Slaves in Bondage (1937)

A crime drama with an exploitation edge about young girls dragged into prostitution. When Mary Lou (Louise Small) manages to escape her would be captors taking her to the Berrywood brothel the police and (naturally) the local newspaper now begin the campaign to bring down the gang led by Jim Murray (Wheeler Oakman) and their sordid game.

So it sounds a decent plot but things get bogged down by a side-plot involving Mary Lou's sister Dona Lee (Lona Andre) and her reporter boyfriend Phil (Donald Reed). She gets a job as a beautician at a parlour run by Murray who then tries to bring down Phil to break him and Dona up so he can have Dona for himself.

Unfortunately the film is a bit dull. It is watchable but considering the juicy nature of the plot it is surprisingly a bit of a yawn.

The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966)

The most evil man in the world Fu Manchu (Christopher Lee) has kidnapped the daughters of top scientists, in this second film in the Fu Manchu series, to force their fathers to aid him in his diabolical plot to conquer the world. Though when he has no more use for one of these daughters into the snake pit she goes...

Inspector Nayland Smith (Douglas Wilmer) is of course trying to foil Fu Manchu who now possesses a death ray that can destroy targets across the world. The first test is successful, destroying an ocean liner but can Fu Manchu be stopped before he destroys St Pauls cathedral and kills the world's elite assembled for a conference in London?

Amid much pseudo-Oriental nonsense and antics across the world we'll find out if Fu Manchu succeeds or not. The film is enjoyable though plot wise is a bit of a mess and the sexploitation angle is heavily played up having young women in revealing outfits being menaced and tortured, the latter often by Manchu's daughter Lin Tang (Tsai Chin) who was always a highlight of the Fu Manchu series along with Christopher Lee of course.

The Canary Murder Case (1929)

The first in the Philo Vance (William Powell) series. The detective is called in to help his friend Spotswoode (Charles Lane) who is a suspect in the murder of a showgirl (Louise Brooks) who had her claws into Spotswoode's son Jimmy (James Hall) along with some other rich gents...

The murder case is baffling, it almost looks like the perfect crime. Some of the suspects (as there are a few) seem to have perfect alibis. Philo Vance of course is one step ahead and manages to find the culprit (unlike the bungling police) after some expert sleuthing and a game of poker.

The film is a fine murder mystery and decent early talkie (if a bit too wordy at times). It was in fact originally made as a silent movie and then converted into a talkie. One problem however was that Louise Brooks did not want to record her lines so her dialogue had to be dubbed by Margaret Livingston and some scenes redone. Brooks ended up being blacklisted by Hollywood for a time because of this.

Transatlantic Tunnel (1935)

This is the near future (to the 1930s cinema goer anyway) and people live in an Art Deco fantasy world with videophones and fantastically pointy aircraft and cars. Richard McAllan (Richard Dix) and Fred Robinson (Leslie Banks) have devised a scheme to dig a tunnel under the Atlantic between England and America using advanced radium drills. Tunnels have already been dug under the English Channel and Caribbean but the Atlantic is another thing entirely...

While Richard works every hour he can his Ruth (Madge Evans) and child are neglected. Ruth even takes a job as a nurse looking after the ever growing number of sick and injured workers. Ruth herself is afflicted by the strange illness that affects workers and loses her sight.

But the project presses on, with Richard unaware of his wife's affliction or indeed anything else except for the tunnel. When his now grown-up son arrives on the site he barely recognises him. A big problem comes when they reach the mid-Atlantic ridge and the investors get jittery. The project must continue no matter the cost but for Richard the cost is so so high...

The tunnel sets look incredible, an Art Deco vision of the world how it could have been if two world wars had not shattered the Imperial dream.

Park Plaza 605 (1953)

Tom Conway is Norman Conquest (no really that's really the character name, he was a popular literary detective in the mid-twentieth century). He is a private detective who veers a bit far over the line between cheeky charm and annoyance. He gets involved in a quite frankly ridiculous plot involving Russians, stolen Nazi diamonds and murder basically by accidentally killing a pigeon carrying a secret message while playing golf with his assistant Pixie (Joy Sheldon).

The message is about a rendezvous in a hotel, naturally Conquest decides to go along and see what is going on. There he finds the lovely Nadina Rodin (Eva Bartok) who drugs Conquest and when he wakes up he finds himself accused of murdering a member of the Soviet trade delegation by the police in the form of Sid James...

A pleasant crime drama that trots along merrily enough without knocking down any doors. The humour could easily be ill judged but kind of works with this film which mixes dark and light story elements in an industrial blender. The resulting porridge isn't bad at all.

The Ghoul (1933)

A wonderfully sinister and atmospheric horror film. Professor Morlant (Boris Karloff) is an Egyptologist who has taken a valuable jewel which he believes grants eternal life. Aga Ben (Harold Huff) seeks to restore the jewel but the Professor dies before he can reach his dark mansion. The Professor insists on an elaborate burial in a tomb by his sour Scottish servant Laing (Ernest Thesiger) with the jewel in his hand. But someone steals the jewel...

As the Professor's friends and family Ralph (Anthony Bushell) and Betty (Dorothy Hyson) gather in the mansion the Professor appears to raise from the dead, however without the jewel he is a ghoulish zombie. Now intent on revenge on whomever stole the jewel...

The film has a creepy build-up followed by a rather frenetic final act with various capers including a burning tomb and some cops and robbers. The Golden Age fetish for the esoteric mysteries of the Orient are strong with this one. There is some good humour too and witty lines. One particularly enjoyable scene is where Betty's friend Kaney (Kathleen Harrisson) and Aga Ben hilariously send up the erotic desire for The Shiek.

For Ladies Only (1981)

John (Gregory Harrison) is a budding young actor with big dreams when he arrives in New York, dreams that prove very difficult to make a reality. As his career fails to get going he meets Stan (Marc Singer) who tells him there is a lot of money to be made taking your clothes off...

John thus joins Stan at ClubMax and becomes a smash hit stripping for women. He quickly eclipses Stan whose drug habit is taking him downhill fast. However his fame as a stripper is in danger of killing off his lingering hopes of becoming an actor...

A familiar story though in an unusual setting. It also has some interesting depth too, often films about strippers are an exercise in cheese and while the shows are outrageously over the top the acting performances really shine through.