The Unholy Night (1929)

An early talkie, and an early dark house mystery. 

After an attempt on the life of Lord Montague (Roland Young), he discovers that some of his former army comrades have been killed. He calls his other army comrades to his home, with the police overseeing, to try and find out who was behind the attacks. The daughter (Dorothy Sebastian) of a disgraced former officer turns up, warning of bad things going to happen and a big legacy. Bad things indeed do happen as the officers start to get bumped off one by one...

While the sound and dialogue can be awkward at times (like most early talkies), this is a fun little drama. It has plenty of sudden screams and a spooky atmosphere, Oriental mystery, plenty of odd goings on and Boris Karloff chewing the scenery as a sinister Turkish lawyer.

The Mad Bomber (1973)

A pretty brutal and also rather good 1970s cop drama.

Distraught over the death of daughter, Dorn (Chuck Connors) begins a bombing campaign to blow institutions (including his daughter's ex-school) he blames for her death. The police are stumped without a clue who the bomber is, however there is a clue. 

During one bombing, a girl at a mental hospital, which is about to be bombed, is raped. Detective Minelli (Vince Edwards) desperately seeks the rapist (Neville Brand) not only for his crimes but also because he might be the only man who can identify the bomber...

A deliciously dark slice of the ultraviolent 1970s which revolves around the broken minds of two criminals, both superbly played by Connors and Brand. A graphic film for sure that maybe could have left a little more to the imagination. Very compelling viewing.

The Lineup (1958)

A tough Noir with some real menace.

The police are battling to stop the smuggling of narcotics, including heroin, into San Francisco. The method used is to dupe or force travellers to bring the drugs into the city when they return from abroad. Dancer (Eli Wallach) and Julian (Robert Keith) are two hoodlums who have turned up in town to retrieve the drugs smuggled in by a group of passengers off a cruise ship. 

All is going smoothly as they work they way through the mules (though a trail of dead bodies is being left behind) until they find drugs hidden in a child'd doll has been lost. The mastermind behind the operation will not be very happy about that...

A great film, the gangsters are psychotic, the people drawn into the smuggling ring are frequently doomed. A violent and dark film that is well worth seeing.

Return to Savage Beach (1998)

Tits and guns return to a remote Pacific island we last saw in Savage Beach.

A stolen floppy disk (which mysteriously has changed from a 5.25" in the first film to a 3.5" one to make the film appear more modern!) leads both criminals and the large chested ladies of LETHAL to a remote island to hunt for treasure stolen from the Philippines. 

Apparently, the gold in the first film wasn't all of the loot the wartime Japanese stole. Martinez (Rodrigo Obregón) returns as the Filipino rebel leader who wants the gold to fund revolution, others want the gold for more selfish reasons...

It makes little sense, to be honest the first film didn't either but this is worse. But it doesn't really need to make sense, this is a film to see former Playboy models fire guns while wearing skimpy outfits. This is great fun though, among the cast is former WCW wrestler Buff Bagwell, but of course!

This was the final film in the Andy Sidaris' LETHAL series and is a fine end to a fun series.

The Lone Wolf in London (1947)

The penultimate film in the long running series.

Two diamonds disappear from a police vault, the police immediately suspect the former jewel thief Michael Lanyard - the Lone Wolf (Gerald Mohr) as they know he is in London, officially doing research for a book he is writing. 

Lanyard is recruited by a member of the aristocracy (Vernon Steele), who is hard up, to sell some jewels for him. Meanwhile, Lanyard is starting to suspect stage star Iris Chatham (Evelyn Ankers) is involved in the diamond robbery, though the police still stubbornly suspect him!

Mohr and Eric Blore as Jamison worked well as a team, though this was the last time they worked together in this series, and the eleventh and final time Blore played Lanyard's assistant. A decent film with the usual fast moving plot and various plot tangents and red herrings. Maybe we have seen it all before (many times) but it is still a good film.