The Devil-Ship Pirates (1964)

A pirate ship, the Diablo, commanded by Robeles (Christopher Lee) takes part in the Spanish Armada but is badly damaged during the battle. Robeles takes his ship into the English marshes for repairs.

They then run into trouble when they find a small remote village. As the villagers don't know the Armada was defeated the pirates try to bluff their way to make the villagers think Spain now rules England.

It's all rollicking and swashbuckling good fun. Christopher Lee is excellent as the brutal pirate captain, Ernest Clark also plays a good role as the oily local aristocrat who is overly keen to ingratiate himself with the Spanish. John Cairney is the hero who refuses to bow down to the invaders.

The most impressive thing about the film though is the Diablo itself, a full-size galleon built for the film. Unfortunately it was not built very well and capsized leaving most of the cast and crew in the water!

Confidential (1935)

FBI Agent Dave Elliott (Donald Cook) is after gangsters. When his partner Arnold (Reed Howes) is killed in an operation he goes undercover in a numbers racket, via the rather dopey Regan (Warren Hymer), in order to find out who is the brains behind the outfit.

Once inside the gang Dave falls in love (of course) with the boss' secretary Maxine (Evalyn Knapp). He gains the confidence of the gang though one of them - Lefty Tate (J. Carrol Naish) - seems to find him rather familiar. Another complication comes when he bumps into an old college friend whose father turns out to be the big boss of organised crime JW (Herbert Rawlinson)...

Although nothing that original this is an entertaining fast moving (especially the last few minutes) crime movie. Snappy dialogue, some genuine charisma between Dave and Maxine and some decent action scenes elevate this film above the ordinary.

Tequila (1993)

Andy Hui plays a cop investigating a series of murders, helped(?) by his somewhat annoying partner Cheung Kwok Keung. The victims seem to all be cheating husbands and linked to a club called Table For Two which caters for those who wish to fool around...

The two cops go undercover and... well you can guess the rest. Yes they both fall for two girls who work there. Andy falls in love with Chan Hui Ying... unfortunately she has a beefy ex-husband who wants to beat up anyone who touches his ex.

As guys who have been with Ying have ended up dead and Andy gets threatened with a knife by the ex he becomes the suspect for the murders. But then the ex is gunned down too. So who is it? The jealous barman who is secretly in love with Ying? Though you know Sarah Lee seems very close to her too...

The film is entertaining low-budget HK fun, the plot is fairly coherent (no weird tangents which is a rarity in HK movies of the period) and keeps you guessing for a time although an experienced HK movie watcher should be able to guess who the murderer is before the unveiling because the other suspects are just too obvious. There is even a showdown with explosions! It isn't that original but worth it.

The Ghost Walks (1934)

It's a dark stormy night and theatrical producer Herman Wood (Richard Carle) is stuck with playwright Prescott Ames (John Miljan) in a lonely house. At dinner mysterious ghostly goings on scare Wood half to death and he wants to leave...

However it turns out Ames was testing out his play and it was all an act, all the other house guests being actors. But then Beatrice (Eve Southern) is found dead for real, there is a real mystery in the house...

So it starts off a rather standard, though well done, "dark house mystery" - the cast is a good ensemble with some good one liners but then quickly morphs into something a lot more. The twists and turns in the plot help elevate it to something pretty good indeed though don't expect a gruesome horror mystery, this is more a farce. Johnny Arthur plays a good comic role as Wood's secretary.

Remember Me This Way (1974)

A Gary Glitter documentary, but long before any of that came to light. This was made in the early 1970s when he was at the height of his stardom and playing to audiences full of screaming girls...

The documentary, which is more a series of random and sometimes boring vignettes interspersed with Glitter singing, follows preparations for a big show. Footage of which ends the film. It also shows the recording of I love you love me love and even the seven inch singles being pressed, while his management team discuss how they are going to make money out of his records in a rather tedious segment.

Away from the concert and record making we see Glitter chilling out, at parties and doing some promotional work. In some ways its a fascinating look at early 70s pop music but it is a genuinely terrible film (and not because of hindsight) it was just so badly made. Despite all that this was a box office hit which just shows how big a star he was back then!

Unfaithful (1931)

A society drama in early 1930s England: it's all posh accents, dinner jackets and feather boas apparently. Fay Houston (Ruth Chatterton) is an American heiress who has come over to jolly old England to marry rich toff Ronnie (Paul Kavanagh). Unfortunately Fay soon finds out that Ronnie has a mistress whom he is unwilling to ditch.

To make matters more complicated the mistress (Juliette Compton) is the wife of Fay's unstable brother Terry (Donald Cook). Fay thus becomes a notorious party girl to keep the attention from Terry, and then in Paris she meets Carl (Paul Lukas) a struggling artist...

This early talkie is a bit cliche to be honest but looks sumptuous. Overall the plot doesn't make a great deal of sense, Fay's solution to protect her brother is to show plenty of flesh, pretend to be an adulteress and sing some songs. Its nuts but so elegant.

Dangerous Money (1946)

Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) is on a liner crossing the Pacific when he is approached by US Treasury Agent Scott Pearson (Tristram Coffin) who tells him he is investigating counterfeit money flooding the islands and is in fear of his life. While the ship's passengers watch a knife throwing act someone else joins in the action and throws a knife into Pearson's back. Chan begins the investigation...

There are plenty of potential suspects and a motley crew of different characters including a loud mouth (Dick Elliot), a woman with forged papers (Gloria Warren) and a professional knife thrower. There are also plenty of alibis and vouching which Chan needs to unpick with the help (in theory anyway) of his wayward son (Victor Sen Young) and his chauffeur (Willie Best).

It's standard Charlie Chan fare, a complicated investigation with a few red herrings, a bit of tomfoolery with Chan's son and any number of proverbs.