Escape from San Quentin (1957)

A tense prison break drama.

Gruber (Richard Devon) persuades fellow con Gilbert (Johnny Desmond) to help him break out of San Quentin, Gilbert is vital to the plan as it involves using a plane to fly out of the prison and Gilbert is a pilot. 

The plan succeeds but now the escaped convicts face difficulty in getting their hands on Gruber's hidden stash of loot. Gilbert though is more interested in getting to talk to his estranged wife, soon his sister-in-law (Merry Anders) is dragged into their escape with both the police and the mob after them...

A good film with Noir touches, the actual prison break itself only takes up a small part of the film, most of it is taken up with the convicts on the run. This can drag a bit but the menace and violence of the mobsters keeps you interested.

Miss V from Moscow (1942)

A ridiculous but fast moving wartime spy drama.

Top Soviet spy Vera (Lola Lane) is sent to France by her boss - who veers between a terrible Russian accent and a Brooklyn one throughout. In Paris, Vera tangled with the evil Nazi police chief Kleiss (Noel Maddison) but she uses her resemblance to a dead German agent to evade the Gestapo and help the Allies and the Resistance send radio messages to alert Allied convoys of impending German attacks...

This is quite an odd film, which at times resembles a fast moving serial. Most of the characters are stereotypes, and often hilariously so. The story doesn't make much sense and the low budget is stretched very thinly, luckily as it's a wartime film there is plenty of stock footage to pad things out. All in all this film is terrible, but it is definitely in the so bad it's good camp.

The Lone Defender (Serial) (1930)

An enjoyable Western serial, the fabulous Rin Tin Tin stealing the show.

The mysterious Cactus Kid (Lee Shumway) and his gang kill a prospector but do not discover the location of his gold mine. The prospector's dog Rinty (Rin Tin Tin) recognises the killers - though of course he can't tell anyone! 

The Cactus Kid thinks the dog can lead him to the mine so tries to get his hands on the dog. Rinty meanwhile helps agent Ramon (Walter Miller) track down the identity of the Cactus Kid...

A decent enough serial with plenty of exciting cliff hangers. However, the story is maybe stretched a little too far in the serial format. The story probably would work better as a stand alone film, and indeed it was edited and reworked into such in 1934!

Thunderbolt (1929)

A good early talkie with some tasty gangster nonsense.

Notorious gangster Thunderbolt (George Bancroft) is wanted by the police, they put the squeeze on his moll Ritzie (Fay Wray) but she won't give him up. In fact, she doesn't really care about him anymore, she is more interested in her her new, and law abiding, lover Bob (Richard Arlen). 

Eventually, Thunderbolt is captured by the police and faces the death penalty but Bob is also put in gaol after being framed, now Thunderbolt seeks to kill Bob while he has the chance...

Early talkies can often be a bit of a chore due to the awkwardness of the actors trying to adapt to the new style, there is a little bit of that here but overall the cast do a good job, Wray especially is excellent. There is a superb scene in a night club too with some decent singing and a bit of fighting. We also get a rather adorable performing dog. An enjoyable film.

Hi-Jacked (1950)

An inoffensive decent little crime drama.

A gang are hi-jacking trucks and stealing the loads, one of these trucks is being driven by Joe (Jim Davis) when he falls for the old broken down car trick.

Unfortunately, Joe has a record so he is suspected by the police of being involved. These suspicions are fuelled when Joe is framed into driving a load of contraband. He sets out to catch the real criminals, and save his marriage to Jean (Marcia Mae Jones)...

This is a reasonable if unexceptional B-movie. The story is not very original and the performances a bit flat. It passes the time but not much more.

The Notorious Lone Wolf (1946)

The Lone Wolf continues, with a new face.

The Lone Wolf, Michael Lanyard (now played by Gerald Mohr) has returned from the war and immediately gets drawn into a plot to steal a valuable diamond. Inspector Crane (William B Davidson) naturally thinks Lanyard and Jameson (Eric Blore) stole the gem - Crane is quite an unimaginative detective to be honest as he always thinks Lanyard is behind all gem thefts, maybe he thinks he will get it right finally. The gem was stolen from a dancer who was wearing it, the dancer being murdered. Lanyard must track down the gem and the murderer...

The Lone Wolf series was just starting to run out of steam by now. Post-war, these kinds of bright and breezy B-movies were starting to look a bit dated in the coming age of the Noir, however Mohr slightly refreshes the role. The rest of the Lone Wolf formula is there and this is a good, if unexceptional, entry in the series.

The Black Cobra 3: Manila Connection (1990)

Lots of running around in the Filipino jungle ultimately wins out.

After a shipment of US weapons are stolen in the Philippines, and a US agent is killed by insurgents, Malone (Fred Williamson) is called in from the streets of Chicago to help investigate the case along with Interpol agent Duncan (Forry Smith). 

As their investigation continually runs into trouble they begin to suspect there is a traitor in their midst, could it be fellow agent Ward (Debra Ward)?

A low budget action romp with the flimsy story largely there to punctuate the various action set pieces. These arn't bad, though are frequently a bit ridiculous and overly relys on the tired trope of the bad guys being hopeless shots. An enjoyable film if approached in the right way.