Booked on Suspicion (1945)

Part of the long running good guy criminal turned amateur detective Boston Blackie series.

Blackie (Chester Morris) helps out his friend Arthur (Lloyd Corrigan) who has purchased a book store, the store relies on auctioning rare books for the majority of it's revenue but the famous book expert and auctioneer Wilfred (George M Cartleton) falls ill just before the auction of a rare Dickens first edition. Blackie, a master of disguise, steps in and pretends to be Wilfred for the sale of the book.

Unfortunately though the book turns out to be a forgery. Blackie tries to find the original owner of the book (and forger) before the money disappears without trace. He is assisted by Gloria (Lynn Merrick), not knowing she is the criminal mastermind's (Steve Cochrane) wife and accomplice. Blackie soon finds himself accused of murder and is hunted by his nemesis Inspector Faraday (Richard Lane)...

This is a good fun film, short and snappy with plenty of storyline and antics squeezed in. An enjoyable film with plenty of surprises.

Devil Dynamite (1987)

A very very strange film. Imagine the strangest film you have ever seen, multiply that strangeness by a million. This is twice as strange.

Steven Cox (Tseung Ha) is a gambler who was sent to prison for ten years because of crime boss Mary (Angela Mao). Now back out of prison he wants revenge. Police officer Alex (Ling Yun) is also after Mary but he has a secret, he turns into a kind of super hero with a silver painted helmet and an outfit made out of tin foil! Mary employs the help of an evil Taoist priest to provide an army of Chinese zombies. There are also some ninjas who get involved in various fights and a child who can vanish...

This makes no sense what so over, but when you realise this is a Godfrey Ho project which mashes up a number of earlier films you can quite understand why this is as characters who are supposedly working together are actually from completely different films!

The story is quite simply bizarre and confusing but the fights between Alex, the zombies and ninjas (which occur a number of times) are actually quite good in a completely over the top cosmic kung fu sense.

Sued for Libel (1939)

A very good crime drama which also has an interesting look at the radio industry in the classic pre-TV days.

A murder trial is coming to an end, will Pomeroy (Morgan Conway) be found guilty of killing the husband of Muriel Webster (Lilian Bond), she insists he is innocent. Meanwhile, at radio station NYEB Steve Lonegan (Kent Taylor) waits for the verdict so he can dramatise it on his highly popular radio show. However, due to a trick by reporter Maggie (Linda Hayes), Steve is told the verdict is guilty even though Pomeroy is acquitted. NYEB is left with egg on it's face and a lawsuit from an angry Pomeroy.

Lonegan is still investigating Pomeroy however, he thinks the man is guilty and also involved in an earlier murderer of a young woman. Muriel proves to be an unexpected information source after the murder of a doctor involved in the case but is everything as it seems?

This is a good drama with a complicated but logical plot and some real surprises in store. The radio scenes are also interesting, though dramatising real news events is rather cheesy, Keye Luke is the man with all the voices - though he is obviously dubbed!

The Neptune Factor (1973)

Somehow this film makes a plot involving earthquakes, submarines and monsters under the ocean's depths somewhat tedious.

An earthquake strikes an underwater lab, contact with which is lost. Director Andrews (Walter Pidgeon) sends an advanced mini submarine commanded by Blake (Ben Gazzara) to try and find the lab and the three lost men. 

However, Blake is pretty arrogant and thinks this is a fool's errand. His crewman MacKay (Ernest Borgnine) is much more keen on the rescue though and soon the submarine is in a dangerous situation itself...

So, the story is great, the acting accomplished and the visuals are certainly very impressive but the film lacks energy and has the pacing of a brick. Somehow the film's makers made a great story rather pedestrian. It is a great shame.

The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959)

Rubber suited monster nonsense.

When two fishermen go missing, their bodies later discovered horribly dismembered, the small town is shocked. However, the lighthouse keeper Sturges (John Harmon) seems to be more interested in buying meat scraps from the storeowner Kochek (Frank Arvidson). Indeed, he gets very animated when he can't get the meat, you get the impression he is not getting it for his dog...

Meanwhile, Sturges' daughter Lucille (Jeanne Carmen) is dating Fred (Don Sullivan), her father is pretty insistent in that she doesn't stay out after dark...

This is all rather pedestrian and unoriginal, some suspense is built up but when you do finally see the monster you will probably doubt if it was worth the wait! This is not a terrible film, just nothing much that you won't have seen before, even the monster recycled rubber parts from the monsters in earlier films!