You Only Live Twice (1967)

One of the best James Bond films, so wonderfully over the top.

An American space capsule is gobbled up by a mysterious other capsule and disappears, the Americans accuse the Soviets but British Intelligence think the other capsule landed near Japan. Bond (Sean Connery) is sent to work with the Japanese secret service led by Tiger (Tetsuro Tanba). Bond discovers a link to a chemical company and a ship which makes an unusual cargo stop at a volcanic island...

Along with local diver Kissy (Mie Hama) - whom James tries to seduce of course, having already managed with Japanese agent Aki (Akiko Wakabayashi) - Bond discovers a secret base hidden in a volcano and a plot by Blofeld (Donald Pleasance) to start the Third World War... 

The film is completely ridiculous of course. but so much fun with incredible action scenes. Connery disguised as a Japanese fisherman is nonsense of course but so much else is in this film. Which makes it so superb.

Krasner, Norman: Beloved Husband of Irma (1974)

This is the first in the series about Norman (Douglas P McIntosh), one of life's born losers. Here he proves even going to the toilet is impossible for him without various disasters including getting his foot stuck down the toilet and accidentally groping the man in the next cubicle. All filmed in a found footage style grainy black and white. It is all rather cringey and weird. Perhaps the shame of flooding out the toilet meant that he had to go into hiding for 5 years until 1979's Welcome back Norman!

Lady of the Night (1925)

An enjoyable melodrama with a great performance by Norma Shearer.

Two baby girls are born very close together but also so far apart. One is Molly, the daughter of a man (Lew Harvey) sent to prison for a twenty stretch, and the other is Florence, the daughter of the judge (Fred Esmelton) who put him away! Eighteen years later the two young women (both played by Norma Shearer) have left their respective schools. Molly has become an escort, after a fight at a club she is rescued by an inventor called David (Malcolm McGregor) and falls in love, though David doesn't see it the same way...

With Molly's help, David decides to use his invention that can open any safes for good and not crime. Florence then meets David and starts dating him. However, she realises that Molly really loves him...

It is all wrapped neatly in a way the class conscious 1920s would accept of course. A sentimental film but very well done. The acting is natural and subtle and the story well told. Shearer does very well playing two roles, and two very different characters.

Die Monster Die! (1965)

An enjoyably creepy horror film.

Stephen (Nick Adams) arrives in a remote English village, asking for directions to the country house where his fiancé lives... but no one will tell him! He somehow finds his way there anyway and receives a cold welcome from his future father-in-law Witley (Boris Karloff) but Susan (Suzan Farmer) insists Stephen stays. The house is a really weird one, with ghastly howls and mysterious movements at night.

Finally, Stephen and Susan discover a greenhouse full of enormous plants and hideously deformed creatures. Stephen suspects radiation from a strange glowing green rock is causing the mutations...

The film is a grower, the horror and suspense starts off low-key and implied rather than shown. The film loses some of it's power when we do see what is behind the horrifying noises to be honest as they sometimes look a bit ridiculous. A decent horror film from the period though with a little room for improvement.

Final Justice (1984)

A ridiculous film but certainly fun.

Deputy Geronimo (Joe Don Baker) is a tough (though also rather large) Texan lawman. His friend is gunned down by Mafiosi Palermo (Venantino Venantini), but Geronimo arrests him. Palermo is to be extradited back to Italy, Geronimo is sent to accompany him. However, mysterious engine trouble means the plane lands in Malta instead. Palermo is soon rescued by his henchmen.

Geronimo seeks to recapture Palermo with the help of a young policewoman (Patrizia Pellagrino), much to the annoyance of the local police (Lino Grech), and the Mafia. Geronimo gets into many scrapes, and a number of gunfights. He also gets into a rather bizarre bar fight where he fights people with rather terrible props. It ends up in a dogged battle to the death with Palermo... eventually.

This isn't a good film by any measure though is bizarre and silly enough to be very watchable. Geronimo, with his stetson, cowhide jacket and great size stands out a mile in every Maltese scene. 

Topper Returns (1941)

Some rip roaring fun, in a house where things go bump in the night...

Cosmo Topper (Roland Young) ends up having to take two young ladies to their home after a car accident. At their home we discover that Ann (Carole Landis) has returned home after years in the Orient and bought her friend Gail (Joan Blondell). That night a mysterious masked figure kills Gail, though we discover that it was by accident and Ann was the real target...

Gail's ghost goes and summons Topper for help. He finds Ann's house full of mysterious characters such as Dr Jeris (George Zucco) who is looking after Ann's father (HB Warner). The house is also full of trap doors that lead to secret chambers and pits full of water, which Topper's unfortunate chauffeur (Eddie Rochester Anderson) discovers a number of time. Can Topper and Gail's ghost discover the truth before the hooded figure strikes again at Ann, or the police (Donald MacBride) interfere...

This really is a romp where the kitchen sink is thrown at the screen, every dark house cliche you could think of is deployed along with plenty of humour and nonsense. Is it a comedy, crime mystery, even a horror? All three to be honest, somehow it all holds together as a highly entertaining film. Topper's wife (Billie Burke) is hilarious in her role and there is a rather superb twist...

Carry on Up the Jungle (1970)

The Carry On team send up Tarzan films superbly.

Professor Tinkle (Frankie Howerd) is in Africa hunting for rare birds (no, the feathered kind!) He is being guided by big game hunter Boosey (Sid James) and accompanied by Lady Bagley (Joan Sims) who is still looking for her long lost son who disappeared in Africa many years ago. Her son is in fact now Ugh (Terry Scott) who has grown up in the jungle, swinging between the trees in vines like Tarzan. Unfortunately unlike Tarzan, Ugh has not learnt how to not crash in anything...

Tinkle's party faces wild animals, cannibal tribes and finally are captured by Amazons who require the men for mating. The King of the tribe, Tonka (Charles Hawtrey) turns out to be Lady Bagley's long lost, and presumed eaten, husband! Meanwhile, Ugh has fallen in love with Lady Bagley's maid June (Jacki Piper)...

It is all a hilarious and crude mess, with many wonderfully dreadful puns and sexual innuendo. Quite what the blacked up Bernard Bresslaw was saying to the "natives" is unknown, and they didn't have any idea either!