Apollo 13 (1995)

One of the greatest adventures based on true events, but when you are depicting events this epic it is surely hard to go wrong. Actually it probably is pretty easy to mess it up but rest assured this does not happen with Apollo 13, this film smashes it.

Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) is finally heading to the moon having only flown around it on an earlier Apollo mission. There are some last minute snags though due to medical issues and Ken Mattingly (Gary Sinise) has to give up his seat to Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon). Still nothing else will go wrong now?

Unfortunately something does, an explosion aboard Apollo 13 cripples the mission and puts the lives of the three astronauts (including Bill Paxton) in dire peril. Mission Control headed by Gene Kranz (Ed Harris) and with the help of Mattingly must somehow find a way to bring the crew home, pushing the remaining hardware to the limit and using it in ways it was never intended.

The film is a masterpiece. The technical details and the human story perfectly balanced. The performances are all spot on. An iconic film for iconic events.

The Savage Girl (1932)

After Tarzan comes... the Savage Girl, a wild white girl in the jungle with perfect flowing locks and a very stylish off the shoulder leopard skin dress! Stitch (Harry Myers), an alcoholic millionaire, hires explorer Jim Franklin (Walter Byron) to take him to Africa to get some animals for a zoo he wants to impress his neighbours. Once they reach Africa they hire Adolf Milar (Alec Bernouth) to take them into the bush...

As well as lions and gorillas they soon discover a white girl (Rochelle Hudson) who lives feral in the jungle and is friends with the animals, especially the chimps. When the hunters capture animals she releases them. So they decide to capture her. Afterwards though Franklin gets sweet on her and thinks they should let her go. However, Milar has other ideas. We never find out if the wild girl is wearing pants, but if she is, Milar wants to get into them...

A very silly and ridiculous film with incredibly dated stereotypes but is pretty amusing and charming. It is basically Tarzan as a girl but can be enjoyed in it's own right.

Lola (1970)

A film that could never be made these days. Twinky (Susan George) is an (almost) 16 year old girl (though acts like she is about 12) who loves the trashy romantic novels of Scott Wardman (Charles Bronson). However, her real secret is that she is in a relationship with the author, a much older man. A relationship that usually involves burning his breakfast and lots of sex.

Twinky's family are naturally not that pleased when they find out but Scott and Twinky get married in Scotland and then move to the U.S., where their relationship is put under strain. Twinky's immature behaviour is no doubt quite tiresome to Scott though the fact she wears miniskirts exclusively probably makes up for it and he undoubtedly loves her. Eventually they begin to drift apart as the age gap does finally tell.

A rather strange film and not that brilliant if we are to be honest though light enough to avoid being too offensive. Bronson spends much of the film on autopilot and you can't wait for Twinky to be old enough to start secondary school. 

The film does have an impressive array of British actors in it including Trevor Howard and Honor Blackman though they are mostly wasted with this material. The film is silly and inconsequential and doesn't really go anywhere but worth watching to see Bronson in a very different role than we are used to seeing him usually.

Dilemma (1962)

A highly enjoyable but curious little drama. Music teacher Harry (Peter Halliday) arrives home not long after a scream was heard in his home and his wife Jean (Ingrid Hafner) was seen running out by nosy neighbour Mrs Jones (Edna Burke). Harry has something more important to worry about, there is a dying man in the bathroom! Harry quickly decides he has to get rid of the man, now dead, whom he assumes his wife killed (what a good hubby!) He lifts up the floorboards and buries the corpse in concrete, though amusingly he keeps getting interrupted by the likes of nuns, piano tuners and Mrs Jones.

Jean though is busy too, first of all getting a hand injury stitched up, then getting a flight ticket and then trying to empty her safety deposit box. However, she can't find her key. The police in the form of Inspector Murray (Patrick Jordan) are looking for a known criminal who has been seen in the area. When Harry sees the mugshot he has a shock. Its the bloke now under the floorboards!

A tense little drama though with a degree of farce where Harry is regularly interrupted. The twist in the end when Jean's house of cards collapse is well worth waiting for. The soundtrack is strangely light though considering the content.

The Eagle (1925)

A glorious Rudolph Valentino feature from the golden age of silent film with the usual impressively vast sets and large numbers of extras. Valentino plays Dubrovsky, a lieutenant in the imperial Russian army. After he spurns the advances of the Czarina (Louise Dresser) he is forced to go on the run and become a fugitive.

Dubrovsky returns home and find's his family lands have been seized by the evil Kyrilla (James A Marcus). Dubrovsky becomes a masked bandit to fight Kyrilla and instead falls in love with the evil one's daughter Mascha (Vilma Banky)...

And it is all fast paced swashbuckling fun. Valentino is very much in action mode in this film compared to some of his other films where he is there largely for women to swoon over. A great Valentino film, unfortunately he only had one more in him.

The Teckman Mystery (1954)

A slow-burning but interesting espionage mystery. Philip Chance (John Justin) is tasked to write the biography of a test pilot, Martin Techman. Techman died recently in a plane crash, by coincidence Philip meets the pilot's sister Helen Teckman (Margaret Leighton) on his flight to London. Soon after he begins his task, strange things start to occur. He is offered a lucrative job in Berlin by the somewhat mysterious Mr Rice (Meier Tzeiniker), then Martin's old friend Garvin (George Coulouris) turns up dead in Philip's apartment...

The mystery deepens as Philip meets Martin's wife Ruth (Jane Wenham). The police (Roland Culver) are also very interested in Philip and Techman. Things come to a head when Philip discovers that Martin is alive after all! 

A well-layered mystery with a number of surprises and twists. The film is modest but well formed, Philip's character has the light chippy nature of a Golden Age amateur detective. Indeed this often feels like one of those interwar dramas.

The Silent Partner (1978)

A gripping crime drama. Miles (Elliot Gould) is the unfortunate bank teller at the bank Santa Claus decides to rob. The thief is really Reikle (Christopher Plummer) and he gets away with some cash but Miles sees the opportunity to steal some money himself and place the blame on Reikle. 

Reikle, naturally, is rather taken aback when he reads news that the bank heist was far higher than he actually got. He discovers Miles' address and begins to put pressure on him to hand over the cash. Miles proves to be just a rascal as Reikle though and he fits him up for another crime. That isn't the end of things though as Miles and Reikle begin a game of cat and mouse...

A highly enjoyable crime drama. The coolness of Miles is the highlight of the film as he conceives highly complicated plots to hide the theft of the money, the loss of a safety deposit box and even covering up a murder. His luck in love doesn't go as smoothly especially with Julie (Susanna York) but he gets there in the end.