Deathstalker (1983)

Sword and sorcery... and a lot of bare breasts. Evil Munkar (Bernard Erhard) is a magician who rules the kingdom... which seems to be a kingdom of a lot of murder and rape. Carefree adventurer Deathstalker (Richard Hill) is recruited by a witch to defeat Munkar. To do this he must get a magical sword which will render him invincible. He does this (and thus takes a lot of the tension out of the film).

Next Deathstalker rides into Munkar's castle to take part in a tournament. More killing and depravity takes place. Princess Codille (Barbi Benton) is more of interest to Deathstalker than the ultimate power, which he will gain if he seizes Munkar's amulet and chalice...

So this is a film with a lot of violence (including quite a lot of decapitations) and sex (masses of female and make nudity). Naturally the land is also full of strange monsters and freaks, including a rather odd creature who lives in a box. It is isn't a film that has much in the way of plot, but the plot there is is the usual sub-Conan fare. The film doesn't really make much sense but is enjoyable campy tosh and is as fun as it looks. It doesn't take itself seriously which is always the best with stuff like this.

The Bold Cavalier (1936)

The first colour Zorro film. The brutal Commandant (Sig Ruman) is mistreating the peasants, the mysterious Zorro is raising them in revolt. When the new Governor is killed, Zorro is blamed and the Governor's daughter Lady Palma (Heather Angel) demands revenge. She is annoyed by the perfumed fop Don Diego (Robert Livingston) who is always hanging around, he seems a coward and not a real man...

Of course we know Don Diego is really Zorro and he plays a clever double game (though aided by everyone else being fairly naive) to help the peasants and stay in Lady Palma's good books. He even tries (or appears to anyway) to help the Commandant win Lady Palma's heart. Finally his identity is revealed, can Lady Palma forgive Don Diego and stop the Commandant's evil plan to rule the province instead of her?

A good 1930s action drama where little time is wasted. Rollicking swash buckling fun overall, the film has a number of great action set pieces where Zorro shows off his fighting prowess and also bull fighting skills.

The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)

Superbly odd sci-fi as David Bowie plays an alien called Newton (lets face it a part he was born to play). Newton is trapped on Earth but uses his knowledge of advanced alien technology to build a massive corporation with the help of Farnsworth (Buck Henry). He then heads off to New Mexico where he stays in a hotel room full of TVs with maid Mary Lou (Candy Clarke) who drinks a lot of gin.

Newton wants to build a spaceship in order to return home, hence building a billion dollar corporation in order to afford it. Unfortunately the US government end up putting a spanner in the works...

A strange film indeed. Bowie spends most of the film looking suitably bemused at the weird ways of the Earth. The plot seems rather lost amid the odd and surreal visuals but is best enjoyed for the wonderful weird art that is it.

The Magic Sword (1962)

A vibrant but rather odd fantasy tale of knights on horseback, dragons and magic. Evil sorcerer Lodak (Basil Rathbone) has captured princess Helene (Anne Helm) and wants to feed her to his dragon. Sir Branton (Liam Sullivan) promises his liege he will rescue Helene in return for her hand in magic... but Sir George (Gary Lockwood) also vows to rescue her... even though he has only ever seen her secretly via a magic pool. Obviously in ye olde age peeping toms were not considered so bad...

To reach the princess the knights have to face seven deadly curses from Lodak including swamps and an orge, The main danger to George though is from Sir Branton who is secretly in league with Lodak. Luckily George is equipped with some magic of his own thanks to his foster mum witch Sybil (Estelle Winwood)...

A fantastical adventure. It is high camp as well, Rathbone and Winwood give great pantomime like performances, which is just what the film needs. Lockwood always looks like he is finding whats going on around him somewhat confusing.

The Amazing Mr. X (1948)

An entertaining film full of twists, the film takes you in one direction then completely spins everything around... more than once. Christine (Lynn Bari) is a rich widow about to get engaged to Martin (Richard Carlson) when she encounters the mysterious Alexis (Turhan Bey) on a beach walk. Alexis is a spiritualist, complete with pet crow, who helps Christine contact her husband Paul (Donald Curtis) who died in an accident a few years before...

But Alexis is a phoney, using a maid to find information about Christine so he can relieve her of the burden of having a lot of cash. Rationalist Martin scoffs at the silly woman superstition of course but then he is shocked when Paul seems to return for real. In fact Paul was never dead after all and now wants Alexis' help to get Christine's money...

Somewhat melodramatic but full of interest. The mechanics of how Alexis tricks people is genuinely fascinating. Turhan Bey puts on a great performance as the suave and slightly sinister Alexis.

On the Wrong Track (1983)

Middling early 1980s HK youth drama. Paul (Andy Lau) and Ah De (Chau Wah Yim) are brothers in high school who are always getting into scrapes. Nothing unusual there but these scrapes include baseball bat fights, wrecking a Ferrari and wearing women's underwear in class. A further complication in their lives is that their Dad (Yueh Hua) is a cop...

Despite regular beatings by their Dad and the police they don't seem to want to learn their lesson. Things come to a head with the vandalising of a supermarket, De gets killed by violent police man King Kong (Lau Kwok Shing) and of course Paul wants revenge...

The film is very much of it's time, the usual HK movie mix of humour, melodrama and ultra violence and looks great (it will certainly make you nostalgic for 1980s HK). Although the film isn't too exceptional it is notable for being Andy Lau's first lead role.

Lost in the Stratosphere (1934)

Unlike the aviators who reach high into the sky, the story stays at fairly low altitudes. Soapy (William Cagney) and Woody (Edward Nugent) are two US airmen who are close friends, but a love triangle with Evelyn (June Collyer) - who is not an aviator and thus doesn't have a nickname - damages that friendship...

However the two airmen are drawn together to crew a helium balloon which will try and beat the altitude record. Naturally things do not go to plan and this helps bring the two friends back together... and then apart in a way which may stretch credibility a bit.

The balloon scenes and other aerial adventures are pretty interesting though the rest of the film is pretty middling. The film is mostly notable for being one of the few films James Cagney's younger brother William starred in before he moved onto other roles in the industry.