Shake Hands with Danger (1980)

A safety film detailing the various grisly ways heavy machinery can mangle human flesh if you are not careful and the guys in this film certainly arn't. One of the guys is shown changing the wheel on a large excavator and ends up demolishing a house! 

What makes the film unintentionally hilarious is the gritty country & western soundtrack. As the song says, being distracted or hungover might cause you to fall from a JCV or have your hand cut to pieces in a grinder. So lay off the Jack Daniels and pay attention!

 

Pterodactyl Woman from Beverly Hills (1997)

A very strange and often funny film (for both the wrong and right reasons). Dick (Brad Wilson) is a palaeontologist who accidentally disturbs a sacred site in the desert, a shaman called Salvador Dali (Brion James) puts a curse on him, his wife is now a pterodactyl! Back home in Beverley Hills Dick's wife Pixie (Beverley D'Angelo) does indeed begin to feel strange. During the day she exhibits strange behaviour such as eating a live fish whole in a supermarket. At night she transforms and spreads her (actual) wings...

Her family, including her children (Aron Eisenberg and Sharon Martin), struggle to come to terms with this change in Mum. Dick finds it kind of works in the bed department though. However, they end up with a new addition to the family and decide it is time to find the shaman and get the curse lifted...

A light film, charming despite the strangeness and absurdity. The film is a bit disjointed but great fun, picked with odd characters. Barry Humphries makes a great cameo playing three different characters in one scene, including Dame Edna! The film isn't great but it is certainly different and enjoyable.

Bulldog Drummond Comes Back (1937)

Another in the long running Bulldog Drummond series, the hero this time played by John Howard for the first time. Drummond's fiance Phyllis (Louise Campbell) is kidnapped by the crooked duo of Valdin (J. Carrol Naish) and Soldanis (Helen Freeman) who seek revenge on Drummond. They set him a number of cryptic clues, getting him to charge about the countryside. Finally he is led into a trap where they plan to blow him up!

Drummond is assisted by Algy (Reginald Denny) and Tenny (E.E. Clive) of course. The Colonel (John Barrymore) also assists secretly by donning a number of disguises. The film is all rather breakneck as Drummond is sent from place by place by the clues, like a movie serial condensed into a single feature at times. Drummond is taken to a couple of places more than once which can make the film drag a bit but no doubt assisted with the budget.

The plot is simple and a bit silly, the evil plans of the criminals are so elaborate and long winded they resemble Bond villain schemes! The film is good camp fun but not much more.

The Coveted Coat (1924)

A charming little film by Gaston Quiribet which uses stop motion for a variety of special effects, part of his Q-Riosities series. Two tramps fight over a fine coat on a scarecrow. One of them warns the other that he took the coat yesterday but it is bewitched by dark magic! Whatever the wearer wishes happens to him. The tramp explains that that got him into loads of trouble including a car accident and receiving a beating from a jealous lover. Is he being completely truthful though?

The film is mostly a showcase for a number of cinematic tricks, rather than having much of a narrative, and very clever the tricks are too. The film is an interesting curiousity.

Devil's Express (1976)

This is a car crash of a film, in so much as it is like a mixture of different genres thrown together, hard. The film starts in ancient China where a demon is imprisoned. We jump to the present day (well 1970s anyway) New York and see Luke (Warhawk Tanzania) show off his martial arts skills with a funk soundtrack. Luke heads to HK with his friend Rodan (Wilfredo Roldan), while there Rodan accidentally releases the demon from it's cell...

The demon makes it's way to NY and begins to terrorise the subway, but above ground a deadly war between black and Chinese gangs rages. Luke gets involved with both gangs, and only he can stop the demon...

So, it is a mix of blaxploitation, kung fu, horror and total weirdness. The film switches between these genres quickly, at times you wonder if you have just sat on the TV remote. 

One of the strangest films you'll ever see, and very gory and violent too. Does it make sense? To be honest not in any way whatsoever. But it doesn't matter, this film is genuinely original and amazing.