A Virgin in Hollywood (1953)

A curious and generally pretty awful little film.

Darla (Dorothy Abbott) is a small town reporter who is sent to Hollywood to get the real deal on the home of dreams. Her trip to Hollywood runs into trouble almost immediately when she gets chased around some ruins by Playboy models. She also ends up in a rather tame burlesque club and encounters some of the strange menfolk (including a rather terrible comedian)... and womenfolk... of tinsel town in a series of "adventures".

A very strange film with a tiny budget, the running time padded out by inserted two out-of-context 3-D short films in the centre of it! Its a shame that this was long-time bit-part actor Abbott's only starring role, she deserved a lot better than this nonsense. Truly terrible - definitely one of the worst films ever made - though pretty compelling watching of course!

Stormy Trails (1936)

A pretty decent Western with a well developed plot.

Tom Storm (Rex Bell) is a rancher who blissfully unaware that devious Stanton (Karl Hackett) knows there is gold on Storm's land. Stanton has his henchmen rob the bank, putting pressure on the banker to foreclose on Storm. He also tries to have Storm sued by a disgruntled former cow hand (though Storm shoots him in the robbery). Storm gets involved with the lovely Connie (Lois Wilde) though her Dad (Lloyd Ingraham) is caught stealing gold on Storm's land...

If that enough Stanton also corrupts Storm's younger brother Billy (Bob Terry) though the kid has a change of heart with tragic results...

Ok so the plot is a bit complicated but it works really well, and mostly holds together and makes sense. There is some gunplay and good horsemanship but this is mostly a Western about plot not Colt 45s.

Night Vision (1997)

Violent, exploitative and quite odd. Yes its a pretty good film.

A deranged serial killer is slaughtering young women, his crimes videoed in excruciating detail and the videos then sold on the black market. Washed up cop Dak Smith (Fred Williamson) gets a break when he stumbles across the van of the killer, though when whoever is driving the van unleashes the heavy firepower Dak is lucky to survive.

Paired up with another cop under a cloud, O'Connor (Cynthia Rothrock) by the police chief (Frank Pesce) who hates him, Dak continues to look for the serial killer. The killer (Robert Prentiss) begins to target Dak and O'Connor with the help of his goons...

A violent film with plenty of gratuitous female nudity. The film certainly doesn't lack for thrills, the plot moving a pace and isn't very complicated in any case. Low budget but decent fun, it won't win any prizes but who cares?

Horrors of Spider Island (1960)

Rather low-rent horror with beautiful women on a tropical island... and spider men.

Gary (Alexander D'Arcy) and Georgia (Helga Franck) assemble a dance troupe of young women and takes them to Singapore... unfortunately their plane crashes in the Pacific. Joe and the survivors end up on a remote island. They discover that someone was living there but he is lying dead in a gigantic spider web!

A bizarre giant spider lives on the island. It attacks Joe who manages to kill it but it's venom turns him into a spider man. He then hunts the women... But then two guys turn up at the island and the women forget all about the spider threat until the end and the return of spider man for a final showdown...

A cheap horror romp, it doesn't make a lot of sense or have that much in the way of horror action though does show a lot of female flesh. Cheesy and vaguely exotic fun. The dubbing is sometimes hilariously bad.

The Sentimental Bloke (1919)

An interesting if not that enthralling early Australian film.

Based on a poem, this film recounts the story of an ex-convict called Bill (Arthur Tauchert) and a good old normal Aussie bloke. His life is turned around when he meets Doreen (Lottie Lyell), a good woman. So, this film is basically about the romance and has plenty of Aussie stereotypes.

The film is rather hard to follow at time though the wordy inter-titles packed full of Aussie slang are a treat. It is certainly an unusual film, unfortunately not that interesting overall but the historic value can't be denied.

Lightning Strikes West (1940)

Pretty decent if unsurprising Western fare.

Lightning Morgan (Ken Maynard) is a reluctant lawman who is is deputised by the Marshal (William Gould) to recapture Butch Taggart (Michael Vallon), a tough outlaw who has escape from prison. The loot from Taggart's last heist has never been found. 

Morgan disguises himself as a drifter bum and gets a job at a saloon owned by members of Taggart's gang. He discovers Taggart is indeed hiding in the saloon, planning to disguise his identity and then find the loot...

Not too original a Western, the story is pretty straightforward but very well done, apart from a few strange plot quirks such as when Taggart makes a big show of telling Morgan he can't leave the room, but he does anyway! The fighting and horsemanship are of a decent standard.

Woman Unafraid (1934)

An interesting story though not executed that well.

Policewoman Augusta Winthrope (Lucile Gleason) has a local dance hall on her beat. In the dance hall gangster Lewis (Jason Roberts Snr) is foiled by Augusta, who also rescues some of the unfortunate girls (not really elaborated on but basically prostitutes) at the dance hall. She puts them up at her own home. Lewis seeks revenge and murders one of the girls (Barbara Weeks), also manipulating local do-gooder Mrs Worthington (Laura Tredwell) to cause Augusta's suspension. Augusta's only chance to save the girls and save her job is to prove Lewis is a murderer and get him put away for good...

A decent crime story though let down by terrible pacing and a little too much padding by irrelevant characters. The film is worth sticking with, and isn't a long film (though feels a lot longer!)