Dick Tracy's Dilemma (1947)

Superior comic book adaptation as Dick Tracy battles The Claw...

The Claw (Jack Lambert), a criminal with a hook, has stolen some furs. However Dick Tracy (Ralph Byrd) knows that he is just a violent murderous thug so someone else must be the mastermind of the robbery. So begins a complicated case for the super detective assisted (in theory) by Pat Patton (Lyle Latell), Tess Trueheart (Kay Christopher) and over-the-top thespian Vitamin Flintheart (Ian Keith).

It is all very pulpy and trashy but that is the point. The Claw steals the show with his sinister super villain act. At times quite noirish.

The Edge of Hell (1987)

Years ago in a remote farmhouse a kid watches his parents killed by the Devil who lives in the fridge (next to the bacon we assume). Now an 80s hair metal band turns up at the same farmhouse to record an album (for some reason a 24-track recording studio is in the barn), what could go wrong?

A lot obviously as the members of the band led by John (Jon Mikl Thor) start to act rather strangely and start to die just as strangely, killed off by monsters who look like the Muppets on LSD. But then... after several monster murders and lengthy sex scenes, there is a massive twist which completely changes the direction of the film and seems to render everything that has taken place before as meaningless...

Well these kind of low budget films are supposed to make little sense but... well no idea what was going on in most of this. It doesn't really matter as the final act is fantastic and utterly over the top and ridiculous. It is a cheese filled masterpiece.

Bulldog Drummond Escapes (1937)

Fast paced adventure with gentleman adventurer Bulldog Drummond (Ray Milliand). Newly arrived back in Blighty (where everywhere is covered in thick fog all the time of course) he is soon drawn into a plot to defraud Phyllis (Heather Angel) out of her inheritance in a dark, somewhat sinister, country house.

Bulldog Drummond is soon drawn into a game of cat and mouse with the crooked Merridew (Norman Porter) and his associates who are involved in a counterfeiting operation. Drummond has help too of course including Algy (Reginald Denny) and Tenny (E.E. Clive) though Phyllis also proves a dab hand with a bottle...

It is light and pretty fast and furious, and undoubted fun. It maybe could do with a bit more grit, the film has plenty of violence but it played a bit light to allow it to be taken seriously. Overall though a good film but just wish that damned fog would have lifted!

Angels Revenge (1979)

Apparently we needed a Charlie's Angels rip-off after all? A group of women from different backgrounds aka stereotypes (school teacher, Las Vegas entertainer, model et cetera) are drawn together by a shared dislike for drugs and drugs pushers and form a commando group in matching cute white outfits...

The film starts right in the middle of the action as the group (which includes Jacqulin Cole, Susan Kiger and Sylvia Anderson) attack a ragtag compound in the middle of the woods which apparently is a drug processing plant. Amid much gunplay, and an attack by a rather cheap and flimsy looking combat vehicle, the drug gang is defeated but then we jump back to find out exactly what is going on and how the attack came about... this includes Jack Palance as a drug baron, a song in a night club and some beaten up kids. Goofy action on a beach and some of the most ridiculous right wing extremists you'll ever see.

Naturally it doesn't really make a lot of sense and is a low budget exploitation film making the most of attractive women in tight spandex fighting the drug gang. It is low on film making quality but high on cheese. Enjoyable enough if not taken seriously at all.

Renfrew of the Royal Mounted (1937)

A singing Mountie film, a little sub-genre popular in the late 1930s. Renfrew (James Newill) is the singing Mountie this time, on the trail of counterfeit money.

The printing plates are being made by ex-con Bronson (Herbert Corthell) who is being forced to continue his old trade by brutal gangster Angel (Kenneth Harlan) who holds Bronson's daughter Virginia (Carol Hughes) a virtual prisoner. Renfrew however is on the trail and follows them to a hunting lodge where his old friend George (William Royle) works as the world's most stereotypical Italian...

So the plot is basic but the action is continuous and the film is enjoyable despite the either wooden or over the top acting from most of the cast. The Mountie always gets his man of course. Thankfully the songs are kept to a minimum.

Girls Without Tomorrow (1992)

Another hard tale of life as a prostitute in HK. The lives of three of them, a mamasan and her daughter, now a film star, intertwine as the prostitutes get into various troubles, and the mamasan is shunned by her daughter who in turn has to whore herself on the good old casting couch... As you might expect with a HK film from this era it isn't subtle.

The troubles of the girls are myriad, one girl Carina Lau has the problem of not being able to drink anymore and ends up having to leave the hostess job she was highly successful in. She ends up as a jobbing prostitute and is paid to take a very young looking Ekin Cheung's (in his first film) virginity... and of course he falls in love with her...

The film is actually very good, though sometimes a bit confusing with so much going on and the story switching rapidly between the various sub-plots. There is everything here that makes a great HK film: drama, action, humour and a heap of star power. It all comes together with a very powerful funeral scene.

The Mystery Squadron (Serial) (1933)

One of the better serials. A mystery squadron of fliers led by the Black Ace is attacking a dam that is under construction by Stephen Grey (Lafe McKee) and his daughter Dorothy (Lucile Browne). The foreman Hank Davis (Jack Mulhall) hires his flier friends Fred (Bob Steele) and Jellybean (Guinn Williams) to help protect the mine...

But they soon run into trouble with the fiendish Black Ace and his team of fliers who possess biplanes with flamethrowers! Thanks to hidden panels and rooms seemingly everywhere the Black Ace always seems to be one step ahead and his identity remains a mystery...

It is of course break neck action with plenty of stunts and cliff hangers. The plot may have more holes than the skin of a biplane that has been in combat but the story moves so quickly there isn't time to dwell on it!