Song of the Clouds (1956)

A look at the classic pre-jet age of air travel when the skies were the domain of the prop airliners like the Constellations, DC-7s and Vanguards. This is an optimistic, nostalgic and very entertaining documentary from the Shell Historic Film Archive showing the fast growing civil aviation industry as the world beginning to leave the carnage of the Second World War behind.

The film covers a pretty wide area, from big international airports to small aircraft linking up remote and rural communities. The message of the film is hammered home pretty solidly, aircraft and travel brings us and the world together, well that is something that is true today, even on Ryanair.

House of Danger (1934)

An enjoyable and effective crime drama.

Don (Onslow Stevens) and Ralph (James Bush) are returning to the US from the South Seas after years away, Ralph returning home after the unexpected death of his father. After an accident on board their ship, Ralph is injured. 

With Ralph's blessing Don poses as Ralph to go home, though he encounters Ralph's long-standing fiancée Sylvia (Janet Chandler) and falls in love with her. However, it is Don who is soon put in danger as it appears that the butler Gordon (Desmond Roberts) and Ralph's cousin Martin (John Andrews) are up to no good...

Although it is pretty clear from the off who the villains are, this is a fine crime drama with some good performances (though not universally, some of the dialogue can be a bit stilted at times) and a decent plot. 

The Bunker (1981)

The last days of Hitler holed up in his bunker, an interesting way of portraying the events now incredibly well known due to the excellent 2004 movie Downfall.

The war is going badly, Hitler's (Anthony Hopkins) health is also not doing so well. With the Allied armies closing in on Berlin, the Nazi leadership retreats underground into the grim Fuhrerbunker. There, Hitler and his staff including Speer (Richard Jordan) and Goebbels (Cliff Gorman) await the inevitable as the explosions above gradually change from being caused by aerial bombers to artillery and tanks.

This is an excellent film, atmospheric and dark and based on the memoirs of the staff who survived. The most interesting stories are from some of the lesser known staff members in the bunker including the radio officer Misch (Michael Kitchen) and the engineer Hentschel (Martin Jarvis) who interestingly were both still alive when this film was made. 

The film might not have generated a million memes like Downfall (the Steiner rant is quite different here) but it very worth a watch.

The Bat People (1974)

Man bitten by bats turns into bat, luckily this doesn't happen very often in real life with other creatures otherwise i'd now be a giant mosquito.

Bat scientist Dr Beck (Stewart Moss) and his wife Cathy (Marianne McAndrew) are on their honeymoon. Part of this includes going down into some caves, Dr Beck ends up being bitten by a strange bat. This causes him to transform into a giant vampire bat at night! 

Beck-bat has a taste for human blood of course but eventually manages to escape and return to the rest of the bats. Cathy meanwhile has also been infected by the bats and kills the local police man with the help of an aerial bombardment of bat poo...

Not a good film by any means, it is fairly entertaining from a cheese point of view but lacks much in the way of originality or quality and is padded out too much with irrelevance. The theme song is pretty good though.

Down to the Sea (1936)

Underwater adventures hunting for ..er.. sponges.

Greek immigrant fishermen risk their lives to dive deeply to get sponges off the sea bed in Florida. The fishermen are split into two groups led by John (Russell Hardie) who shallow dives and the deep divers led by Steve (Ben Lyon). 

The two groups are thrown together by bad weather and a dispute over fishing rights. A love triangle also forms between the two fishermen with Helen (Ann Rutherford).

It is a fine enough little drama, nothing too offensive or overly exciting if we are to be honest either. The plot has some interesting aspects to it including some of the dangers of deep diving, this makes it a worthwhile watch.