The Moonstone (1934)

The Moonstone is an adaptation of the 1868 novel of the same name by Wikie Collins which is regarded as the first detective novel.

Now this is a pure Golden Age mystery: a country house with a motley collection of stereotypes, a mysterious crime is committed during a storm and it even has a touch of the Orient with a supposedly cursed jewel from India.

Ann (Phyllis Barry) is the owner of the stone, highly valuable and various people at the house including the money lender Von Lucker (Gustav von Seyffertitz) and the failed businessman Godfrey (Jameson Thomas) have various motives for stealing the stone which goes missing one night. Luckily a Scotland Yard detective (Charles Irwin) is on hand to try and unravel what is going on.

A lovely whodunit set in a gloomy country house in Yorkshire. The crime method is rather odd and the film chops about a bit but has plenty of atmosphere.

The Shadow (1933)

The Shadow is a strange film, it starts off very promisingly with a tale of a vicious blackmailer (The Shadow) and then suddenly is thrown into a middling Golden Age type country house murder mystery with The Shadow bumping off a motley crew of upper class twits.

The Shadow blackmails rich people which usually ends up in the poor victim committing suicide. Police chief Sir Richard (Felix Aylmer) has taken time out from the investigation in his country house and assorted guests including rather annoying toff novelist Reggie (Henry Kendall) and his reluctant love target Sonja (Elizabeth Allan). Unfortunately it turns out one of Sir Richard's guests is The Shadow...

The film is full of every country house mystery cliche going, including a good deal of over acting. Its a highly enjoyable romp with plenty of dashing around the country house, maybe a little too much humour though to match the potential for suspense from the sinister villain. The twist at the end is superb though.

Gorgo (1961)

A huge monster is released by a volcano and proceeds to destroy a major city. No this isn't a Godzilla film but something very like it...

Gorgo actually isn't the monster who unleashes mega mayhem, although a dinosaur like beast twenty metres tall he is driven off by Irish villagers and eventually captured by Bill Travers and put in a circus in London.

Unfortunately for London Gorgo's much bigger mum comes looking for her son, shrugs off the best efforts of the Royal Navy and British Army and destroys half of London while looking for Gorgo. Never get between a mother and her child, especially when the mother is a sixty metre tall armour plated killing machine.

If you like seeing someone in a rubber suit destroy a model city then this isn't bad at all. A pretty decent example of the monster genre. The human actors are rather forgettable but Gorgo and his mum are terrific.

Foxy Brown (1974)

Foxy Brown is a blaxploitation film starring Pam Grier. This was a loose sequel to "Coffy" from 1973 and has a similar plot involving the usual genre staples of drugs, prostitution and pimps in outlandish outfits. And violence of course, lots of violence. Pam is the film's heroine and is a one woman fighting machine as she seeks to avenge her slain boyfriend, a government agent gunned down by the mob.

Amid a funky early 70s soundtrack she gets her revenge through a number of ever more grisly action set pieces. Its not a subtle movie thats for sure but is rightly held up as one of the best movies in its genre. Although fairly low budget and lacking the effects and polish of movies nowadays the movie is pretty hard hitting and showing stuff that would be largely shied from today (or hidden in a CGI fest).

Foxy Brown is a period film, and dated in so many ways but the outlandish early 70s feel is a large part of the charm. The plot is pretty ridiculous of course if you stop to think about it but that would be largely missing the point. Its a fantasy. So get your jive ass down the video store brother.

The Garden Murder Case (1936)

The Garden Murder Case is another Philo Vance murder mystery though this time the famous detective is played by Edmund Lowe.

This case starts when a jockey (Douglas Walton) dies during a race after first giving a warning of his impending doom. As the case develops a rich business man and racehorse owner (Gene Lockhart) and the wife of an English major (Frieda Inescort) also die in mysterious circumstances.

The police suspect the businessman's niece Zalia (Virginia Bruce) though Philo isn't so sure and also has the hots for her. This is a neat little detective film involving the mysteries of hypnotism, double crossing and revenge.

Street Fighter (1994)

Movies based on video games are usually problematical (i.e. rubbish), Street Fighter however is quite good. Maybe because it is based only very very loosely on the game (much to the annoyance of many fans of the game).

It stars Jean Claude Van Damme as the head of a special forces unit (which includes amongst it's number Kylie Minogue - worth the price of a ticket alone for that casting) fighting brutal warlord Bison played by Raul Julia.

Julia makes the film to be honest, his portrayal of Bison is hilarious with many funny lines. The film is chock full of humour in fact, and plenty of weirdness too.

The plot? Well it involves Bison trying to take over the world with super soldiers and a mostly crew of video game characters such as Byron Mann's Ryu are trying to stop him. The plot is nothing special, it's just a fairly flimsy framework upon which to hang lots of one-liners and martial arts action on. It really shouldn't work, somehow it does.

Laffing Gas (1914)

Charlie Chaplin as a dental assistant? Well you can probably guess what this slapstick comedy is like! Laffing Gas (also known as "Laughing Gas" in regions where spelling was more important) comes with Chaplin's career still in it's fairly early stages. The genius of his later comedies isn't quite there yet but this film isn't bad at all.

Of course it doesn't really have much of a story, being more a series of slapstick stunts. Some pretty violent too involving bricks and plenty of punching. It is what is it, there is no pretense at high art in a film like this. It was designed to make people laugh and forget their worries for at least a short time, and in 1914 that was just what people needed.