P.O.W.: the Escape (1986)

David Carradine and his buddies kill the enemy so easily you wonder just how the US lost the Vietnam War?

With the Vietnam War drawing to the close the US are desperate to get their men held prisoner by the North Vietnamese. Colonel Cooper (Carradine) is captured on an unsuccessful raid on a prison camp and ends up a prisoner himself in a camp under the control of the brutal Vinh (Mako). However, Vinh is not a true believer, he in fact wants to flee to the US with a load of gold he has stolen. He manages to persuade Cooper to help him escape, in return for letting Cooper and the other prisoners flee.

But the escape is a difficult one, with the North Vietnamese Army pursuing them and dissent between the US soldiers themselves. This includes Sparks (Charles Grant) who wants the gold for himself and isn't afraid of killing friend or foe to get it...

So, this is gung ho nonsense of course but is terrific fun if you fancy a bit of mindless war action. It is a very butch film, the only female character being a bar girl (Irma Alegre) who spends most of her screen name naked! A high body count makes up for a meagre plot.

Super Seven Calling Cairo (1965)

The success of James Bond in the 1960s sparked a whole wave of copycat films of various quality, this one isn't bad at all.

Super 7 (Roger Browne) is a British agent who is tasked to find a sample of a new super secret radioactive material which has been hidden in a camera. Super 7 heads to Cairo to find that the camera has been sold to a tourist by mistake. Unfortunately the bad guys led by the rather sinister ex-Nazi Alex (Massimo Serato) are also after the material and are quite happy to leave a trail of dead and broken bodies behind them.

Of course as this is a James Bond pastiche there are a number of beautiful women (including Fabienne Dali and Rosalba Neri) involved, some foes and some friends though as the film progresses its hard to know which is which...

This is a fun film that is quite outrageous in how it copies Bond but really thats how it should be. Fairly low budget but full of action.

Bruce, Kung Fu Girls (1975)

Somewhat awful and fairly exploitative kung fu action.

Five young girls including Polly Kwan are training in the martial arts. They chance upon a young man being chased by thugs and save him from a beating, the girls doing the fighting in their bikinis (natch). The man says he has developed a new secret formula which the thugs want to make money out of. The girls are sent by their uncle to help the police in HK with a series of crimes. Much bad kung fu action ensues.

This is not a film to be taken seriously, the action is frequent and goes on a bit too long and not that well executed either with fists and kicks frequently missing their targets though are sold like crazy. There is also a lot of whimsical humour and nonsense. Not high art but it does it's job of passing a bit of time especially if you like pretty young women in hot pants doing high kicks.

Despite the title Bruce Lee (not even Bruce Le) is involved in this film in any shape or form!

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.