Catalina Caper (1967)

Swinging teens foil a gang of crooks, not as bad as you might fear but not far off...

A criminal couple (Del Moore and Sue Casey) steal a valuable painting and take it to Catalina island where they plan to swindle a dodgy Greek art collector by showing him the real one then selling him a fake. The collector Lakapolous (Lee Deane) however, has his own scheme to steal the painting off the gang. The couple's son Tad (Peter Duryea) finds out what his folks are up to and plans to steal the painting himself and return it. Other kids including Don (Tommy Kirk) also get involved.

If thats not enough there is a mysterious guy who is watching them but keeps falling into the water, oh and Catalina island is full of teens in their swimwear dancing about in that swinging 1960s pop manner soon to be made obsolete by psychedelia.

This is light fare really, and quite ridiculous too. Basically a 1960s beach movie with a bit of crime added. The frequent musical interludes take any momentum away from any other part of the story, one of these interludes does include a cameo from Little Richard though so thats quite cool and probably the movie's best bit.

The Gang's All Here (1941)

Someone is targeting a logistics company's trucks. Two friends take a job driving those trucks unaware they are being put in danger.

Frankie (Frankie Darro) and Jeff (Mantan Moreland) take on the job with Pop's (Robert Homans) company. after being hired by the mechanic Chick (Jackie Moran) and Pop's daughter Patsy (Marcia Mae Jones). Frankie and Jeff manage to escape the first attempt to run them off the road but on the second attempt they are not so lucky and end up prisoners of the gang. Meanwhile, Lee (Keye Luke) is an agent for the insurance company investigating quite why Pop is sending so many claims. He discovers a plot hatched with insurance broker Saunders (Irving Mitchell) to defraud the company...

This is a fun film with a good cast which gels very well. The story is packed into a short film (as is usual with a B movie) but the fast pace and generally light feel and tone make this a highly enjoyable little film. Though with Luke and Moreland involved in the film you do half expect a certain well known Chinese detective to make an appearance!

Robot Monster (1953)

A laughably bad 1950s science fiction film, though with a clever twist.

Johnny (Gregory Moffett), an annoying all-American boy, is sleeping off his picnic with his parents. He wakes up and reaches a cave, suddenly the world is torn upside down, dinosaurs fight in a valley, most of the human race is wiped out and... an alien gorilla in a space helmet is looking to complete the job!

What is going on? Why have we gone from a picnic to a post-apocalypse scene were just a handful of humans are left alive in just the blink of an eye? Apparently the survivors are protected from the evil cosmic ray weapon of Ro-Man (George Barrows/John Brown) by a serum developed by The Professor (John Mylong). Ro-Man, despite his space simian nature, puts his plans to complete the wipe out of humanity when he takes a fancy to Johnny's older sister Alice (Claudia Barrett)...

This is very low budget fare, for some reason Ro-Man has a bubble making machine. Nothing really makes sense, well when we do get the twist it kind of explain a lot of the nonsense we have just seen. Very strange stuff indeed.

The Jesse Ventura Story (1999)

Jesse "The Body" Ventura (wrestler, actor, politician) has a life story almost tailor made for a biopic, unfortunately this isn't it.

We see Jesse from his early years as a US Navy Seal, then breaking into pro-wrestling before injuries forced him to take on a broadcasting role. This led to him beginning a film and TV career before finally entering politics and becoming governor of Minnesota. 

A great story but unfortunately so much of the story portrayed on screen is completely wrong, especially the wrestling segments which seem to exist in some parallel universe utterly against actual wrestling history (Raven, Goldberg in wrestling supposedly set in the 1970s and 80s? Really?)

To make matters worse, the guy who plays Ventura (Nils Allen Stewart) doesn't really look or sound like him, which is always a drawback when the original is one of the most recognisable people on Earth! Quite why the makers took so many liberties is unknown, but this is really terrible. Watch the real Jesse Ventura in Predator or Abraxus instead!

Indiscreet (1931)

Gloria Swanson warbles to good effect in this fairly light romantic comedy.

Geri (Gloria) breaks up with Jim (Monroe Owsley) on New Year's Eve, his infidelities and probably his golf too being too much for her. Geri soon meets novelist Tony (Ben Lyon) and falls in love, Tony doesn't want to know about the man in Geri's past and wants to remain ignorant. All is fine until Geri's sister Joan (Barbara Kent) turns up with her new man... Jim!

An enjoyable film, pre-code and quite racy for the times too such as when Gloria shows a bit of leg in the shower! The dialogue is a little awkward at times as in many early talkies though it does give a bit of a natural feel. Gloria sings a few songs too. A fun and enjoyable film.

You'll also fall in love with some of the interior sets, and the furniture!

Shock Waves (1977)

They may plod a bit but these Nazi SS zombie super soldiers certainly provide plenty of scares.

The Captain (John Carradine) has bought a group of tourists along in his rusty old tub of a boat. When his boat runs into troubles and hits a mysterious derelict ship, the Captain is killed and the crew and passengers escape to a nearby island. On the island they discover a hermit who becomes very agitated when he learns of the derelict ship. Apparently the hermit is an SS Commander (Peter Cushing) and the ship was supposed to be trapped on the sea bed with it's cargo of zombie SS stormtroopers!

Those zombie SS are emerging from the sea and begin to kill the survivors one by one. The SS Commander tells them the zombies are uncontrollable and have an insatiable need to kill. A battle for survival ensues.

The zombie SS are rather slow moving but undeniably creepy, they are also unstoppable and relentless. The survivors including Brooke Adams and Fred Buch are varying degrees of annoying but play their part in this rather decent zombie horror.

The Flying Scotsman (1929)

An enjoyable early talkie, so early in fact that it starts off as a silent movie but the dialogue is turned on about half way through!

Bob White, the driver (Moore Marriott) of the Flying Scotsman (the actual LNER 4472) is about to retire after making one more run along the East Coast Main Line (the actual train is called the Flying Scotsman too as well as the locomotive!) His former fireman Crow (Alec Hurley) is resentful as he was sacked after White saw him drinking and reported him. He vows revenge. Meanwhile, the driver's daughter Joan (Pauline Johnson) falls for a cocky young railway worker called Jim (Ray Milland). White doesn't want him around his daughter though hasn't seen him, which is just as well as Jim is his new fireman!

Joan overhears Crow's plan to cause an accident and follows him onto the train. What follows are some death defying stunts (by the actors themselves) hanging onto the side of the moving train. Can disaster be averted?

The film begins as a silent movie but about half way through it changes to a sound one (one of the earlieest British ones). It is quite a strange effect, film technology was moving fast in 1929 but there obviously wasn't the time and/or money to reshoot the first half of the film as sound. This is an enjoyable adventure with some exciting scenes and humour. The true star is Flying Scotsman of course, which to this day draws a huge crowd. Its also Ray Milland's first credited role.