Canal Zone (1942)

Although full of cliches, this is an interesting war film that approaches a somewhat neglected aspect of the conflict.

Bombers need ferrying from the US mainland out to the forces fighting in the East, this requires flying them from Panama across to Africa, a highly dangerous job. Despite this, barely trained pilots are being recruited and Hardtack Hamilton (Chester Morris) has his work cut out to get them ready. The new pilots are a collection of stereotypes, but the one which causes the biggest headache for Hardtack is the arrogant playboy Ames (John Hubbard) who takes risks in the air and is trying to muscle in on Hardtack's girlfriend Susan (Harriet Nelson)!

Ames' risk taking soon results in a disaster after a fellow pilot is killed. Ames falls into despair at what he has done. Now Hardtack and Susan must try and drag him back to the obvious redemption arc!

An enjoyable film, though fairly predictable, it is well made and has some good performances. The aerial scenes are obviously done with models and are not very realistic but it does not ruin the film.

The Swiss Conspiracy (1976)

A superb crime drama, though it does seem intent in shoehorning every Swiss cliché into it that is possible.

Swiss banks are famous for their secrecy and discretion, however someone is putting that at risk by black mailing the customers of the bank operated by Hurtil (Ray Milland). 

Former US agent Christopher (David Janssen) is bought in to investigate, but soon tangles with mobster Hayes (John Saxon) and the rather more lovely Abbott (Senta Berger). There is an insider behind this conspiracy, the identity of which is quite a surprise...

A very good film, though leans rather more heavily on the "Swiss-ness" of the setting than maybe it should. At times it does risk becoming self-parody but luckily the strong plot and good performances save the day and make this a very worthwhile film indeed.

War Hunt (1962)

A dark war film set during the Korean War.

Loomis (Robert Redford) is a naive young soldier who is sent to join the Korean War front line. He finds it is not a straight forward conflict with the aim being not to win but to hurt the enemy as much as possible. 

Fellow soldier Endore (John Saxon) is quite happy with that and soon Loomis finds Endore's obvious psychopathic tendencies as dangerous as the enemy...

A low budget war film (and the low budget really shows at times) but very tense and dark with a great performance from Saxon who really steals the film. 

Master of the Flying Guillotine (1976)

A crazy martial arts film involving ridiculous combat... a lot of it.

In the days of ancient China, the people are kept under control by the Manchu by the practitioners of the flying guillotine. The master of this bizarre device, which looks like a bowl lined with razor blades, is the blind monk Fung (Kang Kam). He is out to gain revenge on the one armed fighter Liu Te Lung (Yu Wang) who killed two of his disciples...

That is the plot, which isn't much. The film is mostly about the fighting and there is a lot of it in this film. In fact the film is nearly all fight scenes which are held together by the odd bit of plot. Those fight scenes, especially the final battle between Fung and Liu are on the whole pretty terrific.

Mary Ryan, Detective (1949)

A modest but enjoyable little crime B-movie.

A female gang is stealing jewellery, possibly by making use of small children. Detective Mary Ryan (Marsha Hunt) is sent to prison (undercover of course) by her boss (John Litel) to try and infiltrate the gang. This she succeeds in doing but the gang leader (June Vincent) is suspicious which proves very dangerous to Mary...

A thoughtful and intelligent film with some good performances. The gang are not the sort of identikit thugs which you usually get in films of this type. Maybe not a thrill-a-minute but a good plot.

Flat Top (1952)

An enjoyable, if generic, naval air warfare yarn.

During the Korean War Commander Collier (Sterling Hayden) remembers back to the previous war and his early days on the carrier. 

This included butting heads with Rodgers (Joe Carlson) and various antics, and many training missions, as some raw recruits get knocked into shape and got ready for combat...

It is very predictable but a decently made film. If you have seen that many war films then it probably has little you would not have seen before in these kinds of film but that doesn't mean it isn't worth a watch. The carrier stock footage is good, especially the early jet age footage.

Blind Warrior (1987)

Completely over the top magical martial arts action, extraordinary and fantastic.

In the days of ancient Indonesia, the brutal warlord Baden Parna (Advent Bangun) is terrorising local villages, enslaving the men to toil in his gold mine and taking the women to his bed. 

Only one man can stop the evil warlord... a wandering blind warrior called Barda (Ratno Timoer)! He has supernatural fighting skills and brings the fight back to Parna...

This is a crazy film, violent yet frequently ridiculous martial arts mixed with a lot of mysticism and magic. The plot is basic, and often doesn't make a lot of sense. But this is a glorious watch and a huge amount of fun, and exotic sleaze.