Narcotics Squad (1957)

A cheesy but fun film about the scourge of narcotics and drug addiction among America's young with propaganda overtones. Paul Kelly is Police lieutenant Lacey who is investigating the pushing of drugs to High School kids in America. When one kid goes missing and is later found dead of an overdose things start getting very serious...

So far so good but some of the acting is terrible (especially from Cathy Downs), but some of the dialogue doesn't help which lapses into overt propaganda.

Luckily this doesn't really detract from the film which is dark and dirty. This certainly isn't the kind of idealised 1950s America of later films but a violent, moral free world. The 50s slang is also highly entertaining. Sheila Urban plays a great role as the morally ambiguous Julie.

The Phantom Broadcast (1933)

Arnold Gray is Grant Murdoch, a singer on the radio who has every woman swooning at his feet and arrogance to match his libido. What people don't know is that he isn't really a singer, his accompanist and manager Norman Wilder (Ralph Forbes) is actually the singer but due to being a hunchback lets Murdoch mime and get all the glory.

Not that the star is very grateful, he treats Wilder badly and hangs out with a mobster's moll (Vivienne Osborne) though also treats her like dirt. The mob in fact want to get rid of Wilder and get Murdoch for themselves but Wilder manages to avoid a hail of bullets.

Wilder falls in love with aspiring singer Laura (Gail Patrick). When Murdoch muscles in on her it sends the fractious working relationship into meltdown. Wilder finds Murdoch murdered and thinking Laura did it he takes the blame...

A cheap and sometimes confusing but undeniably enjoyable film with a great deal of crooning. The early days of radio are fascinating with announcers in their dinner jackets. If you like Art Deco then the sets in this film will be a fantasy for you.

Young and Dangerous (1996)

There is a theory that you shouldn't glorify violence and criminals. Luckily Young & Dangerous completely ignores that. It is a film about a bunch of swaggering gangsters getting into criminal scrapes. Its brilliant of course as well as being total tosh, but tosh thats so well made.

You can see why so many people, especially in HK, loved this film. The heroes are cool bad guys, criminals for sure but also with a code of honour. That's unlike the other criminals who are just pretty evil and uncool. There are a lots of fast cars, faster chicks and violence, lots and lots of violence.

The swagger is what makes this, and makes the main characters played by Ekin Cheng and Jordan Chan so likeable. They might be the bad guys, but you want to be in their gang. This was a hit in HK which spawned a number of decent sequels and even a prequel that was pretty good. But the original is the best.

Murder at Glen Athol (1936)

A decent but unsurprising crime drama. Formulaic for sure but a good formula.

John Miljan stars as Bill Holt, a detective on vacation. He reluctantly attends a party by his neighbours by the vivacious and trouble making Muriel (Iris Adrian). Muriel seems to have a habit of making enemies and collecting ex-s. She is also mixed up with the local hoodlum (Noel Madison).

That night a string of murders take place including Muriel. Holt, who is enamoured with one of Muriel's many enemies (Irene Ware), gets on the case...

It isn't very original but is an entertaining film with a reasonably complicated plot with plenty of red herrings. Holt's partner Jeff (James P. Burtis) is rather annoying but plays the required comedy role in the film.

The Trollenberg Terror (1958)

Also known as The Crawling Eye this is a creepy sci-fi horror film with plenty of suspense and dark shadows.

Up in the mountains, on Mount Trollenberg to be precise, a strange radioactive cloud is wandering out and men are dying in mysterious and horrific circumstances.

Alan (Forrest Tucker) and the Professor (Warren Mitchell) are investigating the deaths and other weirdness such as the dead acting under alien control. Meanwhile a young psychic (Janet Munro) has a strange psychic link to the events happening...

So its a typical 1950s film of the genre, scary aliens who spend much of the film unseen though when we do see them the special effects are rather lacking. It's a giant eye with tentacles!

The Big Chance (1933)

Young boxer Frankie (John Darrow) is moving up the ranks... however his fights are being fixed by a hoodlum called Flash (Matthew Betz). Flash's plan is for Frankie to get a title fight when he will take a dive and he and his backers will get a big pay off.

A complication arrives when Frankie falls in love with pious church going Mary (Merna Kennedy) and he starts to have second thoughts about Flash's plan. Flash tries to break up Frankie and Mary including using Natalie Moorhead to try and seduce him...

It isn't a bad film just a bit obvious, the fight scenes use a mixture of rather blurry stock footage and close-ups where the boxers have a chat in the middle of the ring! There is some decent humour though especially from Mary's strait laced religious father (Frank La Rue) and plenty of decent one-liners which makes the film worth seeing. Mary's little brother is played by Mickey Rooney in an enjoyable supporting role.

X Marks the Spot (1942)

Although not very original, and with events proceeding at such a breakneck pace you hardly have time to breathe, this is a very entertaining crime drama. Damien O'Flynn plays Eddie, a private detective about to join the Army. When his policeman father (Robert Homans) is gunned down he is drawn into a racket involving rival gangs (led by Jack La Rue and Neil Hamilton) and bootleg tyres.

Rubber rationing was obviously big news in 1942, the subject was also covered in Rubber Racketeers.

Eddie is helped by a fascinating plot device, a telephone linked jukebox where operators play records on request. Linda (Helen Parrish) is the operator whom Eddie has the hots for and who ends helping him with his investigation... one made more difficult when Eddie is accused of killing one of the gangsters. Someone else is involved... there isn't a great deal of investigation though. Various suspects get gunned down with regularity until the real culprit is basically revealed through being the last person standing.

But what a great film, cheap but definitely cheerful.