Before Morning (1933)

So Elsie (Lora Baxter) is in a relationship with Jim (Russell Hicks) but when she tells him she is engaged to Horace from Detroit (Blaine Cordner) he falls ill and dies (amusingly while Elsie is singing down the telephone). Horace agrees to help Elsie dispose of Jim's body and keep the police out of it.

They decide to use a sanitarium run by a Dr Gruelle (Leo Carrillo) and make it look like Jim died there. However Dr Gruelle turns out to be a bit of a cad who tells Elsie that Jim was murdered by poison and tried to blackmail her as the poisoner...

The film was based on a Broadway play (not quite the success as stated in the credits) and most of the actors were from the stage. It's probably why most of the acting is a bit off and somewhat over the top. It is a bit of a strange film but not without some good points and i'm not talking about the wardrobe malfunctions...

Some of the acting is so odd it is compelling. If treated as an over the top melodrama this film kind of works. The twist and conclusion are worth the slog early on.

Murder on Flight 502 (1975)

A rather low-budget rip-off of the Airport type of movie, an ensemble of stereotypes (retired couple, man with a secret (Fernando Lamas), alcoholic writer (Polly Bergen), fading rock star (Sonny Bono) et cetera) are stuck on a plane where bad things happen...

The plane is a flight from New York to London piloted by Captain Larkin (Robert Stack). When the plane is already en route NY airport security chief Robert Davenport (George Maharis) received a letter warning him that murders will take place on Flight 502...

Luckily there is a police officer Detective Myerson (Hugh O'Brian) is aboard and begins to look for the possible murderer with the help of the captain and Davenport. There are a number of suspects but the captain and the chief flight attendant (Farrah Fawcett) try and keep everything under control but when the murders finally begin things quickly unravel...

Nothing about this film is that original at all but the cast ensemble is good and they make the most of what is a fairly low budget film. The film has some good twists and certainly is entertaining enough though might be a bit of a struggle on the long-haul.

Mr. Moto's Last Warning (1939)

Japanese detective Mr Moto (Peter Lorre) of the international police is drawn into a plot to try and draw Britain and France into a war. A French fleet is en route to join a Royal Navy fleet on joint maneuvers but is delayed at Port Said because of warnings of sabotage from the British secret service. Plotters led by Fabian (Ricardo Cortez), who is posing as a ventriloquist in a rather mediocre music hall act, try to get rid of Mr Moto though he manages to escape.

Fabian and his men discover a British secret agent (John Carradine) and kill him. Fabian's girlfriend Connie (Virginia Field) helps him track Moto, unaware her man is a brutal agent, but she soon finds out the truth...

It is all nonsense of course and pretty corny but the strangeness carries you through. A brutal agent who talks of blowing up warships one minute and then makes cute lines through his ventriloquist's dummy the next. As for Mr Moto, he is as "oriental" as Mr Wong or Charlie Chan.

Energetic 21 (1982)

Leslie Cheung is a street racer who drives a Porsche 911. In the first part of the film you see how he and his buddies hang out and basically do very little. There are a couple of strange tangents (well it is a HK film after all) including a faked demonic possession that ends up in a fat girl getting pregnant. No really. I'm not making that up.

Rowena Cortes, who plays the sister of one of Leslie's friends, also gets into some scrapes including fighting girls over a dress and accidentally getting her boyfriend beaten up on his driving test. Leslie's mum brings a Westerner home but Leslie doesn't like it as its filthy apparently...

Then in the second half of the film things really get going. Another Westerner is accidentally killed in a fight and the guys suddenly start acting incredibly stupidly (or more than they were already). They begin running around like headless chickens and even turn on each other as the Police close in. In the end they are holed up in a supermarket, the Police have them surrounded. So how did it all go wrong? It is a HK film about young people, it always goes wrong.

So what is this film really about? It's an entertaining romp with some good car stunts thrown in, especially a cool stunt-a-rama with some go-karts. The main problem with the film is that the guys' characters seem to change utterly after they kill the guy. They turn from being some layabout losers into psychotic madman...

So it doesn't really make any sense but it's a decent slab of early 80s HK idol cinema if you like that sort of thing. It has it all all : young beautiful people, hot 80s sports cars, cheesy nightclubs and HK 80s cool. Fantastic basically. Just don't expect much coherence.

Red Haired Alibi (1932)

Lynn Monith (Merna Kennedy) is a naive young girl with red hair (which is mentioned every few minutes in the film). She meets the suave Trent Travers (Theodore von Eitz) who offers her a job in New York. She accepts and finds herself having to pose as Travers' "wife" in some unusual situations. Travers is a gangster you see... soon Lynn realises there is a reason she keeps having to lie to the police.

Finally Lynn leaves Travers and relocates to White Plains. In typical movie coincidence manner Lynn bumps into Bob Shelton (Grant Withers) again (whom she met briefly in NY) and gets hired to nurse his daughter (Shirley Temple in one of her earliest roles). She and Bob gets married but when she bumps into Travers again (who by now is on the run) in New York things reach a (red) head...

An enjoyable film, the story is nothing too unusual and the plot a bit by the numbers but the film moves along at a decent pace. Lynn's red hair has a starring role. As do the Art Deco interiors of the various hotels and restaurants, simply gorgeous.

Spies of the Air (1940)

Charles Houghton (Roger Livesey) is designing top secret aviation technology when he finds his files have been disturbed in his safe. His wife Dorothy (Joan Marion) has the safe combination and is having an affair with test pilot Peter Thurloe (Barry K. Barnes)...

Spymaster Colonel Cairns (Felix Aylmer) already knows something dodgy is going on as photographs of the plans have already been found on captured/killed foreign agents...

So who is the spy? There are a number of suspects and suspicious activities going on but also a few red herrings. The film is a bit slow at times though the suspense keeps you interested and it builds and builds as the film progresses. A satisfactory ending if not a happy landing.

Mr. Wong in Chinatown (1939)

A young woman (Lotus Long) turns up at Mr Wong's (Boris Karloff) home asking to see the famous detective urgently. However before she can see him she is bumped off by a poison dart. Wong and Inspector Street (Grant Withers) begin the investigation with only a vague clue to start with, perky reporter Roberta Logan (Marjorie Reynolds) to help/hinder...

The murdered woman, Princess Lin Hwa, was on a secret mission to buy warplanes for the Chinese government. The investigation soon turns up a masked man who was keen to stop her and won't stop at one murder... and Mr Wong himself is soon in the firing line.

The film is a bit slow, it's not the best in the Mr Wong series though Karloff was always good value as Wong.