Barbados Quest (1955)

Rare stamps are very valuable, and a target of criminals in this 1950s yarn.

Tom Martin (Tom Conway) is some kind of private detective (it is never made entirely clear) who is employed by a rich stamp collector who thinks the valuable Barbadian stamp he has bought is a fake. With the help of his old comrade Barney (Michael Balfour), Tom begins to unravel a complicated plot of counterfeit stamps, a lucrative business which the gang ring leader Blake (Brian Worth) is willing to kill for...

A fine little film, modest though well structured. Tom Conway, a veteran of the The Falcon series plays a very familiar role as a suave private investigator who skirts close to the line. His character here though, sometimes referred to the Duke, only made a couple of films of which this was the first. Not that original but a good watch.

Leave It to the Irish (1944)

A bright and breezy private investigation crime case.

Terry Moran (James Dunn) is a private investigator, who is dating Nora (Wanda McKay) the daughter of police chief Tim O'Brien (Arthur Loft), is engaged by Mrs Hamilton (Barbara Wooddell) to find out who killed her husband who owned a fur importer. 

Moran and Nora, after a number of mis-steps and hijinks, unravel a case of stolen goods, gang land involvement (Jack La Rue) and, of course, murder.

This is fairly generic crime B-movie with the usual tropes and pacing with the plot relies a little too much on coincidences, but is all very competently done and an enjoyable watch. 

Demon of Paradise (1987)

A cheap and rather cheesy monster movie, maybe a couple of decades too late.

Fisherman off the coast of Hawaii illegally use dynamite to assist them, this of course awakens an ancient sea monster who now is running amok and killing people, especially young women in bikinis of course. 

Sheriff Keefer (William Steis) and Annie (Kathryn Witt) team up to stop the monster, though local resort owner Angela (Laura Banks) thinks it is an excellent tourist draw!

A low budget horror, the monster is the usual man in a rubber suit (though doesn't look too bad). The story is a bit slow moving and meanders too much. The film would probably work better if it was made a couple of decades earlier and had a surf rock and roll soundtrack!

Dressed to Kill (1941)

It is time for Michael Shayne to get married but as usual the private detective finds a crime to keep him distracted and away from the altar.

Shayne (Lloyd Nolan) is just about to take Joanne (Mary Beth Hughes) to get married when he hears a scream in a nearby hotel room. He discovers that two people have been murdered while having dinner, the two people being old theatre folk and the crime scene itself is rather theatrical. 

Shayne begins to unravel this baffling crime which as usual has many possible suspects. Can Shayne solve the crime before Inspector Pierson (William Demerest), and more importantly Joanne, lose patience with him?

A fine crime B-movie, with the usual complicated but fast moving plot, red herrings aplenty and some snappy dialogue. Nolan's Michael Shayne was an excellent character, this being the third movie in a series of seven.

Assignment K (1968)

A rather low wattage spy drama that unfortunately falls between two stools.

Philip Scott (Stephen Boyd) runs a secretive spy agency which manages to get results behind the Iron Curtain where the main Western agencies fail. 

However, while on a mission he meets Toni (Camilla Sparv) and falls in love. Back in England, an Eastern Bloc group of spies led by Smith (Leo McKern) use this connection to put pressure on Scott to betray his spy network...

This is a fine enough late 60s spy film but tries to be in the Bond and LeCarre styles simultaneously. Unfortunately, it fails at both and becomes bogged down in the middle act where not a great deal happens. The 1960s feel, and the Cold War espionage setting, are still enjoyable. The twists are also very good.