Sleepers West (1941)

Private detective Michael Shayne (Lloyd Nolan) has to bring a witness back by sleeper train, but a number of people want to thwart him.

A high profile trial is taking place in San Francisco but the testimony of Helen (Mary Beth Hughes) can put the rich defendant away. Shayne is tasked to bring Helen back from Denver, but the defendant has hired various men to try and stop them. 

Helen meanwhile is tiring of her role in the spotlight and falls in love with Everett (Louis Jean Heydt) who is having a mid-life crisis. Shayne also has to handle his journalist old flame Kay (Lynn Bari) meddling in his affairs...

A great crime B-movie that takes place mostly in the claustrophobic confines of a railway train. A lot of story is packed into these railway cars too. The story moves as fast as the train does.

Flashman (1967)

Before they started taking themselves too seriously, super hero movies tended to be cheesy and fun. This Italian film certainly is both of those!

Rotten criminals in old London town steal the formula for invisibility from a (mad) scientist. The Kid (Ivano Staccioli) uses this new power to steal cash from a bank, though is foiled by Flashman (Paulo Gozlino) - a super hero who is also a member of the Royal Family! What makes things more complicated is that the stolen money is worthless, it was all counterfeit spread by a gang of gorgeous female forgers led by (Claudie Lange)...

This film is silly and makes little sense. The camp factor is high and the action is ridiculous, the invisible man scenes are often quite laughably poor. As long as you don't take it seriously then it is a fun, if at times a little too over the top, watch.

The Shadow Laughs (1933)

A rather disjointed and awkward comedy crime drama.

A murder/robbery takes place in the bank, though the police do not seem to be getting anywhere. Luckily reporter Robin Dale (Hal Skelly) is on hand to take over the investigation! 

How he is any better than the police is unknown though he does have plenty of the usual "snappy" dialogue that reporters of the 1930s and 1940s had to have by law, though to be honest you'll see a lot snappier dialogue in many other films of the period...

Indeed, there were many films like this from the 1930s and unfortunately that means there are many other films to compare it against and unfortunately this film isn't that good! The pacing and dialogue is awkward and the story doesn't really make a lot of sense. The film isn't without some lightness but as a drama it doesn't have much going for it.

The Sea Lion (1921)

Hard bitten old sea dog yarn, that handles the nautical scenes pretty well.

The captain (Hobart Bosworth) is a bitter old sea dog, who hasn't gotten over his wife and child leaving him while he was at sea many years before. On his next voyage he has a new seaman Tom (Emory Johnson), a fresh faced novice who soon becomes the butt of all of the crew's jokes. However, the voyage runs into trouble with a near mutiny. Then the ship arrives at a remote island where the survivors of an old ship wreck live.

One of the survivors is a young girl, Blossom (Bessie Love) who falls in love with Tom, which causes conflict with the captain. Though there is a bit surprise in store here...

A decent enough film though sometimes hard to follow, this isn't helped by the flashbacks which sometimes contradict each other! The scenes at sea are pretty well done.

The Return of the Whistler (1948)

An excellent and Noir-ish mystery as a man's planned wedding goes very wrong.

Ted Nichols (Michael Duane) and Alice Dupres (Lenore Aubert) are preparing to get married, but on the night before Alice goes missing from her hotel room. 

Ted gets the help of private investigator Traynor (Richard Lane) who knocks Ted out when he finds the wedding certificate from Alice's first marriage! What is going on? Ted tracks down Alice's in-laws and discovers that her first husband had not died after all, or is everything as it seems? Is anything?

A very well structured, and well performed, mystery that gradually unravels a criminal conspiracy with a number of twists and turns.