Cruise Into Terror (1978)

A surprisingly good slice of horror cheese on the high seas.

A small cargo ship prepares to make a trip to Mexico, though Captain Andrews (Hugh O'Brian) and first mate Simon (Dirk Benedict) have real concerns about the engine holding up. The passengers are a motley collection of stereotypes (well this is a TV movie after all) including a troubled vicar (John Forsythe) and a driven archaeologist (Ray Milland) who is convinced the Ancient Egyptians made it to Mexico!

After a series of strange incidents including mysterious technical failures, the ship makes it to the location of an Egyptian burial site. A sarcophagus is raised from the sea bed. However, the priest warns that they may have raised the son of Satan from the depths...

This is a great film, good old actors putting in decent performances with a plot that maybe isn't too original but has enough meat on it to work. There are a few genuinely creepy moments too.

Savage Beach (1989)

A sometimes cheesy but highly enjoyable tits and guns romp on a Pacific island paradise.

Two DEA agents, Donna (Dona Spier) and Taryn (Hope Marie Carlton) - who apparently have to always wear skimpy outfits - are marooned on a remote Pacific island after technical failure of their aircraft. They are alone on the aircraft... apart from a Japanese soldier (Michael Mikasa) who was left behind to guard stolen gold from the Philippines.

By coincidence the US Navy and a gang of thugs are also after the gold and land on the island after discovering where the gold is using some funky 1980s computers. Lets see who gets the gold in an extended action set piece...

Not high art for sure but an enjoyable film. The actresses in the film were former Playboy models, and on the whole they do a decent enough of acting, as well as showing plenty of cleavage. Very over the top, frequently ridiculous and not to be taken seriously. Great fun!

King of the Bandits (1947)

Part of the long-running Cisco Kid series of films.

The Cisco Kid (Gilbert Roland) is travelling through Arizona with Pancho (Chris-Pin Martin), he discovers that someone is conducting robberies but disguising themselves as the Cisco Kid to shift the blame! 

The Kid retrieves some stolen loot but ends up captured himself by the US Army. The Kid and Pancho manage to escape and then go after the real villain Smoke Kirby (Anthony Warde)...

A fun romp of a film which doesn't take itself very seriously, Roland plays the Kid rather tongue in cheek throughout and also is very charismatic.

Get Christie Love! (1974)

A sassy cop drama with a blaxploitation feel which led to a TV series.

Christie Love (Teresa Graves) is a copy sent undercover to find the evidence to break up a drug gang led by Paul Stevens. According to intelligence, the crime boss' squeeze Helena (Louise Sorel) knows where the ledger is to provide the needed evidence. Christie discovers though that Helena with her photographic memory is the ledger. She finds a way to get Helena to play ball by tracking down her long-lost son...

This is an enjoyable film with some good early 1970s soul and cool. Being a TV movie it is pretty restrained compared to the usual blaxploitation film but this helps with some intelligence in the plot which means Christie does some good detective work in the film instead of just beating people up with her dubious martial arts skills (though there is still some of that!) 

A good watch.

Mr. Moto in Danger Island (1939)

A fun Mr Moto adventure where he unlocks a complicated crime plot with the help of a professional wrestler.

Mr Moto (Peter Lorre) heads to Puerto Rico to uncover a diamond smuggling gang, on the way he befriends a pro wrestler Twister (Warren Hymer) who ends up assisting Moto. 

Someone high up on the island is behind the diamond smuggling plot and tries to get rid of Moto even more he can begin his investigation. Moto disguises himself as a Japanese criminal in order to try and infiltrate the gang and uncover the mastermind...

A good crime B-move with the usual fast moving action, well structured plot and red herrings. Interestingly, this was originally to be a Charlie Chan film set in Trinidad but changed to become a Moto story after the death of Warner Oland.