The Hunt for Red October (1990)

A classic late Cold War thriller.

A new advanced Soviet submarine is about to launch, it's new electro-drive makes it virtually undetectable giving the Soviets a sizeable advantage in any nuclear war. Luckily for the US, the captain of the submarine (Red October) is Ramius (Sean Connery) who wants to defect and will bring the submarine with him! When the Soviets raise the alert, CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) is the only one who suspects this is a defection and not a Soviet preparation for war.

As the Red October tries to reach the West and safety, Jack heads out to the cold waters of the North Atlantic  to contact Ramius and find out for sure what his intensions are as Soviet and US forces converge...

A great tense film set mostly aboard a submarine (therefore the perfect location for tenseness!) Seen nowadays it has an amusing coincidence in that the troublesome political officer (Peter Firth) whom Ramius has to kill early on is called Putin! Great sets and some exciting (and - because it is based on a Tom Clancy story - realistic) underwater combat scenes make this one of the best Cold War dramas.

Gang Smashers (1938)

Somewhat baffling at times but fast paced gangster action in this race movie.

Laura (Nina Mae McKinney) is a gangster's moll and singer at his (Laurence Criner) club. However, all is not what it seems. Really she is an undercover agent seeking evidence to bring down the Harlem racket once and for all. Naturally this is a very dangerous enterprise, but she might have an unexpected ally.

This is a highly enjoyable film with plenty of cool swing and jazz. It also includes Mantan Moreland in an unusual role for him as a gangster's henchman, though he still plays it light to add some humour to the film. 

The low budget and iffy acting can make the story a little hard to follow at times but this is a solid film with an exciting action packed ending.

Alice's Day at Sea (1924)

One of the earliest Walt Disney films, this is a comedy short which mixes live action and animation.

Alice (Virginia Davis) and woken up by Peggy the dog and heads off to the seashore. When she is there she hears a story of an old shipwreck and then dreams of visiting a mysterious world under the seas including an underwater zoo!

Although not the first to be made this was the first Alice film to be released and is a fun little thing with it's mix of styles. There isn't much to it but it has a bit of charm. It is probably most notable for historical reasons though. 

Wanted: Dead or Alive (1986)

You can't beat a bit of violent 1980s cheese.

Nick (Rutger Hauer) is ex-CIA and now a bounty hunter plying his trade in the inner city war zone that is 1980s Los Angeles. He lives in an industrial unit full of guns and various junk. 

He is employed to track down a terrorist called Malak (Gene Simmons) who has arrived in town and started to blow things up. Malak plans to cause a major disaster by blowing up a chemical plant in LA. The hunt for Malak is complicated by the meddling of the CIA, soon Nick's nearest and dearest are in the firing line...

An enjoyable film though fairly generic in many ways. The violence is fairly low budget but decently done and there is quite a lot of it. 

The Missing Lady (1946)

One of a short movie series featuring the masked crime fighter, The Shadow, not that he is in costume very much.

Lamont Cranston (Kane Richmond) a.k.a. The Shadow is looking for a missing jade statuette. His investigations lead him into sleazy bars, a doss house and then into a murder scene in his own apartment block! Lamont finds himself accused of the murder though he gets off after outwitting Police Inspector Cardona (James Flavin) - to be honest a piece of cheese could probably do that.

Lamont and his assistant Shrevvie (George Chandler) investigate a complicated plot which the local hoodlum (Jack Overman), his gal (Claire Carleton) and a glamorous model (Jo-Carroll Dennison) seem to be involved in... 

It is all fine B-movie detective work and can be a bit Noir-ish at times, what does detract from the movie a bit though is the repetitive humour such as Cardona's stupidity and Lamont's and Shrevvie's jealous girlfriends (Barbara Reed and Jennie Delaney) getting involved to various degrees of non-assistance. 

In the Year 2889 (1969)

We are in the future, actually no we arn't. In fact this is a rather low budget slice of nonsense set firmly in 1969.

World War 3 has occurred, radiation is killing everyone but smug Captain John (Neil Fletcher) has a plan in his remote house protected from the fall out by geographical oddities. Unfortunately his remote house doesn't turn out to be that remote after all after a number of unwanted guests come to join him and his daughter (Charla Doherty). While some of the visitors including Steve (Paul Petersen) are benign, Micky (Hugh Feagin) is a wrong-un just waiting to cause trouble. There also appears to be a radiation mutated monster prowling in the gardens...

Low budget and low thrills, it also has a distinct lack of good acting (though Doherty isn't bad). The story is a bit slow and stilted and sometimes you wish for the radiation to put us all out of out misery. The title by the way has nothing to do with the film, but is taken from a Jules Verne short story. That probably is the most interesting thing about this disaster.

Gun Lords of Stirrup Basin (1937)

Romeo and Juliet on the range, a great Western.

Trouble is brewing between the ranchers and the homesteaders, the trouble being caused secretly by greedy crooked lawyer Bowdre (Karl Hackett). Son of the ranch boss Dan (Bob Steele) and daughter of a homesteader Gail (Louise Stanley) only have eyes for each other though. But when the guns start firing and the bodies start falling, newly married Dan and Gail find themselves caught between the two sides...

One of the better B-movie Westerns with a good story (maybe inspired by Shakespeare, i guess we'll never know) that isn't overshadowed by endless speeded up horse riding and fights - although you will get some of these. Super little film. Strange title though.