The Body Vanished (1939)

A fun little quota quickie involving art theft and a murder (or not as the case turns out to be) in a country house (of course).

The film stars Anthony Paine as an Inspector from Scotland Yard who just happens to be around when a crime is committed, his friend C. Denier Warren is a reporter who of course wants the scoop. Ernest Sefton plays the local police sergeant who does his best to portray the dopey local law. The two latter characters provide the comic relief to Paine's smooth detective.

It does not have the most complicated of plots but has some interesting ideas all the same. A couple of red herrings are sprinkled throughout to keep you guessing (involving Wilfred Noy as the butler and Evelyn Foster as a wannabe secretary). The climax of the film takes place in an auction which is quite unusual. Not a bad little film at all.

The Ace Of Spades (1935)

You could call this a political drama as the setting is the run-up to an election but really it is a jolly detective drama with plenty of Golden Age touches (most of the action takes place at a country house et cetera).

At times silly and frenetic the story involves the accidental death of the Lord of the manor and a political candidate (Michael Hogan) thinking he was to blame... as does someone else blackmailing him.

Well we know "who dunnit" already but the mystery involves the identity of the blackmailer. The title? Well various Ace of Spades playing cards get defaced.

It is not really what you would call a deep drama but it has a good cast ensemble including Dorothy Boyd and Geraldine Fitzgerald and various amusing comedic touches. Overall the film is a good watch, after all it has the planning application for a railway line as a major plot point, and how can any film that includes such a thing not be well worth your time?

The Riverside Murder (1935)

The Riverside Murder is a fast paced crime drama involving a group of businessmen who have a pact where if one of them dies the others get his money, and someone is killing off these businessmen one by one.

It falls on Inspector Winton (Basil Sydney) to investigate the crimes supported by his sergeant (Alistair Sim). Also investigating is eager and slightly annoying reporter Judy Gunn.

It all has the air of a Golden Age crime novel, especially as most of the action takes place in the same house. With just an hour to play with and a fair amount of story to fit in the film can be a bit frantic at times. It also at times stretches credibility a bit with the police actions but it is all jolly good fun with an exciting ending. Everyone ends up happily ever after... well except the corpses of course and the murderer.

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.