The Crime Doctor's Courage (1945)

Another entry in the Crime Doctor series, and one which has some quite abrupt changes in direction.

We start off with a quite possibly insane man on his honeymoon, when asked by his new wife if he did indeed - as people allege - kill his first wife, she falls to her death down the cliffs! A while later wife number 3 (Hillary Brooke) contacts Dr Ordway (Warren Baxter) asking for his help to see if her husband is murderously insane or just unlucky! At a dinner party the man is later found shot dead. There are a number of suspects, including a pair of suspected vampires!

This film lures you into one story direction then abruptly changes direction, the sub-plot about whether a pair of dancers are centuries old vampires or not is another fascinating, if bizarre, swerve. 

Despite the weirdness this is a solid crime B-movie, with a good locked room mystery at it's heart. The strange plot directions both make this film stand out from the usual fare though also distract from what is a pretty decent mystery.

Aenigma (1987)

A rather disturbing horror, though the victims tend to be pretty loathsome.

Kathy (Mijlijana Zirojevic), a nerdy outcast at an elitist school, is badly injured when a prank by school bullies goes wrong. Eva (Lara Lamberti) turns up at the school soon after and befriends the pupils who bullied Kathy. 

It turns out though that Eva is being controlled by Kathy who has somehow gained diabolical psychic powers while in a coma. Kathy begins her revenge on the bullies using Eva, in various terrible ways (including being smothered by snails)...

Taking place in a boarding school full of attractive young women, this film does have somewhat of an exploitative feel along with the brutal horror. The horror and camerawork is often very inventive. It could be utterly awful but somehow holds it together enough to be worthwhile.

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.