Girl Gang (1954)

Low-rent exploitative sleaze which seems to have been made on the budget of two joints. Joe (Timothy Farrell) is a "regular guy" - in that he gets kids hooked on drugs and then gets the girls to earn money for him via prostitution and robbery. The latter is shown in the film's first scene where a group of girls ambush and knock a guy out and steal his car for Joe!

Meanwhile June (Joanna Arnold) is Joe's new favourite squeeze (not that he restricts himself to one). In a lengthy segment he shows her how to shoot up heroine and in return she has to bring in a supply of fresh meat for Joe. Wanda (Mary Lou O'Connor) is some of that fresh meat, to join the gang she has to sleep with five guys in the gang and if there are any complications... well there is the drunk ex-doctor (Harry Keaton) handy to sort things out...

Well don't expect much in the way of acting but do expect plenty of leg (by coincidence it is where it is best to give the girls injections). It is a remarkably shameless film. Drug taking, robbery, prostitution, black mail the works!

Money Means Nothing (1934)

Rich girl meets poor guy, they fall in love and then the rich girl tries to adapt to her new, less affluent, life.

So that is the basic premise of this film, Julie (Gloria Shea) is a rich and spoilt Manhattan girl who is obviously looking for a bit of rough trade. She meets Kenny (Wallace Ford) in a run-down but trendy dive after some escapes with criminals. Kenny and Julie finally fall in love and Julie decides to marry him despite opposition from her family.

Julie settles into her new life of poverty in Brooklyn believing that love will solve everything and that money means nothing. Tyre salesman Kenny is not so sure and some dark events threaten to break their lives apart...

So the plot isn't any special but this is a well meaning little film with a decent supporting cast including Edgar Kennedy and Maidel Turner though some of the attempts at comedy don't always hit the mark.

Gigolo and Whore 2 (1992)

So the sequel to this then, silly semi-erotic sexploitation HK fare really.

Rosamund Kwan plays a tough rich girl who buys Alex Fong's business and shunts him from his swanky office. To persuade her to sell Alex back the shares he hires the top gigolo in HK Simon Yam to seduce her (obviously).

The uber stud does his job (so well in fact she forgets she is a lesbian) and she sells the shares... but there is one problem : Simon has fallen in love with her for real. That would be fine except Alex is in love with her too. And to make matters worse the gigolo bar's madam (Veronica Yip) is in love with Simon. But its all sorted out in the end of course amid much mess and hilarity. 

The film is not a cinematic classic though has plenty of silly humour and a fair bit of rumpy pumpy, though at times the film a little boring and rather weird. The picture quality didn't help, for some reason the colours were a bit wrong especially in low-lit scenes.

Carry on Abroad (1972)

The Carry on team descend on the Costa del Cheapo and mayhem ensues. It is not subtle but this is one of the best Carry on films.

The film features every stereotype about British holidaymakers abroad under the (Spanish) sun: the hotel is unfinished, some of the blokes are just there to get drunk and laid, nobody likes the food and everyone ends up in trouble with the local law... Not much has changed to be fair.

Most of the gang are here, Kenneth Williams is the tour leader and portrays in the usual bossy manner. Sid James is there for the sights though not of Spanish ruins but rather of Barbara Windsor. A more unusual aspect to the holiday party is a group of monks which includes Bernard Bresslaw. The best part is Peter Butterworth as the hotel manager (and much else) with Hattie Jacques playing his furious wife.

It is pretty much standard Carry on fare, sexual innuendo and ridiculous names. Most of the jokes can be seen coming a kilometre off but the film wins as it flows so well. Like sangria.

Terror of the Plains (1934)

Tom (Tom Tyler) learns that his Dad (Ralph Lewis) has been framed for a crime he didn't commit. The real culprit is Cramer (William Gould) who has a ghost town as a hideout which he rules with an iron fist. Tom infiltrates the town posing as an outlaw. Very quickly he gets into a number of fights including with Cramer in which he wins Cramer's reluctant woman (Roberta Gale) in marriage!

Things gets complicated when Tom's sidekick Banty (Frank Rice) gets captured by the gang and faces a court martial...

Not a bad little western with some good fights. Tom Tyler looks suitably butch as the tough hero (which wasn't always the case with the heroes in westerns). The rather interesting premise of a secret town used as a hide out could have been made more of.

Grunt! The Wrestling Movie (1985)

A rather interesting mock documentary on the crazy world of early 1980s wrestling.

A few years before top wrestler Mad Dog (Magic Schwarz) decapitated his opponent in the ring and then apparently committed suicide... but now documentary maker Jeff Dial is trying to find out if a hot new name in the ring, and with a very similar style to Mad Dog, called The Mask actually really is Mad Dog...

All the craziness of the pre-WWF style of American wrestling in the early 1980s is on show here including midget matches, battle royals and deranged TV hosts. A number of real wrestlers including Adrian Street and Dick Murdoch feature in the film as themselves.

The problem is the film is a bit unstructured and a little too interested in novelty. To be honest it is hard to send up something like pro wrestling which is quite so strange in the first place. It is undeniably fun though and the glimpse of early 80s wrestlers is great.

Uptown New York (1932)

The old love triangle. Max (Leon Ames) and Pat (Shirley Grey) are a young couple in love, but Max's parents have other ideas for him and marry him off to a rich woman and send him off to Europe to study. While he is away Pat meets Eddie (Jack Oakie) a boisterous vending machine operator. The manner of their meeting is unusual though as Pat is stuck in a restaurant toilet and Eddie has to get her out through the window!

They begin an edgy relationship but when Max returns to New York things get complicated in Pat's life. Max wants her as his mistress though Pat stays with Eddie despite it not being the smoothest of rides...

Its a charming film and enjoyable with some snappy dialogue especially from Oakie. The first half of the film is probably the best, things do turn a bit melodramatic later on. Its quite a familiar story: the girl turn between two lovers, one rich and one poor. Good performances, especially from Oakie who switches from brash wise guy to sensitive soul, help elevate the film.