The Midnight Warning (1932)

Although at times this B-movie can be a bit rough around the edges, an interesting plot more than makes up for any short comings.

Dr Walcott (Hooper Atchley) meets his friend Cornish (William 'Stage' Boyd), the detective, at his hotel. Cornish tells him he has found something unusual in the hotel room fire place... a human ear bone! Then Walcott is shot by a sniper from outside the hotel (luckily just a glancing wound). Cornish and Walcott begin to investigate what is going on, the hotel management curiously seem to pooh-pooh the shooting. 

A young woman called Enid (Claudia Dell) is spotted at the house where the sniper was located. She was a former guest of the hotel but involved in a strange case where her brother went missing, the hotel management then acting like they didn't know her or that her brother had ever been there. The management are up to no good for sure, and kidnap Enid and lock her in a morgue...

Although the acting and staging is a little patchy at times and the pacing can be a bit slow, it doesn't really matter too much as the plot is really rather interesting and unusual. Quite why is a random sniper shooting at guests in the hotel? Where did Enid's brother go? The answer is pretty surprising.

Lure of the Islands (1942)

Flimsy tropical adventures, a mish mash of music, comedy and wartime espionage that doesn't quite work.

Wally (Robert Lowery) and Jinx (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams) wash up on a Pacific island, they claim their boat was torpedoed by the Japanese but really they are US agents (FBI though that doesn't make any sense) looking for Japanese military activity. Wally also discovers Tana (Margie Hart) who wants to marry him in order to escape the island...

The film is a bit of a romp, plenty of musical numbers (some of which arn't very South Sea Island-ish) and some goofy humour. The main plot about Japanese plans to invade the island thanks to Nazi collaborators can sometimes become a bit lost. The film is a vehicle for Margie Hart, the less said about her acting the better though her singing is good.

Tarzan and the Trappers (1960)

Much wildlife stock footage pads out a thin but reasonable Tarzan jungle adventure.

Schroeder (Leslie Bradley) is a big game trapper who takes no notice of laws or basic decency and raids the jungle of animals to sell. When Tarzan (Gordon Scott) interrupts his activities, Schroeder kidnaps Tarzan's son (Rickie Sorenson) and threatens him but Tarzan defeats him. Schroeder's brother Sikes (Sol Gorss) is out for revenge and heads to the jungle for a new hunt but this time his game is Tarzan himself!

This is a TV movie edited from three never shown episodes of a TV series. As with most of these kinds of stories the action obviously takes place in a studio but with lots of stock footage of wild animals. Jane (Eve Brent) does not do a great deal but Cheta the chimp is a great star. Gordon Scott's impressive physique is probably the biggest highlight.

Timelock (1995)

A terribly poorly made low-budget science fiction film that somehow is brilliant.

We are in the future and prisoners serve their time on brutal prison asteroids. Riley (Arye Gross) is on a prison transport to serve his time but his fellow cons including Villum (Jeffrey Meek) have dark plans to take over the prison and release the hyper dangerous McMasters (Jeff Speakman). Riley has to team up with the transport pilot Teegs (Maryam d'Abo) in a desperate battle for survival.

This is complete nonsense and has the budget of a cheese sandwich. The lack of budget is hidden in that time honoured way by making sets as dark as possible. So, this film should be awful but because the performances of the leads range between highly charismatic and downright camp the film is very watchable and the sheer craziness of some of the events is quite compelling viewing. 

It really shouldn't work but somehow..

No Hands on the Clock (1941)

A complicated and fast moving crime drama.

Humphrey (Chester Morris) is a private detective who is good at finding people, in fact he married Louise (Jean Parker) who he managed to find! Humphrey is sent, even though he is on his honeymoon, to Reno to find a missing man. Unfortunately this new task soon involves Humphrey and Louise in a bank robbery, a kidnapping, various women with different hair colours, accused of murder, getting shot at and even hunted by the FBI!

This has a complicated plot with more suspects and angles every time you look. What makes the film is the banter and interplay between Morris and Parker. This gives the film a light and breezy air and is highly entertaining, even if its hard to really know whats going on half the time.