The Skull (1965)

A superbly creepy supernatural horror. Maitland (Peter Cushing) and Phillips (Christopher Lee) are keen researchers of witchcraft and always looking for interesting items to further their research. Marco (Peter Wymark) brings Maitland a book about the Marquis de Sade... bound in human skin. But that's not all... he also has the skull of the Marquis de Sade himself!

The skull once belonged to Phillips but was stolen from him... but he is not keen to get it back. He tells Maitland the skull is possessed by demonic forces. This doesn't put Maitland off but when he goes to Marco's to buy it he finds the man killed. When Matland has the skull she soon finds dark forces are also driving him... to kill his own wife (Jill Bennett)...

The film is tremendous fun, maybe verging on cheese at times especially when the skull flies around the room. Everything is saved by the great cast. The horror is mostly by suggestion instead of overt gore but that usually makes for a better horror film.

Knee Deep in Music (1933)

A curious but enjoyable little film. A tycoon (Nat Carr) seeks a song to sell his tinned fish on the radio. He hires Ruth Etting for the job but the search is on for the correct song. This short film though is basically a vehicle to showcase Etting's singing with some light humour and even a bit of music industry satire added to pad the film out.

Her singing is pretty good though some of the other songs ain't so hot. But will any of the songs sell fish? The jury is out on that one.

Secret of the Incas (1954)

A rather shabby American adventurer in grubby khakis and a floppy fedora seeks hidden treasures in lost civilisations. But wait this isn't Indiana Jones but Harry Steele (Charlton Heston)! Steele is a shady bum who guides/rips off tourists in a remote Peruvian town while also seeking the gold and jewel encrusted star burst from the Incan Temple of the Sun.

He needs a plane though to get to Machu Picchu, his chance comes when fleeing Romanian lovely Elena (Nicole Maurey) arrives in town. He uses her as bait to steal a plane hired by the Romanian secret service. He and Elena begin a trip through jungle and across mountains until they reach Machu Picchu. There to his dismay he finds there is already a party of archaeologists led by Dr Moorehead (Robert Young) and who have already found the tomb...

A very satisfying adventure, Heston plays Steele as a real anti-hero (though turns out to be the good guy in the end which is perhaps a bit of a cop out), he doesn't want to find the Incan relic to advance our knowledge of history but to become rich! The film is worth seeing for the number of scenes ripped off in Raiders of the Lost Ark nearly thirty years later. The rather extraordinary singing by Yma Sumac is also something which deserves a watch (or listen).

Stargames (1998)

A bizarre low-budget science-fiction film. Lugos (Conrad Haden), a giant bug who wears a rug, wants to conquer the universe of course. The ruler of the universe is.... Tony Curtis! Or rather Curtis playing King Fendel. Fendel sends his grandson Kirk (Travis Clark) off to Earth for his own safety...

Meanwhile on Earth video gamer Brian (Trevor Clark) is hating bring dragged into the countryside by his parents. He gets lost in the woods after being chased by a bear and bumps into Kirk. Together with Kirk and his magic watch Brian then has to fight Lugos' somewhat inept warriors and finally Lugos himself...

The special effects are poor even for the period and most of the film consists of aimless running around in the woods. The acting is almost universally terrible and the prop and costume design awful. Kirk for example looks like he is a page boy in a Regency drama, Lugos' warriors look like Lego people.

In the tradition of low-budget trash movies everything is unintentionally hilarious... especially the hologram computer Happy (Daran Norris) which uses the avatar of a clown! The sheer strangeness makes the film worthwhile.

The Headless Ghost (1959)

A light hearted ghost story. Three foreign exchange college students visit a dusty old castle owned by the Earl of Ambrose (Jack Allan). He tells them that the castle is haunted but Americans Bill (Richard Lyon) and Ronnie (David Rose) scoff at this. They decide to stay in the castle overnight with Ingrid (Lilane Sottane) to find out the truth.

Stuck in the castle, they find indeed there are ghosts. In fact there seem to be ghosts everywhere! Most of the ghosts are manifested as voices but there is also the Fourth Earl (Clive Revill) whose portrait comes to life... and a knight in armour wielding an axe! The three students eventually meet a headless ghost and are told they cannot leave until they find his missing head!

The scares are fairly low-thrill and offer a rather stereotypical view of castle life. The comedy is about as weak as the horror element but the film is reasonably entertaining. At times it  resembles a medieval reenactment with overly keen amateurs and that does add an element of (probably) unintentional fun.

Ruby (1977)

This is a very strange film. In 1935 Ruby (Piper Laurie) is so shocked by the brutal gunning down of her boyfriend by gangsters that she gives birth. Sixteen years later she is a drunk who owns a sleazy nightclub (that never seems to have any customers) and a drive-in movie theatre (which has plenty of 1950s stereotypes). Her daughter Leslie (Janit Baldwin) is a mute with staring eyes who bites random people. For some reason she now employs the guys who killed her man at the theatre.

And then they start getting bumped off one by one in horrifying (in theory) / ridiculous (in practice) including the movie projectionist who is menaced by a film reel and strangled by film stock. As Ruby continues to prance about drunk in a fur coat strange voices are heard. Is the spirit of her dead boyfriend somehow out for revenge and using Leslie to carry out the murders? Meanwhile Ruby's new beau Vince (Stuart Whitman) wanders around looking as confused as most the audience...

Although it makes little sense, the gore and special effects are often laughably poor, the film has an irresistible camp quality about it. The cast generally do a good job with the weirdness and supernatural nonsense.

Fire Over England (1937)

A quality historical romp. With England under threat of invasion from the Spanish Armada, Queen Elizabeth (Flora Robson) treads a thin line between appeasing the anger of Spain and rejoicing in the heroics of the likes of Sir Francis Drake. Meanwhile in Spain young Michael (Sir Laurence Olivier) escapes the clutches of the Inquisition and eventually makes his way back to the English Court...

He is reunited with his love Cynthia (Vivian Leigh) one of the ladies in waiting. However soon he must return to Spain in place of the traitor Vane (James Mason) and discover the secret plans of the King of Spain (Raymond Massey) before it is too late...

A superb adventure with plenty of swashbuckling. There is also much intrigue in Court (though some of the historical details may be a bit off). Although the love of Michael and Cynthia is central to the film it is Elizabeth who steals the show of course, if history can be considered a film then she always had some of the best lines.