West of Hot Dog (1924)

On his way to the small town of Hot Dog Stan Laurel is held up by rascally outlaws. Stan is on his way to to the town to hear the reading of his Uncle's will, as are the outlaws we later discover. Stan is left everything including the saloon... but if he dies then Bad Mike (Lee Meehan) will get the saloon. Stan obviously decides to flee town but falls right into Bad Mike's lap...

A nice little comedy western, Stan plays his usual goofy character and there are plenty of visual gags and slapstick. The film is a little light but has plenty of charm, one of Stan Laurel's better solo comedies.

War-Gods of the Deep (1965)

A wonderfully fantastical tale. American adventurer Ben (Tad Hunter) is in a Cornish village along with lovely Jill (Susan Hart) and eccentric chicken loving artist Harold (David Tomlinson). Strange goings on one night, including the sight of a strange gill-man perplex our heroes and then Jill goes missing. Ben and Harold go looking for her and stumble upon a mysterious city under the sea...

The Captain (Vincent Price) rules the city, having been trapped there a hundred years ago with his crew of smugglers. For some reason they do not age in this lost Atlantis with mysterious pumping technology and Babylonian artwork. However the end is nigh as a volcano may erupt any moment and destroy everything...

Although the film can be a bit slow at times the film covers all the best "lost world" film tropes perfectly with some impressive set design which includes reproductions of Sumerian art. Vincent Price steals the show with his wonderfully dark and ruthless Captain. As for the rest of the acting it is passable though John Le Mesurier is good as a priest trapped in the lost world.

The Psychotronic Man (1979)

Rocky (Peter Spelson) stops his car on a country lane after a long day of cutting hair at his barber shop but while he dozes he seems to be caught up into some strange phenomenon where his car ends up levitating. Afterwards he has headaches at random moments and is then possessed by some sort of demonic force and can kill with the power of his mind.

His first victim is a local bum whom he kills over a plate of beans. Then he kills his doctor who is beginning to suspect something is going on. The police begin the slowest investigation in history but finally Lt. O'Brien (Chris Carbis) thinks Rocky is killing people with psychotronic power...

An entertaining though pretty low-quality film, where little happens for long periods. When there is action, such as the police car chase, it is pretty shoddy though this adds to the 1970s cheese and unintentional hilarity. It is very late 1970s in look and that has an appeal of it's own of course.

The Black Camel (1931)

One of the earliest Charlie Chan films. Movie star Shelia Fane (Dorothy Revier) is shooting a film in Honolulu. Before she marries Alan Jaynes (William Post Jr) she consults the fakir Tanaverro (Bela Lugosi) but he confronts her about the unsolved murder of actor Denny Mayo several years ago. Later Fayne is found dead and Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) begins his investigation...

And it is a complicated investigation with a number of suspects. All Chan knows is that Tanaverro has an alibi even though he is so suspicious the viewer can guess he is involved somehow. The case, as in all Golden Age mysteries, hinges on the tiniest of clues: scratches made by a pin embedded in the murderer's heel...

A highly enjoyable murder mystery only jarred by some of the sound issues and hesitant dialogue which often plagued early talkies. The identity of the murderer might seem a bit left field as the character did not appear nearly as much as other suspects. At this early stage in the Chan canon his assistant is the bumbling Kashimo (Otto Yamaoka) not one of his sons, though we do get a delightful scene where Chan has breakfast with all of his huge family!

Glorifying the American Girl (1929)

A story of a girl who ends up lucky in career but unlucky in love in this early talkie. Gloria (Mary Eaton) is singing in a sheet music store with Buddy (Edward Crandall) and Barbara (Gloria Shea). Gloria dreams of being able to sing on the big stage rather than behind a shop counter but is also in love with Buddy (though Barbara also has the hots for the guy...)

Gloria, pushed by her ruthless mother (Sarah Edwards), is discovered by hustler Miller (Dan Healy) and soon leaves her old life behind in order to hit the big time which she eventually does by a Ziegfeld Folly though ends up being screwed by Miller. The second half of the time is a spectacular Ziegfeld show which Gloria is in but of course there is a price to be paid for fame.

The story is well worn but as a historical curiosity the film is well worth watching. The staging and spectacle of the final show is mesmerising with a few big stars of the day also performing (to varying degree of merit).

Deadly Prey (1987)

Ridiculous ultra violent nonsense, fun for all the wrong reasons of course. Colonel Hogan (David Campbell) has set up a mercenary camp in the woods, to train his men he sets them off to hunt down an overweight office worker. Despite the fact they make pretty heavy weather of it, his team are sent to find another victim, someone tougher. More of a challenge. How about ex-special forces, and former comrade of Hogan, Mike Danton (Ted Prior)?

Mike is set off to run into the woods to be hunted down, but soon it becomes clear that he is the hunter as he steadily wipes out the camouflaged bums one by one. Finally Hogan realises who his "prey" is and the hunt becomes personal...

Well there isn't much story but a load of macho nonsense as muscular men fight with knives, rocks and anything else. Cameron Mitchell plays Mike's father-in-law who manages to find where Mike is being held despite the vaguest of information and infiltrates a base of heavily armed mercenaries. Despite the fact Hogan keeps half a dozen hand grenades on his desk you get the impression this army of fortune isn't all that good...

The film is great fun if you like cheesy violent 1980s films. Lets face it who doesn't like a film where a man gets a hand grenade put down his pants?

Missile X: Tehran Incident (1979)

Unintentionally hilarious sub-Bond nonsense. A peace summit is due to be held in the Persian Gulf but the Baron (Curt Jurgens) seeks to attack it using a stolen Russian nuclear missile (which so obviously looks like it has been made out of cardboard). CIA agent Franklin (Peter Graves) is sent to Iran where he meets up with his Soviet counterpart Senyonov (Michael Dante) to find out whats going on.

Quite what their plan is remains a mystery as they seem to aimlessly move from one fight to the other, including a formless brawl in a casino. Luckily for our heroes the Baron's men are low-rent thugs including a man with a metal arm that can project spikes. They all share a lack of ability to fight and shoot straight in scene after scene. 

Franklin meanwhile sleeps with women young enough to be his daughter (at least). As the film progresses you get the impression he might be a little too old to be throwing himself around an Iranian backyard. It probably would have been a decent role for Graves about fifteen years earlier into his career.

It is a fun (if approached in the right manner) if nonsensical film. The film does have a great funk soundtrack, though most of the time it rather jars with the action, sometimes drowning out the dialogue too. This adds to the "joy" of the film of course. The view of Iran just before the revolution is also fascinating and revealing.