Sink the Bismarck! (1960)

An epic war film. World War 2 could not be won at sea by the British but it could be lost, just as in the case of World War 1 and Jutland. So when the most powerful German battleship Bismarck prepares to head out into the Atlantic the Royal Navy must stop it at all costs...

And the cost is high, especially to the iconic (though ageing) HMS Hood. The cost could also be high to Captain Shepherd (Kenneth More) in charge in the Admiralty war room. His son, a gunner on a plane, is missing and he is under pressure to find the Bismarck. Such is the pressure that even his stiff upper lip wobbles a bit at times. His assistant Lt Davis (Dana Wynter) is there to support him.

On the Bismarck mad Nazi Admiral Lutjens (Karel Stepanek) - a somewhat inaccurate depiction of the real man it should be said - cares not for human lives, just for glory for the Reich. The Bismarck makes the Atlantic but thanks to an attack by Swordfish torpedo bombers ends up damaged and unable to flee. The RN battleship King George V closes in for the kill...

Although obviously using models, archive footage and filming aboard real warships the sea battles are fantastic. This is one of the best naval war films ever made. The sheer inhuman ferocity of modern warfare has seldom been as brutally portrayed.

Undersea Kingdom (Serial) (1936)

Deep below the sea is Atlantis, a lost world where two armies battle for supremacy. However the evil Unga Khan (Monte Blue) has pretty much sewn that war up. He now turns his attention to the world above (ours) and starts setting off earthquakes with one of his evil machines. In fact he has a lot of evil machines including death rays, tanks, flying warships and robot soldiers though for some reason most of his army still rides on horseback and fights with spears...

Professor Norton (C. Montague Shaw) owns a rocket machine and heads down below in it to see what is causing the earthquakes. He is accompanied by hero Ray (Crash Corrigan) and reporter Diana (Lois Wilde). They are soon trapped on Atlantis itself, can they stop the Unga Khan and save the world?

Amid many cliff hangers and ridiculous plots and traps they succeed of course. A highly entertaining, though frequently nonsense, serial though rather heavily based on Flash Gordon.

The Great Gabbo (1929)

This early talkie is a far more complicated film than at first it appears. The Great Gabbo (Erich von Stroheim) is a brilliant ventriloquist but a terrible human being. Indeed his assistant Mary (Betty Compson), whom Gabbo treats awfully, detects more humanity from the dummy Otto than the man himself...

Mary leaves Gabbo though that doesn't stop him going on to hit the big time on Broadway within a couple of years. Mary is now with Frank (Donald Douglas) with her own musical act when their paths cross again. Gabbo wants her back but it is quite clear that Gabbo's grip on reality is fairly slender and soon the chasm looms large when he finds he can't get Mary, that she prefers Otto to him. His mental collapse is crushing.

Von Stroheim is brilliant in this film as is Compson. Despite the big musical numbers and glitz of Broadway this is a dark film about mental health, emptiness and loneliness. It was probably quite ahead of it's time. Although wordy this early talkie is a great film.

Are You Being Served? (1977)

The typical plot of the feature length film version of a British sitcom (as were popular in the 1970s) was to send the cast off on holiday. As is the case here where the Grace Brothers department store is closed for refurbishment. Mr Humphries (John Inman), Mrs Slocombe (Molly Sugden), Captain Peacock (Frank Thornton) and the rest end up on the Costa...

And many stereotypes abound. The hotel, managed by Don Carlos (Andrew Sachs), is unfinished and they have to stay in tents. The toilet is a shed. That doesn't really matter though as the local hardman (Glyn Houston) is preparing to launch an uprising...

It is very crude, the innuendo and double entendres a little rawer than the TV version. The plot is pretty nonexistent being just a prop for a series of comedy set pieces but it is very very funny. It probably helps if you are familiar with the TV series and the characters as there is little effort to set them up for new viewers. Its not high art but it is great.

Q Planes (1939)

A frenetic, breezy and brilliant spy adventure. A number of experimental planes have gone missing across the world and the latest is British. Intelligence agent Major Charles (Ralph Richardson) thinks it isn't a coincidence and indeed it isn't. A mysterious (and unnamed though probably German) foreign power is using a secret "death ray" to knock planes out of the sky and salvage them when they end up in the drink...

At the aircraft factory top pilot Tony (Laurence Olivier) is also suspicious as is the new tea girl Kay (Valerie Hobson) though her suspicion is more due to the fact she is an undercover reporter looking for a story. While the hunt for the truth continues Tony heads off on his own ill-fated test flight...

Light in tone, despite a final act which includes multiple machine gun deaths, this is a highly enjoyable espionage romp. It is quirky, it is nonsense but it is also fantastic. It definitely doesn't take itself seriously, it might dance a bit close to the line of parody though at times.