Shadows Over Shanghai (1938)

An enjoyable spy caper set in Shanghai during the Japanese invasion of China. An amulet which can raise funds to help buy the Chinese weapons in their fight against the Japanese ends up in the hands of Irene (Lynda Grey). She heads to Shanghai to try and get on a boat to America. However brutal Soviet agent Sargoza (Robert Barrat) is determined to get the amulet for himself...

Sargoza is foiled by happy-go-lucky reporter Johnny (James Dunn) and the slightly mysterious Barclay (Ralph Morgan) who seems to always have a friend who can help and a plan. To complicate matters the Japanese in the form of Yokohama (Paul Sutton) are also after the amulet and, while the bombs are dropping on Shanghai, will stop at nothing to get it...

A low budget film but makes the most of what it has, especially with the heavy use of stock footage during the bombing. Dunn provides the humour though his wise cracks can sometimes fall a bit flat.

The Robot vs The Aztec Mummy (1958)

Some films are so bad they are good. Some are just bad. Despite the sheer nonsense of the premise this film falls a bit closer to the latter than the former unfortunately. Which is a shame as you want a film about a robot fighting an Aztec mummy to be nothing short of great...

The main problem with the film is that it takes too long to get going, the actual meeting and battle between the robot and mummy is right at the very end (and isn't the most amazing battle in movie history if we are to be honest though is mercifully short). The film is slow because it includes a recap from the two previous mummy films in the series so at least you can save time by just watching this one and not the others i guess.

As to the film plot, the mummy Popoca (Angelo de Steffani) is guarding ancient treasure which mad (of course) scientist Dr Krupp (Luis Aceves Castañeda) wants for himself. As the mummy usually kills all who try and steal the treasure Krupp builds a cyborg robot (Adolfo Rojas) to destroy the mummy. Then he plans to use the loot to build an army of similar robots and conquer the world. Though if we are to be honest i suspect the world's armed forces would have the ability to defeat an army of robots that move incredibly awkwardly and slowly.

Like the robot the film isn't very good, the best part of the film is the title. However it is worth watching once just for that.

The Phantom Fiend (1932)

A shadowy fiend called the Avenger is committing murders in London, telephone operator Daisy (Elizabeth Allan) has actually heard one of the victims just before she was offed. Meanwhile the slightly strange foreign musician Angeloff (Ivor Novello) has taken up as a lodger with Daisy's parents...

As Angeloff is rather mysterious and enigmatic (though this is laid on a bit thick) and Daisy takes a bit of a shine to him the family begin to suspect he is the Avenger though that may be more to do with the fact Daisy fancies him...

While quite atmospheric the story is rather plodding and at times a bit hard to follow, the dialogue in this early talkie sometimes a bit muffled. An interesting if not great film with some indifferent acting at times. However it is worth watching for Novello who also played the same role a few years earlier in Hitchcock's silent movie of the same story. Jack Hawkins also makes one of his earliest film appearances.

Minesweeper (1943)

A decent little war movie with a dose of romantic melodrama and the propaganda kept mostly in the background. Richard Houston (Richard Arlen) is a former Navy officer who deserted due to gambling debts. When the war breaks out he decides he needs to re-enlist. He takes the name of Smith and joins up with friendly Fixit (Guinn Williams).

He starts serving on a minesweeper, work frequently dangerous though for a rookie he seems to learn very fast (if only they knew eh?) He is also after Mary (Jean Parker) even though she is also involved with Smith's crewmate Nash (Russell Hayden).

When Houston/Smith accidentally causes the death of Fixit he admits his secret to Mary. However the Navy are already onto him. Time for a final dramatic set-piece of course. Redemption via self-sacrifice is how we'll win the war sailor.

Scars of Dracula (1970)

Dracula (Christopher Lee) is dialed up to eleven in this instalment of the Hammer Dracula saga. Dracula is bought back to life by a vomiting bat, he kills a young woman, the villagers burn down his castle but Dracula slaughters the womenfolk in the church in revenge...

Meanwhile in a nearby town Paul (Christopher Matthews) is getting into trouble of the horizontal jogging kind with the burgomaster's daughter. On the run he ends up at Dracula's castle. His brother Simon (Dennis Waterman) and Sarah (Jenny Hanley) turn up at the castle looking for him. Only Sarah's crucifix saves her from being the next blood snack of Dracula...

A wonderfully creepy film, Dracula has immense power in this film assisted by Klove (Patrick Troughton). Some of the effects are a bit cheesy (especially the bats) but the gore and bloody violence are high on the scale.

Sky Patrol (1939)

More high flying antics with Tailspin Tommy (John Trent). Tommy is training new pilots for the sky patrol, one of the pilots being Colonel Meade (Boyd Irwin)'s son Carter (Jackie Coogan) who has a phobia of firing guns but despite that is passed for service...

Sky patrol is looking for smugglers. Carter comes across a mysterious plane which shoots him down and he is captured by the smuggling gang who are illegally gun running. Tommy and Skeeter (Milburn Stone) seek to rescue him and stop the smugglers.

A fairly straight forward action film, the plot is simple but doesn't get in the way of good old fashioned heroism and daring. A good adaptation of a comic strip with some neat flying sequences.

The Naked Witch (1961)

Rather low-rent and incomprehensible exploitation. A student (Robert Short) is researching the grave of an alleged witch. The witch (Libby Hall) who is beautiful and naked (and that has to be emphasised so much they even named the film after it) embarks on revenge...

It is all very strange with a soundtrack that sounds like a monkey on LSD playing the organ. The problem with the film is that there isn't very much story and the film is padded out with a pseudo documentary at the start and even a bit of a travelogue. When we finally see the (naked) witch well we are already struggling to stay awake.

Not very good, though did we mention that the witch was naked... except that as it was the early 60s she wasn't really of course.