The Twelve Tasks of Asterix (1976)

The Gaulish comic hero reaches the big screen, with good effect, by Toutatis!

Julius Caesar's Roman legions have conquered Gaul, well all except a small village which is holding out against the might of Rome thanks to a magic potion created by their druid. This allows the villagers, especially our heroes Asterix and Obelix to defeat Roman attacks time and time again thanks to the super strength granted by the magic potion.

Caesar tires of the Gauls, whom some Romans call gods, and challenges them to twelve tasks a la Hercules. If Asterix and Obelix can complete all of the tasks then Caesar will surrender, if they fail then the villagers will become Rome's slaves...

This is a fun adaptation of the indomitable Gauls which stays true to the storyline on the whole and is very entertaining. An inventive story, i especially liked the bureaucratic task. Voice actors in the English version include Sean Barrett and Michael Kilgarriff and they do an excellent job. 

Candles at Nine (1944)

A sometimes silly but interesting crime drama.

An old rich man (Eliot Makeham), who in the best traditions of the movies is mean and spiteful, is about to announce who is the sole beneficiary in his will to his assembled family and staff. However, he dies in mysterious circumstances before he can tell them. When his will be revealed, everyone is shocked to find young actress Dorothea Capper (Jessie Matthews) is not only his niece but also gets everything!

This enrages the old man's maid (Beatrix Lehmann) who wants the money for herself. She first tries to intimidate Dorothea out of claiming her inheritance then, when that fails, plans to kill her. Luckily Dorothea has an ex-detective (John Stewart) on hand to help and advise her...

A fun little film that doesn't take itself seriously, indeed at times it resembles a bit of a send-up of the mystery house genre. The light antics can be taken a little too far and the film does include a song and dance routine (which is mercifully brief). A decent and well flowing film if sometimes a bit annoying. Look-out for Patricia Hayes in one of her earliest roles.

Carry on Spying (1964)

The dark and dangerous world of international espionage... for laughs.

STENCH (Society for the Total Extinction of Non-Conforming Humans) have stolen a top secret chemical formula. Unfortunately the only agent available to try and retrieve the formula is bumbling Simpkins (Kenneth Williams) and his three trainees (Barbaras Windsor, Charles Hawtrey and Bernard Cribbins). The four are sent to Vienna to look for the STENCH agents Fat Man and the Milk Man and link up with Carstairs (Jim Dale) to help, unfortunately they prove much more of a hinderance than a help!

Following more hijinks in Algiers and on a train, the four agents end up with the formula but also prisoners of STENCH and the evil Dr Crow (Judith Furse). Can they somehow save the day and foil the evil STENCH?

This is a great send-up of the 1960s spy genre, its packed full of satirical references to other films and TV series. It also has the usual double entrendres, campy humour and a bit of sauce. Not quite the best Carry On film, it lacks the energy and slapstick of the series at it's height, but certainly a good film and pretty funny.

The Witness Vanishes (1939)

An enjoyable crime drama, if a bit predictable.

Years before newspaper owner Marplay (Barlowe Borland) was put in a lunatic asylum by four men who took over his newspaper. Now he has escaped and has vowed to kill the four men. Indeed, the obituary of each man appears in the paper before the murder takes place! 

Investigating what is going on is Marplay's daughter Joan (Wendy Barrie) and the rather suspicious private detective McNab (Forrester Harvey). The last of the four men left alive, Peters (Edmund Lowe) does not seem to be that perturbed by his supposedly impending death...

An interesting film with "improbable" murders which leave the police baffled. A seasoned crime film watcher (or novel reader) will probably guess what is going on and who is really behind things but it doesn't stop the film being well worth watching.

Frankenstein's Daughter (1958)

Frankenstein's monster becomes female, not that you can really tell.

The grandson of Frankenstein, Oliver Frank (Donald Murphy) is now living in 1950s USA. Working with an unsuspecting Professor Morton (Felix Locher), he is conducting his deranged experiments at night. He kills Suzie (Sally Todd) after a date which goes sour and uses her brain to finish his new creation. Meanwhile he is also after the heart of of the Professor's daughter Trudy (Sandra Knight) though she is not that keen on this ridiculously creepy man, especially when his monster shows up. She is keener on Johnny (John Ashley) though he does take her to parties with some dodgy pop groups playing...

This is a basic retelling of the Frankenstein story set in the rock and roll era but isn't very good. It has a few thrills but most of the monster scenes are more ridiculous than anything else. 

Despite the monster was supposed to be female it didn't look very feminine. The makeup artist didn't know the monster was supposed to be female when he created the mask. So, he applied some lipstick to the mask! Job done?