Oriental Evil (1951)

A rather seedy tale of crime in early post-war Japan.

Cheryl (Martha Hyer) arrives in Tokyo intent on clearing the name of her brother who was accused of smuggling and committed suicide. She meets up with Roger (Byron Michie), a suave and very tall Englishman. He agrees to help her find the man who was realy behind the smuggling and Cheryl soon falls in love with him.

Unfortunately Roger is really called Tom and is the man she is looking for. He is a disgraced ex-serviceman involved in black market smuggling and has a Japanese wife whom he treats brutally, usually after he has got drunk yet again. However, Roger/Tom has been marked by fate and his demise is inevitable...

A rather low-rent crime drama, slow moving and can drag at times though is well structured and the mystic element adds a bit of novelty. Its also amusing seeing the very tall Michie have to duck everywhere!

Assignment: Outer Space (1960)

Wobbly rockets in space in this rather odd space opera.

Ray (Rik Van Nutter) is a journalist who is blasting out into outer space to see what is going on out at the space station, his arrival does not please George (David Montresor), the space station commander who seems to be hiding something. We soon find out what, a space ship is returning to Earth out of control and, unless it can be stopped, will wipe out all life! To save Earth, Ray, George, Lucy (Gabriella Farinon) and the cool Al (Archie Savage) must head out in an apparent suicide mission in a desperate attempt to save everything...

The idea is good as is the ambition, though the budget and ability unfortunately falls pretty short. The space ships literally wobble on the end of strings and the film is full of oddness and many of the common 1950s/60s science fiction tropes including weird codenames for people. A fun film though.

Subspecies: The Awakening (1998)

High octane vampire nonsense, what is going on? Who knows... but also who cares?

Michelle (Denice Duff) escapes from her vampire master Radu (Anders Hove), a creature of pure evil and also pretty hard to kill. Michelle is saved by a nurse and taken to the ridiculously creepy looking Dr Niculescu (Mihai Dinvale) who promises to help her but really he wants the mysterious blood stone which Radu possesses, though first he secretly drinks blood from Michelle's thigh while she is unconscious.

The scene is set for a showdown between Radu and Michelle in a crypt (of course) while various other incomprehensible vampire nonsense takes place.

This film is a bit of a mess. Very violent, bloody, incoherent and campy and weird. It's totally brilliant.

Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943)

An excellent entry in the Rathbone Sherlock series.

Dr Watson (Nigel Bruce) is working as a medic at a stately home serving as a convalescent home for army officers. However, strange things are happening including a maniac attacking people in the night. Watson calls his friend Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) to investigate. By the time he arrives there has been a murder. The head of the Musgrave family has been killed.

This is not the first murder. There are a number of suspects, including Sally Musgrave (Hillary Brooke) who must recite an ancient saying as she assumes her place in the family hierarchy. Did the butler do it? Brunton (Halliwell Hobbes) certainly is behaving strangely when he isn't drunk anyway! Sherlock has his eye on Dr Sexton (Arthur Margetson) however...

This is a highly enjoyable entry in the long running series with an intricate plot, the setting of a dark country house with plenty of secrets of course helps!

Queen of Outer Space (1958)

After a promising start this quickly becomes fairly unoriginal 1950s sci-fi though isn't all bad.

We are in the future (well the 1980s anyway) and mankind is in space. Captain Neal (Eric Fleming) commands his ship to a space station, which comes under attack and blows up! A mysterious beam sends their ship out of control. They find themselves on Venus, and soon are prisoners of women with ray guns who, despite being Venusians speak perfect English and have spent a lot of time in the salon.

No men are on the planet, Queen Yllana (Laurie Mitchell) has either killed or banished them after a nuclear war. She wears a mask and we later find out she was disfigured by radiation. Neal and his men discover that not everyone is as anti-male as Yllana, rebels led by Talleah (Zsa Zsa Gabor) want to change the status quo...

The start of this film is quite promising, the take off and mission being portrayed in a fairly realistic (for the time) manner. However, once the men reach Venus things take a downward turn and the film becomes a bit generic. It also has some rather jarring misogyny even for the time. The sets and costumes look superb though. Not a bad film though it could have been somewhat better.

Blue Thunder (1983)

One of many films in the 1980s about advanced technology (gone wrong), and one of the best.

Murphy (Roy Schneider) is a grizzled helicopter pilot working for the LAPD, haunted by his past in Vietnam. He is invited to take part in a secret new programme with an advanced helicopter called Blue Thunder which can listen in on conversations, travel silently when needed and has a Gatling gun!

The helicopter has been developed by a team involving Murphy's old comrade Cochrane (Malcolm McDowell) whom Murphy loathes. Murphy and his assistant Lymangood (Daniel Stern) discover (using Blue Thunder's capabilities of course) that a secret government group including Cochrane is planning to use the helicopter for nefarious purposes...

So, this is a very good technology action film with a good helping of conspiracy and corruption as well. To be honest if you are an aviation fan Blue Thunder looks a bit suspect (a light Gazelle with extra plates bolted on basically) but the action scenes are solid and very tense.

Charlie Chan in Paris (1935)

Charlie Chan arrives in Paris on holiday but of course he is really on a case!

Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) has been tasked with investigating a case of forged bonds at a Parisian bank. Unfortunately the criminal gang are ruthless and kill Chan's contact (Dorothy Appleby) before she can tell him much (though she does have time for an energetic dance at the club she works at!) While Chan hunts for the gang, Yvette (Mary Brian) - the daughter of Chan's banker friend - is falsely accused of murder...

A decent entry in the Charlie Chan series, Number 1 son (Keye Luke) arriving in Paris to help his Dad out. No one speaks with a French accent so the setting doesn't feel very French (though is set indoors mostly anyway!)