A Society Sensation (1918)

A Society Sensation has a rather familiar story: poor girl meets rich boy and wins his heart, everything goes a bit wrong but it all ends up happy ever afters. It is done well though, and this short comedy has so much charm.

It stars Carmel Myers and Rudolph Valentino as the couple though ZaSu Pitts often steals the show with her comedy turns and expressions (Myers also does very well on that score).

The original film was fifty minutes long but is now lost, a heavily edited twenty four minute version survives. It was edited in 1924 to put much more emphasis on Valentino who had become a huge star since the original release (which had Myers as the original main star). The pruning is a little crude at times and the film chops about a bit but the essence of a fine film remains.

Castle Sinister (1948)

Castle Sinister is an obscure (and short) British horror film set in a remote Scottish castle starring Mara Russell-Tavernan (me neither). The story involves murder, Nazis spies and ghosts. Well it sounds really promising doesn't it? Unfortunately it falls far short of that promise.

The film meanders, the acting is awkward (probably more painful than the murders) and the budget seems like it was two bob.

It's not all bad, it does have some period charm and the story is quite "Golden Age" in feel. The "Phantom" is cool, and unintentionally funny. The Nazi spy is also sufficiently sinister.

Stoney (1969)

Stoney is a cheesy and sleazy heist drama set in the Philippines and Indonesia and involving gun running, a hoard of WW2 loot and a lot of violence and female nudity.

Stoney is a beautiful woman (played by Barbara Bouchet) who has travelled to Surabaya (the film's alternative title is Surabaya Conspiracy by the way) from Manila to secure transport of a load of looted gold back home, however she has rivals (including Michael Preston) for the loot and much mayhem, murder and double crossing ensues.

Not that it makes much sense, at times the film seems a sequence of random incidents and baffling twists interspersed with a few random gunfights. It is really not that good a film at all which takes a long time to get going though does have the odd nugget to enjoy and the cheese factor is often high which is always welcome. The ending is also impressively bleak.

The Ghost Camera (1933)

The Ghost Camera is an example of a Quota quickie, a British film made to help support the film industry in the 1930s. The films were usually low budget and quickly made and not that successful. The Ghost Camera though was one of the most successful of these films and is rather good.

It is a quirky mystery film starring Henry Kendall, Ida Lupino and a young John Mills in one of his first films, involving the discovery of a camera and the film when developed seems to show a murder. The finder of the camera thus goes on a quest to try and find out what has happened.

Some of the characters are a little too quirky perhaps and the film is a bit too rough and ready, basically driven by Henry Kendall's commentary of what he is doing (and he is often hilarious) but it is undeniably enjoyable. It also has a pretty good plot.

East L.A. Warriors (1989)

Gangs in Eastern L.A. are fighting in some kind of reenactment of ancient Roman gladiatorial games. Yes this film is rather silly, and trashy and quite poor.

So i should love this film then, but I'm just not sure about it. It is executed so poorly and so weirdly it is like the awkward filler stuff in mid-80s pop videos stretched into a feature film.

That is not to say I did not enjoy a lot of it, it is cheesy and unintentionally hilarious throughout. The acting is also epically poor. So many strange pauses as if they were waiting to be told what to do next by the director... maybe they were. So it has all the ingredients of a trash classic but just lacks a certain something...

The action in the final act, the actual games, is often laughably poor, like bad pro-wrestling more than tough gang members fighting for supremacy. The gangs have cute matching outfits though, a bit like the legendary (and one of the best films ever) The Warriors - though only very slightly.

Tony Bravo is cool as the experienced but reluctant hero, well as cool as going around in a white vest can be anyway.

Death Occurred Last Night (La morte risale a ieri sera) (1970)

Catch a cool and sleazy slice of early 1970s Italy in this engaging crime drama involving the disappearance of a beautiful but mentally disabled young woman (Gillian Bray). She has apparently been dragged into the world of Milanese vice and policemen Frank Wolff and Gabriele Tinti have no choice but to trawl the city's brothels...

It is a dark film ultimately, a story with no happy ending. Poignant in depicting a father's (Raf Vallone) loss though without being gratuitous (well not too much anyway). It is unstinting in it's depiction of prostitution as a true dead end and a brutal sadistic life.

The film meanders at times but any flaws in the film are easily forgivable. Despite the often grim nature of the story the film is just so effortlessly cool. If you like late 60s / early 70s style and groovy music then you'll love this film. I did.

No Way Back (1949)

Based on a short story written by Thomas Burke as part of his Limehouse Nights collection No Way Back is the story of a washed up ex-boxer played by Terence de Marney who hits hard times and eventually ends up just another thug in a spiv's gang.

But the spiv's girl (Eleanor Summerfield) is his one of his ex-s and still has the hots for him - and soon romance is rekindled which doesn't go down too well with the spiv boss obviously...

At times this is a decent noir drama, though at others (especially with the police chase and siege at the end) it can be a bit silly. The scenes of post-war London are fascinating though with bombed out buildings still yet to be rebuilt. The film also has some odd charm at times.