The Golden Eye (1948)

One of the last few Charlie Chan films (who by now is being played by Roland Winters). An interesting enough mystery though you get a sense of fatigue in the series by now.

Charlie is called in to help a mine owner Mr Manning (Forrest Taylor) who is in danger. The mine, supposedly all spent, is also producing a mysteriously large amount of ore. Manning is badly injured in an accident and Chan (who is posing as a curio trader) investigates the case for Manning's daughter Evelyn (Wanda McKay).

Chan is helped (in theory) by his Number Two son Tommy (Victor Sen Yung) and chauffeur Birmingham (Mantan Moreland). The police in the form of Lt. Ruark (Tim Ryan) is also on the case.

As a mystery it is fairly serviceable. Winters didn't have the same spark as the earlier actors who played the role and the film lacks the wit of earlier entries in the series. The story plods somewhat but has some surprises in store for the patient.

Darna: The Return (1994)

Darna is the Filipino version of Wonder Woman and in her skimpy outfit is definately a wonder! 

Darna (Anjanette Abayari) is a super heroine, who fights crime but can turn back into a normal person too. A natural disaster wipes out her village and during the melee she is blindsided by an unidentified assailant and the source of her power (a stone) is stolen. Darna, in her civilian guise as Narda, consequently goes a little crazy but her auntie and little brother take her to refuge in Manila.

However once there she is menaced by a smug crime boss. Meanwhile a TV evangelist is saying to her swaying crowd of believers that only her way is the way to salvation as Manila will soon be swept away by a deluge. But Narda's stone is recovered and Darna is reborn and she begins to fight the crime wave of the crime boss, including plucking his helicopter out of the air.

The evangelist turns her attention to Darna... for lo it is the daughter of her arch-nemesis Valentina and she plans to wipe out the human race, or Manila anyway. Showdown time, now did you ever think you would ever see one scantily clad woman beat another one with a TV aerial? Well you can now...

Darna saves the, rather confusing, day in a blizzard of low-budget special FX. It is cheesy but easy on the eye.

Night Work (1930)

A light hearted film which, like the main character, is a bit goofy but has a heart of gold. Willie (Eddie Quillan) works at the department store as a lowly window dresser but he is also the scapegoat for angry customers and regularly fired to appease them (before quietly being re-hired later on).

Willie's life then changed when he meets Mary (Sally Starr), a nurse at an orphanage. Thanks to her he ends up sponsoring a child though with his meagre salary it is a bit difficult to manage. So he ends up working a second job in a nightclub and more adventures follow...

It is a bit unsubstantial perhaps but a perfectly fine little film. There is an enjoyable musical interlude by Marjorie Kane half way through to look out for.

The Deadly Affair (1967)

An enjoyable Le Carre adaptation (of "Call for the Dead"). James Mason plays Smiley (though due to the rights to the Smiley name being sold for another film he is known as Dobbs in this film).

When a Foreign Office civil servant (Robert Flemyng) commits suicide (officially) after Smiley (we'll stick to the book name) has security cleared him Smiley begins to investigate exactly what is going on. How exactly is his wife (Simone Signoret) involved?

The investigation leaves Smiley himself in serious danger as he tracks the assassin... or is it himself who is being tracked?

London is grim and grey, as murky as the world of spies. An interesting and rich film with a terrific cast supporting Mason including Maximillian Schnell, Harry Andrews (making a brilliant Mendel), David Warner, Roy Kinnear and Kenneth Haigh.

The tempestuous relationship between Smiley and Ann (Harriet Andersson) is an interesting sub-plot throughout.

The Phantom Creeps (Serial) (1939)

A frenetic sci-fi horror serial. Dr Zorka (Bela Lugosi) is a mad scientist who wants to conquer the world using various mad science weapons he has invented including a rather bizarre looking robot and a new super-explosive made from a meteorite. The US government want his inventions for themselves but Zorka has other ideas...

So begins a crazy cat and mouse game as the FBI in the form of Captain West (Robert Kent) and a plucky young reporter (Dorothy Arnold) try and find out exactly what is going on and stop Zorka selling his inventions to foreign powers. The action comes thick and fast via regular cliff hangers including crashing planes (several), exploding electricity pylons and toxic chemicals.

Naturally it doesn't make a huge amount of sense and stock footage is liberally used, the exploding Hindenburg. The serial also seems to throw every sci-fi horror trope imaginable into the mix including invisibility. It is total nonsense but also total fun.

The Phantom of 42nd Street (1945)

A great detective film set in the crazy world of the theatre. A mysterious killer is bumping off people linked to an old theatre company led by Cecil Moore (Alan Mowbray). Tony (Dave O'Brien) is a theatre critic who is on hand when the first murder takes place and reluctantly agrees to report on the murder. As the crimes continue he gets more involved with the case especially as he has taken a shine to Cecil's daughter Claudia (Kay Aldridge)...

Along with his taxi-cab sidekick Egbert (Frank Jenks) he runs around backstage searching for the dark secret in the past which has sparked the murderous spree...

Low budget certainly but a high quality crime film all the right ingredients (multiple suspects, keen amateur detective, bumbling cops) to make for a solid Golden Age type drama. As the film is set in the world of theatre where the actors could ham it up superbly especially in the climatic Julius Caesar scene.

Crazy Blood (1983)

Olivia Cheng plays a social worker married to a police photographer. They have one son upon whom the husband (Eddie Chan) dotes on to an almost unnatural degree whilst she is busy saving the lives of the teenage tearaways in her care...

The streets of Hong Kong never looked so dark (literally - there looks like there was not much budget for lighting so often its hard to see what's going on - and morally). Rape, arson, prostitution, violence, drug taking... seem endemic on the mean streets of Kowloon!

A tragic string of events that starts off with a brutal rape leads to the death of Eddie's and Olivia's son and then Eddie goes - well crazy. He starts to kill off his wife's clients using various methods such as apartment window assisted projection.

As the film continues he becomes more and more insane, in the end wanting to kill himself and Olivia as he thinks his dead son is lonely and is waiting for them. The ending is a bit unsurprising though rather gore splatter-tastic.

A recommended little horror gem from the early 1980s. Don't expect a barrel of laughs though.