Mysterious Intruder (1946)

A Noir entry in the Whistler anthology series.

Private detective Don Gale (Richard Dix) is employed by an old man (Paul E Burns) to find a young girl he once knew. The girl has an inheritance of two old recordings which are worth a lot of money. 

Although supposedly the good guy, Gale often flies close to the edge and he employs a woman to pretend to be the missing young girl so he can find out more about the inheritance. This is when the murders begin and Gale, despite his innocence, is suspect number 1 in the eyes of detectives Taggart (Barton MacLane) and Burns (Charles Lane)...

An enjoyable crime drama with a dark ending. A lot of plot is squeezed into a short running time and there are plenty of twists and swerves.

Blood Bath (1966)

A rather off-beat vampire yarn, though makes little sense.

An artist (and obviously as this is movie-land he is a crazed and troubled artist) called Sordi (William Campbell) believes that he is the reincarnation of an ancestor who was killed for sorcery and vampirism. 

He kills young women and then disposes of their bodies in acid! His latest girlfriend Dorean (Lori Saunders) is definitely on the list...

This film makes little sense, though the fact it is made up of different films doesn't really help. It also looks pretty odd as the film mixes a Californian surf setting with somewhere suitably Gothic in Eastern Europe. It is also padded out with annoying beatnik characters and some odd dance and performance art scenes.

The film is certainly an... experience.

The Man Who Wouldn't Die (1942)

Private investigator Michael Shayne is called to help with a mysterious case of a man who has come back from the dead!

Catherine (Marjorie Weaver) is staying at her father's (Paul Harvey) fancy county mansion, but at night a mysterious man appears in her room and takes a pot shot at her! Her father and the others dismiss this as a dream, but Catherine employs her friend Shayne (Lloyd Nolan) to pose as her new husband who her family haven't met yet. Shayne discovers a mysterious science lab but also a burial of a man in the house' large garden, but the grave is later found empty. Did the man come back to life?

An excellent crime B-movie romp, the Michael Shayne series was at full steam by now. A complicated plot involving Indian fakirs, theatrical tricks and blackmail passes by quickly with the usual fast moving action and plenty of wisecracks. 

Disaster at Silo 7 (1988)

An accident at a nuclear missile silo poses a real risk of the missile exploding, with a rather large nuclear warhead on top.

The accident occurs during refuelling of a Titan II missile causing a fuel spill. Team leader Sergeant Fitzgerald (Michael O'Keefe) is called in and immediately realises the risk of the fuel igniting and blowing the while thing up. He tells his wife (Patricia Charbonneau) to get out of town fast with his family, then heads back into the silo...

This is an enjoyable TV movie, it does fall back on TV movie tropes a bit but the action is solid, if stretches the budget a bit thinly at times. The film is based on a real incident that occurred in 1980, and it pretty accurate too so don't read up on the Damascus Titan explosion before you have seen this movie unless you don't mind spoilers!

Death Cruise (1974)

Although the plot is fairly well worn, this is an entertaining whodunnit set aboard a cruise ship with some good twists.

Three couple begin their cruise of the Caribbean, all of them winning their holiday in a competition, though they can't remember entering it. Unfortunately, it isn't long before the first dies, Jerry (Richard Long) apparently falling overboard. It could be an accident though ship's doctor Dr Burke (Michael Constantine) isn't so sure. When the next deaths occur, including the shooting of Jerry's wife Sylvia (Polly Bergen), then Burke is convinced the deaths are all part of a dastardly plan, but who and why?

There have been quite a few films showing a group of being being bumped off one by one by a mystery killer, in great TV movie fashion pretty much everyone in this film has some kind of dark past and secret (except Burke). It is an enjoyable murder mystery film all the same, very competently done, and the final twists are excellent.

Murder in Times Square (1943)

An uneven murder mystery involving snake venom and some unlikely disguises.

Actor Cory Williams (Edmund Lowe) is in trouble when a man he punches dies, however it it likely found the man died of snake venom, Cory is not fully off the hook though as his current play is about people killed by snake bites! 

Detective Tabot (William Wright) is convinced that Cory is guilty and is a psychopath. Cory struggles to prove his innocence in a complicated plot involving love rivals and curses by the acid tongued Longacre Lil (Esther Dale)...

A reasonable crime drama though dragged down by a little too much nonsense, including Cory attempting various disguises and mimicking people to various degrees of failure. The story is also a little hard to follow at times, but overall this is an inoffensive little watch.

Harlem on the Prairie (1937)

A decent Western with some good music, but this isn't your usual B-movie tale of the Wild West. This is an example of a Black movie made by a black cast and crew for showing in black theatres (as black people were not allowed into "white" theatres in many areas at the time in America).

Crawfish (FE Miller) and Mistletoe (Mantan Moreland) are drifters looking for gold. They link up with tall handsome cowboy Jeff (Herb Jeffries) who is helping Carolina (Consuelo Harris), who is in trouble with the evil Wolf Cain (Maceo Bruce Sheffield), amid many songs.

This isn't a great film but it is an interesting one. Although it is very much like the usual B-movie Western of the period, the black cast does ironically make it a more realistic depiction of the actual American West!