Ghost Ship (1952)

A young couple (Dermot Walsh and Hazel Court) buy an old steam yacht even despite the yard owner (Joss Ambler)'s best attempt to put them off. He tells them about the ship's dark past.

The yacht been found drifting at sea with the crew all missing, later found dead washed ashore. He also warns them that the ship is haunted though they laugh this off. Then the couple and the rest of the crew begin to experience ghostly happenings...

A paranormal expert (Hugh Burden) is called in to discover exactly what happened. He spends his time giving a rather dry demonstration of tuning forks (no really) and then calls a medium in for a seance.

A modest but enjoyable film. It is probably the least scary ghost film ever though has an interesting story. Things pick up when we see what actually happened aboard the ship to give it it's reputation.

Battle Beneath the Earth (1967)

Rogue Chinese communists under the control of a mad general (the rather non-Chinese Martin Benson) are using advanced laser burrowing machines to dig tunnels under the Pacific and then under US cities and military bases so they can detonate nuclear weapons.

As far as plot is concerned this film is a winner, completely ridiculous but a winner. However it has a rather cheap and 60s spy film cheesy feel about everything.

It is a British film but set in the US, some of the accents and sets are somewhat suspect. The "Chinese" are also generally played by White actors in the tradition of Fu Manchu. Our heroes led by Kerwin Matthews and Ed Bishop go into the tunnels to stop the Chinese before they can detonate the warheads. Thus this film has a gunfight around nuclear warheads deep underground. It is total nonsense but... so much pulp action fun!

International Crime (1938)

A loose sequel to The Shadow Strikes, again starring Rod La Rocque as the charismatic crime fighter/radio show host/journalist The Shadow. The Shadow has a new assistant Phoebe (Astrid Allwyn) who ends up getting The Shadow arrested after the murder of an international banker.

The Shadow is released but his relationship with the Police Commissioner (Thomas Jackson) remains tense and he ends up cutting the The Shadow off from police news especially after The Shadow broadcasts a wanted criminal live on air.

In a tight spot The Shadow investigates the killing of the banker helped/hindered by Pheobe. He ends up posing as a "Central European aristocrat" (in a rather "Allo Allo" way) to make friends with two foreign suspects who he thinks are investigated with the murder.

It is an enjoyable film with it's sinister foreign criminals, The Shadow is an entertaining character though rather unrealistic but the breezy way he carries out his investigation makes the film fly. As with the earlier film The Shadow as portrayed was quite different to the radio drama / pulp fiction character people knew pretty well.

Big News (1929)

Steve Banks (Robert Armstrong) is that most realistic of characters: an alcoholic journalist. After another boozy night while he is on the trail of a big story on drug dealers he ends up separated from his wife, and fellow journalist, Margaret (Carole Lombard) and sacked by his editor (Charles Sellon).

Banks continues to pursue his story and bar owner Reno (Sam Hardy) who is involved in drugs. Reno has the editor killed while trying to find evidence that links him to narcotics. Banks gets the blame but is sure he can clear his name...

An early talkie and has some great dialogue, the banter in the newspaper office and in Reno's bar is fun. The final scenes in the newspaper office are frenetic and exciting. Overall it is a pretty decent film. The alcoholism (Banks isn't the only pissed journalist) gets a bit wearsome after awhile though.

Special Agent K-7 (1937)

Special Agent K-7 is Vince Landers (Walter McGrail) of the FBI who is ready to retire after a long career fighting crime (we won't make any cereal jokes). He is persuaded to investigate why the trial of a gangster has collapsed. He ends up investigating a series of murders including some of the jurors and some characters in a club.

A complication in his investigation is that one of Landers ex-s Olive (Queenie Smith) is involved in the case. Her new husband Bill (Donald Reed) ends up being one of the suspects.

The film has a decent plot and the low budget doesn't detract from it. It is a serviceable B-movie. At times a bit murky but the club setting is enjoyable. The film also has some interesting forensic science.

Officer 13 (1932)

Police motorcyclist Sandy Malone (Charles Delaney) is killed during a chase with a gangster (Robert Ellis). Because a judge's daughter (Lila Lee) was also in the car, and due to the mob's connections in the city, the gangster gets off...

The dead policeman's partner Tom Burke (Monte Blue) quits the force in disgust and sets out to get justice.

The film has an interesting (if unoriginal) story but is unfortunately a bit slow at times though the chase scenes are reasonably well done and the cast is great. An interesting thing about the film is that Sandy's son is played by Mickey Rooney is one of his earliest roles. It's not bad at all though could have been great.

Capone (1975)

Well as you can imagine a biopic of Al Capone and the Chicago gangster scene in the 1920s is not for the faint hearted, indeed this film can best be described as violence and more violence. Capone is played by Ben Gazzara and we don't see much at all of his early life but rather how he gets involved with Johnny Torrio (Harry Guardino) then a trusted lieutenant of the Italian mafia boss in Chicago.

Capone helped Johnny take over the mob and then assists Johnny in making it big during the Prohibition years. Eventually amid open warfare with rival gangs Al Capone has Johnny (nearly) killed and takes over the mob himself. The story of the film is never trust your lieutenant as he will take over from you in the end, as happens to Capone himself when he is betrayed by Frank Nitti (Sylvester Stallone) and he ends up in Alcatraz...

Well the film is pretty low-budget and it shows at times but it is undeniably thrilling. If only we could see a bit more about Capone's early life and his motivations. That might mean cutting out some of action scenes of course. It is a biopic though not very accurate, a true depiction of Capone's life would probably require a series of films to be honest but this can give you a taste.