The Millerson Case (1947)

Crime doctor Dr Ordway finally manages to get away on vacation, unfortunately it turns into a real busman's holiday.

Dr Ordway (Warner Baxter) heads to rural West Virginia to do some hunting, however immediately he is drawn into problems in the small town. Firstly, a typhoid outbreak and then a murder investigation after the local barber dies of poisoning. 

Ordway begins his investigation, unfortunately due to the victim being a bit of a romeo everyone in town seems to be potentially a suspect! The local doctor (Addison Richards) is also shot dead as Ordway closes in on the culprit...

A fine crime drama with a complicated plot full of red herrings and twists. This was the eighth film starring the Dr Ordway character and a great entry in the series. 

Frozen Scream (1975)

An amazingly bizarre, and at times pretty gruesome, zombie horror.

A group of scientists (mad of course) are trying to discover the secret of immortality. They do this by kidnapping people and turning them into zombies which are kept frozen until they are needed for nefarious purposes. One of these zombies is Tom (Wolf Muser) and now his wife Ann (Lynne Yeaman) is trying to find out what happened to him. This puts her in various perils of course and pitted against one of the scientists (Renee Harmon) who has an impressively sinister accent...

This is a really weird film, the zombies dress as mad monks, the direction is very strange at times with curiously chosen camera angles but the scares can work, or can be hilarious, or both. 

The film doesn't really make a lot of sense and has a lengthly scene while a bad rock and roll band plays for some reason right in the middle of strange satanic rituals and vicious zombie attacks. It really shouldn't work and it doesn't... but somehow it does at the same time.

The Golf Specialist (1930)

A wonderful, if somewhat aimless, comedy short by the amazing WC Fields.

Bellweather (Fields) is at a hotel in Florida. After some awkward antics with a flirty wife (Shirley Grey) of the violently jealous hotel detective (John Dunsmuir), and with an angry sailor (Jack Irvin) wanting money from him, Bellweather goes to play some golf with many slapstick mishaps.

This is a great piece of fluff, it doesn't really go anywhere (and probably spends too long on the golf course) but is entertaining all the same and well worth watching. Fields early on mentions television, i wonder if this was the first time television was ever mentioned in a film?

Earth vs the Spider (1958)

Yet another film where a giant mutated bug battles the Earth's ultimate warriors: 1950s US teenagers!

A giant mutant spider begins to wreak havoc in a small US town. This is after it is "killed" by bug spray and then apparently bought back to life by rock & roll! Finally, the spider has to be defeated in it's lair by teenage couple Mike (Eugene Persson) and Carol (June Kenney) and their science geek teacher (Ed Kemmer) using the power of the national grid.

This is yet another creature feature film though has some interesting plot points to help elevate it above the usual dross level of these films. It still isn't great though but at least can be fairly interesting at times.

Ellery Queen, Master Detective (1940)

Although the character had appeared in a couple of earlier films, this was the first of a new series of Ellery Queen films in the 1940s.

The owner of a fitness company John Braun (Fred Niblo) falls ill suddenly and writes a new will cutting out his daughter. Nikki Porter (Margaret Lindsay) meanwhile wants to see Braun, to try and help improve relations between Braun and his estranged daughter (Marsha Hunt). While she is waiting for Braun, she finds herself locked in a room. When she gets out she finds Braun has been stabbed, but the murder weapon is missing. Amateur detective Ellery Queen (Ralph Bellamy) knows Nikki will be the number one suspect and helps hide her from the law while trying to find the murderer himself...

An enjoyable film, bright and breezy with some good charismatic lead performances and a fast moving plot.