Death Promise (1977)

Low budget 70s martial arts antics.

Residents at an apartment block are under pressure from unscrupulous landlords who want to kick them out so they can make millions from selling the land. The landlords happily use every dirty trick they can to try and kick out the residents (like releasing rats in the block and even burning it down) as they are evil.

Louis (Bob O'Connell) is leading the residents against the landlords but when he is killed his son Charley (Charles Bonet) decides to use his knowledge of the martial arts to get revenge amid much awkward violence...

So it is complete nonsense and looks like it had a budget of about $5 but is a lot of (unintentional of course) fun. Most of the fighting looks like kids pretending to be Bruce Lee but that's OK, if you are going to copy someone copy the best!

Won in the Clouds (1928)

A passable action film, with some good aerial stunts, though a bit too much on the exploitative side. It is set in Africa and thus everyone is either in native dress or a leopard!

In deepest darkest Africa is a diamond mine where the manager Woods (Joseph Bennett) is up to no good and aiming to cheat the mine owner. Dr James (George B French) comes up to the mine from the city to check on Woods and also to see why the locals are dying of a mysterious disease. The witch doctor was no help. When James and his daughter Grace (Helen Foster) get into trouble the mine owner sends his stunt flying daredevil son Art (Al Wilson) to sort things out...

There follow a number of cliff hangers and various escapades. The film is more like an edited serial. To modern eyes it is dated tosh but not without charm. Al Wilson was a real stunt flyer who would tragically died in a plane crash while doing stunts a few years later.

The Gay Nighties (1933)

Bobby Clark and Paul McCullough were a vaudeville act in the 1920s and 1930s who made some comedy shorts in the 1930s. Rather zany, rather odd and, while patchy, not that bad.

Here they are the campaign mangers of a politician (James Finlayson) at a convention. Their job is to discredit their boss' rival and... well that is the vague plot. The film is mostly a series of jokes and slapstick, some of it quite risque. It doesn't always work but when it does it is funny. A short feature, just enough to not outstay it's welcome.

Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe (1990)

An utterly incomprehensible low-budget sci-fi film. Secundus (Sven-Ole Thorsen), renegade member of the intergalactic police, has come to Earth to impregnate a human woman Sonia (Marjorie Bransfield) - with his hand. Fellow alien cop Abraxus (Jesse "the Body" Ventura), the former partner of Secundus, comes to Earth to try and stop him but refuses to kill Sonia and her alien baby.

Now some years later it appears the child has some kind of galaxy threatening equation in his head which Secundus comes back to get, leaving a trail of broken bodies while he hunts the child down. Abraxus is in close pursuit...

So it isn't hugely original and seems to take inspiration from a number of other sci-fi movies. It is also very confusing and pretty cheesy. When there is action it is reasonable if sometimes unintentionally hilarious. Jesse Ventura makes the film though with his performance, he takes being a genetically engineered supercop from the other side of the galaxy a bit too far and produces one of the stiffest acing performances of all time.

The Terror (1938)

An adaptation of an Edgar Wallace mystery, this is quite a strange story if we are to be honest. Ten years before three men carry out a robbery: Marx (Alastair Sim), Connor (Henry Oscar) and the masked mastermind O'Shea. After the robbery O'Shea betrays his fellow thieves and they end up spending ten years as guests at His Majesty in the nick.

Now they are released and vow to hunt down O'Shea and get their revenge... and the gold. But then the action suddenly switches to a mysterious guest house run by Colonel Redmayne (Arthur Wontner) with guests including the rather eccentric Mr Goodman (Wilfred Lawson). At night a spectre plays an organ and laughs evilly. Marx and Connor are in the area, is Redmayne O'Shea? Soon though Connor is found dead...

So they are a few layers to the mystery, the identity of O'Shea, who is the mysterious organ player and who is committing the murders. Of course all three could be the same person. The film is interesting rather than thrilling, like many British films of the period it can be a bit slow and wordy however some of the performances are very good especially Alastair Sim, who masquerades as a vicar, and Bernard Lee as a drunk (or is he?) It is worth sticking with the film though as the ending is excellent.

Trucker's Woman (1975)

This has to be one of the most 70s films ever. It has truckers, country music, average motel sex, badly choreographed fight scenes and some truly awful fashions. Michael Hawkins is Mike Kelly, a truck driver who is following in his father's footsteps. Though hopefully not too closely as his dad died when his truck lost brakes and crashed...

Mike is investigating what really happened to dad and is looking at the brake wires on his dad's truck quite intently. The trucking company boss Jake (Jack Cannon) is up to no good, shipping stolen goods for the mob. It appears that Mike's dad was threatening to set up his own shipping business. Was he silenced? What did Diesel Joe (Larry Drake) do to his rig?

Meanwhile Mike meets Karen (Mary Cannon) and falls for her... then discovers she is Jake's daughter. So he throws them both in a pool, after he first beats up Jake's lame henchmen...

So it is quite a straight forward plot. It is pretty low budget with some quite odd camera work at times. The film is great fun though. So bad it is good? Of course.

The Lost Zeppelin (1929)

In this early talkie intrepid airship Commander Hall (Conway Tearle) leads an expedition to the North Pole. The start of the film is rather drawn out and involves dinner parties and dress uniforms. We do find out though that Hall's wife Miriam (Virginia Valli) is in love with another man, Tom Armstrong (Ricardo Cortez) who is also going on the expedition...

If the start of the film is a bit tedious it does pick up noticeably when we actually see a zeppelin! The expedition runs into trouble and is lost (hence the title) after it crashes into the ice. America, including Miriam listens avidly at the radio for progress of the rescue... but for whom is she most anxious to hear about?

Although not perfect by any means - the opening twenty minutes drag awfully and the film suffers from the usual stilted dialogue of early talkies especially from Cortez though he would soon master sound films - the film is a solid aerial adventure with good special effects. Nice twist at the end too.