The Comedy of Terrors (1963)

A comedy horror romp that skirts a little too close to the edge between hilarious and terrible.

Smug undertaker Waldo (Vincent Price) is horrible to everyone including his assistant Felix (Peter Lorre) and his wife Amaryllis (Joyce Jameson). He is also trying to kill his father-in-law Amos (Boris Karloff). However, Waldo has a problem, there isn't enough business and he has a big bill to pay given to him by Mr Black (Basil Rathbone). 

If enough people arn't dying in the town then Waldo has a dark and depraved way to solve that... kill people himself!

An interesting black comedy with a superb cast. It does include some truly delicious wickedness (i like the joke that Waldo reuses the same coffin over and over, tossing the occupant out when everyone has gone and taking the coffin home for a clean!) At times though the film is a little too goofy and cheesy. The cast makes it worthwhile.

Curse of the Faceless Man (1958)

Nothing that new in the genre perhaps, but pretty well done. An enjoyable 1950s monster film.

From the ruins of Pompeii a petrified gladiator is unearthed. It doesn't take long for terrible things to start happening, the gladiator comes to life and kills the driver taking it to the museum! Dr Mallon (Richard Anderson) begins to investigate and finds that the gladiator carries a curse though is sceptical that the gladiator's body is still alive however, soon he comes face to face with the brutal creature.

Meanwhile, Mallon's secretary Tina (Elaine Edwards) begins to have strange visions of the gladiator. A link between her and the gladiator starts to develop. Maybe the monster's motivation isn't just to destroy but something a little deeper...

An interesting film that raises itself above the herd (though lets face it a lot of that herd are pretty terrible). The film is well constructed and paced. The monster scenes just edge the right side of the chills / cheese divide. The story has a little bit more intelligence than usual.

The Primrose Path (1925)

A decent melodrama though it certainly packs plenty in.

Bruce (Wallace MacDonald) is well off, unfortunately he spends his money on gambling and booze. Despite the fact he is a bit of a loser, his gal Marilyn (Clara Bow) sticks by him. Bruce ends up gambling with the boss Tom (Stuart Holmes) of the establishment where Marilyn works as a dancer. Bruce loses big and can't pay up. To avoid jail he has no choice but to be involved in diamond smuggling with Tom.

The troubles however, continue to rack up for Bruce. He gets involved in a death and it all spells ruin (and the electric chair) for Bruce, and despair for his widowed mother and crippled brother (just in case you haven't got enough melodrama!)

An emotional film but handled with enough subtlety to keep things just about bearable.

The World Is Not Enough (1999)

Some men want the world, but for some women the world is not enough.

James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) is tasked to protect oil heiress Electra (Sophie Marceau) after her father (David Calder) was killed in a terrorist attack at MI6. Bond discovers that Renard (Robert Carlyle) - who has a bullet in his brain - is planning to destroy an oil pipeline with an atomic bomb by stealing ex-Soviet plutonium. With the help of nuclear scientist Dr Jones (Denise Richards), James foils that plan but the real plot is far more deadly, and the true mastermind behind the plot highly unexpected...

This is a good Bond film (but can't be said to be amongst the very best) though when he is fighting Renard inside a live nuclear reactor you might consider that Bond (even by his prior standards) has jumped the shark! Despite that the action mostly stays the right side of plausibility and the various set pieces are pretty spectacular.

Juggernaut (1974)

A superbly tense thriller set aboard an ocean liner loaded with bombs.

Under the command of Captain Brunel (Omar Sharif) the ocean liner Britannic sets off on it's first voyage after a refit, the passengers barely entertained by hapless entertainment officer Curtain (Roy Kinnear) though the incredibly rough seas don't help. Soon, however there is some excitement. A mad man contacts the shipping line to tell them various booby trapped bombs are aboard, and unless he receives a couple of suitcases full of cash the bombs will go off sinking the liner and all aboard her.

While the police in the form of McCleod (Anthony Hopkins) try and hunt down the bomber, expert bomb disposal officer Fallon (Richard Harris) and his team and parachuted into the Atlantic and clamber aboard the liner. With the timers fast counting down Harris and his team desperately try and defuse the incredibly complicated bombs before it's too late...

A great film with a brilliant cast. The bomb disposal scenes make great use of close-ups. The final twist is delicious.

The Lesser Evil (1912)

A neat little drama.

A young woman (Blanche Sweet) goes to meet her sweetheart, a fisherman (Edwin August). Unfortunately the meeting point is where a gang of smugglers led by (Alfred Paget) store their wares. The woman is kidnapped by the smugglers who take to their boat. While her sweetheart tries to raise the alarm and get help, trouble is brewing on the boat. The crew are now boozed up and seeking to have "fun" with the woman, she considers death would be preferable, the lesser evil...

While not a masterpiece the film is decent in most ways including the naturalistic acting.

The Woman in Green (1945)

Another fiendish plot is foiled by Holmes and Watson.

There have been a spate of murders of women across London, the fingers of each victim cut off. Meanwhile, city gent Sir George (Paul Cavanagh) entertains a lady friend (Hillary Brooke). However, he wakes up in a dingy bedsit, hearing shouts of murder outside. There has been yet another murder of a woman, and her severed finger is in Sir George's pocket...

Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Watson (Nigel Bruce) are soon called to the tragic scene of Sir George's suicide, they discover that he has been blackmailed. This indicates to Holmes that it isn't a madman committing these murders, rather it is a devious plot. He suspects Moriarty (Henry Daniell) is behind this and is soon proved to be right in a dangerous tale of hypnosis and extortion...

This is typical of the long-running Holmes series from Rathbone and Bruce, Bruce's Watson is a little too much of a buffoon as usual but this is perfectly enjoyable if not exceptional fare. For some reason Edgware is misspelt with an extra E several times. Maybe we can blame Moriarty for that as well?