American Guerrilla in the Philippines (1950)

The Japanese have conquered the Philippines, but the Americans haven't given up yet!

After Palmer's (Tyrone Power) patrol boat is sunk during the Japanese invasion, he and his crew are trying to get back to the US Navy. 

However, their attempts fail and Palmer begins to work with US personnel and Filipinos to fight back against the Japanese and prepare for the return of the US forces led by General MacArthur...

This is an enjoyable war movie with some classic tropes as well as plenty of jingoism but that is to be expected from a Second World War film made so soon after the events being recounted. 

The Doomsday Flight (1966)

One of the best TV movies ever made, an excellent tale of high drama at high altitude.

A flight takes off bound for New York, the usual collection of stereotypes is aboard including the arrogant celebrity Ducette (John Saxon). 

However, the flight captained by Anderson (Van Johnson) soon runs into trouble as a mysterious man (Edmond O'Brien) rings the airline to tell them there is a bomb aboard! The bomb is air pressure sensitive, so will explode if the plane drops below a certain altitude. With time running out, FBI Agent Thomson (Jack Lord) battles to try and catch the bomber, though the bomber is getting drunk and throwing everything into chaos...

This is a truly excellent film with a lot of tension and plot twists and turns. Great performances and a well paced and staged plot make this film very highly recommended.

Canal Zone (1942)

Although full of cliches, this is an interesting war film that approaches a somewhat neglected aspect of the conflict.

Bombers need ferrying from the US mainland out to the forces fighting in the East, this requires flying them from Panama across to Africa, a highly dangerous job. Despite this, barely trained pilots are being recruited and Hardtack Hamilton (Chester Morris) has his work cut out to get them ready. The new pilots are a collection of stereotypes, but the one which causes the biggest headache for Hardtack is the arrogant playboy Ames (John Hubbard) who takes risks in the air and is trying to muscle in on Hardtack's girlfriend Susan (Harriet Nelson)!

Ames' risk taking soon results in a disaster after a fellow pilot is killed. Ames falls into despair at what he has done. Now Hardtack and Susan must try and drag him back to the obvious redemption arc!

An enjoyable film, though fairly predictable, it is well made and has some good performances. The aerial scenes are obviously done with models and are not very realistic but it does not ruin the film.

The Swiss Conspiracy (1976)

A superb crime drama, though it does seem intent in shoehorning every Swiss cliché into it that is possible.

Swiss banks are famous for their secrecy and discretion, however someone is putting that at risk by black mailing the customers of the bank operated by Hurtil (Ray Milland). 

Former US agent Christopher (David Janssen) is bought in to investigate, but soon tangles with mobster Hayes (John Saxon) and the rather more lovely Abbott (Senta Berger). There is an insider behind this conspiracy, the identity of which is quite a surprise...

A very good film, though leans rather more heavily on the "Swiss-ness" of the setting than maybe it should. At times it does risk becoming self-parody but luckily the strong plot and good performances save the day and make this a very worthwhile film indeed.

War Hunt (1962)

A dark war film set during the Korean War.

Loomis (Robert Redford) is a naive young soldier who is sent to join the Korean War front line. He finds it is not a straight forward conflict with the aim being not to win but to hurt the enemy as much as possible. 

Fellow soldier Endore (John Saxon) is quite happy with that and soon Loomis finds Endore's obvious psychopathic tendencies as dangerous as the enemy...

A low budget war film (and the low budget really shows at times) but very tense and dark with a great performance from Saxon who really steals the film.