Time to Kill (1942)

The last Michael Shayne film starring Lloyd Nolan in the title role, though the film series would continue with a different actor. 

Shayne is hired by a wealthy widow (Ethel Gryffies) to retrieve a valuable coin which she thinks that her daughter-in-law (Doris Merrick) has stolen when she left. Shayne uncovers a trail leading to a gang of counterfeiters but there is something a lot darker uncovered too, a trail leading to blackmail and murder...

A fine way to end the Nolan series of Shayne films, though this was originally a Raymond Chandler story which was later made as the Philip Marlow story Brasher Doubloon in 1947. This version of the story is played a little lighter with plenty of wise cracks and snappy dialogue and scenes. 

High Flight (1957)

Young men want to join the RAF and fly the latest jets. However, the path to join the elite does not run that smoothly.

One of the cadets is Winchester (Ray Milland) who causes a stir by arriving at the cadet school in his girlfriend's plane. Although he is a little careless and a bit wild, the commander Rudge (Kenneth Haigh) lets him off. It turns out that during the war Winchester's father died after Rudge's own carelessness. Something Winchester junior is well aware of...

An enjoyable, if fairly predictable, film. It is enlivened by some decent performances by the leads and good cameos from Leslie Philips and John le Mesurier. There is also a bit of comedic relief provided by Anthony Newley who causes havoc with his radio controlled flying saucer! The real stars of the film though are the Vampires and Hunters, classic British jets from a bygone age.

The Hidden Room (1949)

An excellent Noir, wonderfully dark with building dread.

Psychiatrist Dr Riorden (Robert Newton) presents a calm, controlled face to the world but internally he is raging about his wife Storm (Sally Grey) and her cheating with young American Bill (Phil Brown). 

Riorden kidnaps Bill and locks him in a cellar. Every day he puts some more acid in a bath in the cellar, he tells Bill that one day he will kill him and dispose of his body parts in the acid! Storm doesn't know what has happened to Bill, neither do the police (Naunton Wayne). However, Storm's little dog proves to be an unexpected wrinkle in Riorden's plan...

So nothing that terrible has happened to Bill yet but we know what Dr Riorden's plans are. As Bill is quite a sympathetic character this does help build the horror nicely. Good performances by Brown and Newton are to be enjoyed. The real star though is Monty the dog!

The Body Stealers (1969)

RAF parachutists are going missing, is it the Russians? Or is it aliens?

The Ministry calls upon the services of Bob Megan (Patrick Allen), quite what kind of special skills he possesses for this mission are unknown, apart from the ability to pull any woman he wants! One of these women appears to be quite strange, fellow agent Jim (Neil Connery) tries to photograph her but she doesn't show up when the film is processed. 

It turns out that Lorna (Pamela Conway) is from another planet, a planet which is dying and has been kidnapping parachutists as it needs men for breeding purposes...

As the aliens are kept hidden until the very end and little in the way of SFX are needed throughout the film, the low budget does not harm this science-fiction film. It isn't flawless by any means but is an enjoyable little film.

Return of the Jedi (1983)

The third Star Wars film, a great ending to the saga but also when things started to go wrong.

The Rebel alliance was reeling after the last instalment in the saga, the Empire driving them to the outer reaches, Han Solo (Harrison Ford) frozen and given to Jabba the Hutt and Luke (Mark Hamill) discovering the horror that Darth Vader (David Prowse/David Earl Jones) was his father. 

But the Rebels are fighting back, Luke and Leia (Carrie Fisher) rescue Han and then link up with the regrouped Rebel fleet which is about to attack the second Death Star, the Emperor (Ian McDiarmid) himself is on board...

This is an all-action ending to the original trilogy of the film, which ties up most of the trilogy's plot threads nicely. However, it is also where the Star Wars franchise started to go wrong. The inclusion of the Ewoks can be a bit jarring, only the fact the rest of the story is taking place at the same time can make the Ewoks story tolerable. The big reveal that Luke and Leia were twin siblings does make their snog in the previous film interesting...

It is of course brilliant (though not quite as brilliant as the previous two films), and the perfect end to the saga. It is a shame they had to change that a few decades later.