The Crooked Circle (1932)

Confusing but too frenetic to make the lack of sense matter too much. A secret crime / occult society wish the leader of a rival amateur crime fighting society Colonel Walters (Berton Churchill) dead. Brand (Ben Lyon) meanwhile is leaving the society to be replaced by the somewhat mysterious Yoganda (C. Henry Gordon)...

Walters receives the death card from the criminals, the Crooked Circle. They promise he will die this night, naturally he decides to spend the night in a mysterious dark house in the country with trap doors and secret rooms behind every mantelpiece. Brand heads to the house too after he finds his fiance Thelma (Irene Purcell) is on her way there. But why and how is she mixed up in this?

No one knows, even the audience really, as most of the film is a seemingly random sequence of escapades in the house punctuated by the yelps of Nora the housekeeper (Zasu Pitts) and a bumbling cop (James Gleason)...

It is nonsense, it is confusing but it is also highly entertaining with a good dose of comedy. Maybe a little too much comedy at times but if the film is treated as a rather over the top dark house style comedy-crime romp then you will get the most out of it. There are many surprises and mysteries and the film is perfect to play "1930s mystery film bingo" to.

Derby Day (1923)

The Rascals or Our Gang series were short comedy films showing the antics of a group of kids including Joe Cobb, Jackie Cordon and Mickey Daniels. In this film they are trying to sell lemonade and hot dogs at the horse race track.

Fairly amusing mayhem ensues of course. The gang manage to get to see a race and get so excited they decide to hold their own race. Though being kids their steeds are not thoroughbred race horses but a motley assortment of cows, goats and mules. Who end up getting drunk...

The film stays fairly low brow but is funny enough not to outstay it's short feature welcome which is just as well because there isn't a great deal of story here. It is nice and charming however.

Night of the Eagle (1962)

A creepy atmospheric tale of witchcraft and black magic. Norman (Peter Wyngarde) is a dashing young professor at university combating superstition with reason with his perfect wife Tansy (Janet Blair). Norman is destined for the higher echelons of academic though others have grown resentful and jealous of him...

Fellow academic Fiona (Margaret Johnston) in particular has a bit of an acid tongue for Norman but there is more... much more. Norman begins to find magic charms in the home. After a visit by Fiona, Tansy goes into a frenzy trying to find... something. Tansy admits she is a witch and is protecting him against attack...

The film is a little slow to get going but once it does... The final act with the attack by the Eagle (bought to life from the college mascot) is terrifying. But is any of it really happening? Margaret Johnston plays a great role, sheer evil.

Prison Break (1938)

Shannon (Barton MacLane) is a happy-go-lucky tuna fisherman who is in love with Jean (Glenda Farrell), though her pop isn't too keen on the union (this isn't really elaborated on). Shannon ends up going to prison for manslaughter to protect his brother where he starts to tangle with the crook Big Red (Ward Bond)...

When Shannon finally gets released on parole he finds the life of a parolee is not an easy one. Eventually he finds out Big Red is the reason he has spent time inside and has wrecked his life...

The story is rather cliched and predictable but is fast paced and makes the most of it's modest budget to tell the story of a man who has nearly everything stacked against him.

Enter the Game of Death (1978)

Shameless Bruceploitation, it even rips off music (and much else) from real Bruce Lee films. This film starring Bruce Le is based on Game of Death's original concept...

The Chinese resistance need a document detailing Japanese plans of invasion, the document is hidden on the top floor of a tower, each floor guarded by specialist kung fu fighters (even a snake man). Bruce Le goes in, wearing a jump suit (where have we seen this before)...

Although terrible in many ways with the meagre story just a skeleton for a lot of fight scenes, the film is entertaining especially as Bruce Le tries to squeeze in as many Bruce Lee-isms as he can. The film is a kind of mash-up of the greatest hits of the Bruce Lee canon. The numerous fights with the always excellent Bolo Yeung are a highlight.

The Law of 45's (1935)

A fairly standard B-movie western that doesn't really get out of second gear (or as it is a western we should say a slow trot). Sir Henry Sheffield (Broderick O'Farrell) turns up from England to survey the area and buy up some land. Crooked lawyer Rontell (Ted Adams) kidnaps Sir Henry and then uses his money to buy up the land of ranchers driven off the land by a mysterious band of hoodlums.

Naturally a couple of good guys passing through get drawn into the fray, even more naturally that a pretty girl is involved in the form of Joan (Molly O'Day). Those guys are Tucson (Guinn Williams) and Al (Stoney Martin) and they save the day...

So the story is standard and the acting is nothing special. Although a short film its padded out a bit with plenty of horse riding. Guinn "Big Boy" Williams puts on a pretty decent turn but there isn't a lot else to elevate this film much above mediocre.

The Roaring Road (1919)

A light hearted early auto race film with added romance. JD Ward (Theodore Roberts) is the Bear (unfortunately to demonstrate this the film cuts to an actual bear for a few moments, which was probably a better actor). He owns a business selling cars and wants to be the first to have one of his cars win the big auto race for the third time...

One of his salesmen Toodles (Wallace Reid) wants to win the race as a driver, he also wants to marry the Bear's daughter Dorothy (Ann Little) who is known as the Cub. The Bear is not that keen on Toodles taking part in the race as he doesn't think he is good enough, and he wants him to wait a few years before he marries the Cub. (Are you still with me?)

So that is the plot, and it is a fine little film with some good humour though cab be rather hard to follow at times. Although Reid was the film's star Roberts steals the show with his typical silent movie era villain act.