Tomorrow at Seven (1933)

Tomorrow At Seven is a sometimes silly but other times quite interesting murder mystery. The Black Ace is a serial killer who always kills his victims after first sending them an Ace of Spades card. Chester Morris is Neil Broderick, a novelist and amateur detective who is investigating the Black Ace. He goes to Chicago to see businessman Thornton Drake (Henry Stephenson) who is also after the serial killer.

While he is there the Black Ace sends another of his warning cards. While on a plane to Louisiana the Black Ace strikes and kills Drake's secretary Winters (Grant Mitchell). Now on the ground the investigation begins... and becomes a typical murder mystery with a cast of different characters in an old dark mansion.

Unfortunately two rather inept policemen are also around who pretty much stink out every scene they are in with some corny and misplaced humour. Apart from that the film isn't bad with a good plot though at times proceeds at a strangely glacial pace. The ending is very good though and worth the wait.

Dead Men Tell (1941)

A Charlie Chan (played by the rather non-Asian Sidney Toler) murder mystery set on a ship - though one that stays in port.

An eccentric old lady (Ethel Griffies) has found a map by her pirate ancestor but is literally scared to death by someone pretending to be a pirate ghost. Charlie Chan is luckily on hand looking for his wayward No. 2 son (Sen Yung) and investigates the case.

The murderer must be one of a motley cast of fellow passengers who is after the map (and so the treasure). It is an enjoyable little film and a neat little mystery full of red herrings though of course completely ridiculous. Chan is portrayed a most bizarrely stereotypical way in manner and speech. However his sage and calm philosophy contrasts amusingly well with his disaster prone son.

Dark Star (1974)

Dark Star is basically Hippies in space. Unstable planets need to be blown up before they get in the way of colonists so the crew aboard the space ship Dark Star are disposing of them with their talking bombs. Yes it is a rather strange film...

It is also rather good. A pretty low budget affair but very watchable. The ship is falling apart and a cosmic storm causes one of the bombs to malfunction. The crew, led by Brian Narelle, have to try and persuade it to return to the hanger and not blow them to atoms. If that is not enough there is also a rather bizarre alien which looks like an inflatable ball with claws that is running amok. The commander of the mission is dead but still able to communicate while kept in cryogenic stasis.

It certainly is one crazy film, and sometimes quite funny. It does drag at other times, just like being stuck on a space ship in deep space I guess. Unlike most science fiction films the crew of this ship are not supermen or highly trained personnel, they look like they were told to accept the job at the job centre or else. Despite it's flaws I've always liked this film, it was the very first film I ever saw on VHS...

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.