White Zombie (1932)

Probably the first full-length zombie film, White Zombie is maybe low on budget but high on weirdness and atmosphere. Neil Parker (John Harron) and Madeleine Short (Madge Bellamy) are an engaged couple due to get married at the home of plantation owner Charles Beaumont (Robert W Frazier) in Haiti. On the way to Beaumont's home they encounter strange men which they are told are zombies...

Beaumont wants Madeleine for himself and resorts to dark magic from Murder the voodoo master (Bela Lugosi) to gain control of her. Yet he finds that Murder's price for the dark arts is very high indeed...

A wonderfully creepy film, the zombie scene in Murder's sugar cane mill is just one of a number of standout scenes. As the zombie slaves carry sugar cane one topples into the mill to be grinded up too, of course the zombies don't even blink! The film was rather cheaply made though with most of the actors being fading silent movie stars, the acting is therefore rather over the top at times however it really adds to the drama in the final act. Lugosi is amazing of course.

Concorde Affair (1979)

Clearly a cheap rip-off of Airport 79: The Concorde, again a shadowy elite want to stop the Concorde being a success. Obviously in real life they succeeded...

After a Concorde crashes in mysterious circumstances in the Caribbean hot shot reporter Moses Brody (James Franciscus) is called in by his wife (Fianna Maglione) who lives in the area. By the time he gets there though she is dead and he almost joins her but for an intervention by her friend George (Francisco Charles). As they begin to investigate the strange goings on they discover the crashed Concorde on the sea bed... and a flight attendant survivor (Mimsy Farmer) who is a prisoner of some desperate looking men...

Well it is all rather low budget, Concorde in the film is a mixture of stock footage and rather laughable models. However it isn't a bad film, it is a reasonable action film that would probably have been better if it hadn't been such a blatant cash-in.

Telephone Operator (1937)

An unusual but interesting drama of a small town telephone company when the local dam fails and threatens the town. Red (Grant Withers) and Shorty (Warren Hymer) are new telephone linesmen in town to help extend the network. They are cocky and fresh and soon get into a fight at a dance... unfortunately it's with their boss Tom Summers (Pat Flaherty) and he isn't too pleased to get a shiner from them.

Helen Molly (Judith Allen) is a telephone operator whom Red has the hots for, he think she's a swell gal though unfortunately for him she considers him a bit annoying... but you know how it'll end up! Helen is up fired when she leaves her post to save Tom from finding out about his cheating wife.

So far the film is OK, a bit slow and meandering and a bit complicated. Then the dam breaks and the film shifts from second gear to about seventh in a snap. The final act of the film is frenetic as Helen mans the switchboard and Red and Shorty perform emergency repairs to the telephone lines as flood waters engulf the valley. They save the day but quite where everyone else is (especially Tom) is a mystery that's never explained.

Shadows on the Stairs (1941)

A sometimes-strange sometimes-sweet murder mystery set in a London boarding house. The house run by Stella Armitage (Frieda Inescort) is full of interesting characters including spiv Joseph Reynolds (Paul Cavanagh), Indian student/rebel Ram Singh (Turhan Bey), playwright Hugh Bromilow (Bruce Lester) and the sullen maid Lucy (Phyllis Barry).

Stella is having an affair with Joseph behind the back of her husband Tom (Miles Mander). Though Joseph is also knocking off Lucy. If that's not enough he is also involved in mysterious schemes with Ram Singh (who also gets attacked by another Indian in his room and stabs him). Then Joseph is found dead, the Inspector (Lumsden Hare) begins his investigation, though other bodies then turn up. There are plenty of suspects but the actual culprit is a surprise. But the real ending is an even bigger surprise.

So it's sometimes-sweet, (though if I explained why i wrote that if would spoil the ending). It is a fairly light mystery but rocks along at a good rate of knots. It is pretty strange, but in a good way.

Charlie Chan's Secret (1936)

Estranged son Allen Colby (Jerry Miley) is returning to his family after several years and being presumed dead. Not good news to some of his family members who have been spending his inheritance... including on psychic research. Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) discovers Colby survived a shipwreck but at a seance Colby turns up dead, recently stabbed.

So who killed Allen Colby, well there are plenty of suspects of course including his aunt Henrietta (Henrietta Crosman) who wants to continue the psychic research, Fred (Edward Trevor) and Janice (Astrid Allwyn) who have been living off the inheritance and the strange caretaker Ulrich (Egon Brecher) who had a grudge against Allen. Or is it the psychic research Professor (Arthur Edmund Carewe) who is anxious to continue the funding? Charlie begins his investigation in a creepy old house full of hidden passages, moving panels and various oddities.

A highly entertaining Golden Age type movie, Charlie Chan is without any of his sons in this film so the humour and buffoonery is lower than usual but the mystery is good. Plenty of pseudo-Chinese "proverbs" too.

British Intelligence (1940)

A spy is betraying British military secrets to the Germans during the First World War. The top British agent Frank Bennett (Bruce Lester) is sent to capture the German spy Strendler but is betrayed and ends up hospitalised. He is nursed back to health by a pretty nurse Helene (Margaret Lindsay)... who is in fact another top German spy!

Now using the identity of a refugee known as "Frances Hautry" she is sent to London to infiltrate the home of Bennett's father Arthur (Holmes Herbert), a cabinet minister. The butler Valdar (Boris Karloff) turns out to be another German spy!

The head of British intelligence Yeats (Leonard Mudie) already suspects Helene... and Valdar turns out to be a double agent. But Frank Bennett turns up at his family home and recognises his ex-nurse things get even more complicated... especially when Valdar tells Helene that he is Strendler!

Although sometimes thinly veiled propaganda this is an exciting war and espionage film. The plot is sometimes confusing when you wonder exactly which side some of the characters are on. The film ends with a zeppelin raid, any film with zeppelins is great!

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.