertaining, it also had plenty of late 1970s cheese.

Alien from L.A. (1988)

A cheesy 1980s sci-fi comedy, it is totally nonsense but looks amazing and is great fun.

Wanda (Kathy Ireland) is a nerd girl who never does anything exciting. She finds out her archaeologist father (Richard Haines) has gone missing in Africa and heads out to try and find him. She ends falling down a large hole her father once dug and ends up in a weird subterranean world. The inhabitants of this underground world look like extras from Mad Max but do speak English. Wanda travels with Gus (William R Moses) to the city where she soon finds herself hunted by the authorities who want to suppress knowledge of the world above...

This is a crazy film which doesn't make a lot of sense but it looks great. Aesthetically it is a mixture of Mad Max and the sort of future shock pop videos popular in the late 1980s. A feature length pop video therefore and well worth seeing.

Spy Smasher (Serial) (1942)

Spy Smasher battles a Nazi spy in this wartime action serial adaptation of a comic book character.

Alan Armstrong (Kane Richmond) has a costumed alter-ego known as Spy Smasher, he is well named indeed as his job is to battle Nazi spies who have come across to America to cause mayhem. 

The spies are led by The Mask (Hans Schumm) who uses a U-boat as his secret base and puts Spy Smasher in peril by the end of every episode, check out next week to see how he escapes!

This is one of the better action serials with some good perils and good use of stock footage.