Mooch (1974)

The sort of weird inconsequential little film that could only be made in the 1970s. Mooch is yet another young female hopeful eager to get to Hollywood and become a star. However, there are many pitfalls, dangers and obstacles a starlet needs to overcome to make it. Oh we should have mentioned, Mooch is a dog...

Mooch is guided by the helpful voice of Zsa Zsa Gabor and encounters a number of stars including Vincent Price and Jill St John. Will Mooch make it as a star? 

This is really quite odd and formless. Despite the animal actor it's not really a children's movie, the jokes are often quite adult (including Mooch's dream of being an exotic dancer!) The plot is rather thin and pedestrian but the film is enjoyable enough if just for the nostalgia and the star spotting. Mooch the dog is a very good animal actor. 

Dead of Night (1945)

An influential horror anthology. Architect Walter Craig (Mervyn Johns) turns up at a country house filled with the usual 1940s British middle class stereotypes, but he feels he has met the other guests before in his dreams. Nightmares which have a deadly ending. This helps prompt a series of short horror vignettes of varying quality and horror, though i did enjoy the hide and seek story with the ghost children.

The film really gets going when psychiatrist Dr Van Straaten (Frederick Valk) recounts an odd tale of a ventriloquist and his dummy, the ventriloquist (Michael Redgrave) having been arrested for attempted murder of a rival who he claimed was trying to steal his dummy. However, who was really the one in control?

Craig now fears his nightmares will come true and he will commit a monstrous crime. The various anthology stories all come together to an amazingly creepy crescendo. The film is a bit patchy (the golf ghost story probably could have been better left out) but is well worth perceiving with. It after all created it's own sub-genre, the British horror anthology.

Roaring Roads (1935)

A rather goofy comedy-romance-action-crime film that shouldn't be taken too seriously. David (David Sharpe) is the last remaining male heir to millions and his aunts and servants try to keep him in cotton wool much to David's disgust. David finally escapes his aunts and meets Gertrude (Gertrude Messinger). Her brother has been injured in a lucrative motor race, David decides to take his place in order to try and win Gertrude's heart...

However, some gangsters are out to try and stop him winning. David's servants are also out to try and stop him and bring him home safely. It all culminates in a fast-paced bit of slapstick action and a rather poor fight.

Not a masterpiece of cinema by any means but a very passable way to spend an hour. David Sharpe was a stuntman as well as an actor and he used those skills throughout the film including some rather good gymnastics and riding a bicycle down some stairs.

Carry on Matron (1972)

A Carry On comedy set in a maternity hospital, a good entry in the series if not amongst the very best. Sid Carter (Sid James) is a thief who has a plan to steal contraceptive pills from a hospital. Sid sends his son Cyril (Kenneth Cope) into the hospital disguised as a nurse (as its a 1970s film the nurse has to be as a female of course and rather unconvincing). Cyril's first "problem" is that his roommate is Barbara Windsor!

The hospital is nominally run by Dr Cutting (Kenneth Williams) though Matron (Hattie Jacques) is really in charge of course. Will Sid's plan work? Well do we really care amid the endless mayhem, saucy humour and ridiculous antics?

There is nothing really that unusual in the story of this entry in the Carry On series, it certainly doesn't lack for gags and nonsense. A highlight is Mr Tidey (Kenneth Connor), the railway guard and his wife (Joan Sims) who is in no hurry to give birth.

Milwr Bychan (1987)

A tough and uncompromising film. Young Welsh soldier Wil Thomas (Richard Lynch) is in jail after shooting a civilian during the Northern Irish Troubles. As his victim comes from an influential family, the Army won't sweep it under the carpet after pressure from the government (Bernard Hill). Thomas however, won't let the system break him no matter what sadism and brutality the Military Police deal out to him (and its a lot!)

The sad story is told in flashback as Thomas' love affair with a local girl Deirdre (Emer Gillespie) ends when she finds out the truth. The harsh realities of the Troubles and the repeated violence enough to brutalise any soul. The parallels between the Crown's indifference and disdain for the Northern Irish and the Welsh are made clear (if plastered on rather thick).

The narrative is a little too fragmented and this makes it difficult for the film to get much of a flow but it is riveting viewing. Low budget maybe but high impact.

The Third Alibi (1961)

An amazing little crime drama that fits so many twists and turns into a film that lasts just over an hour. Norman (Laurence Payne) is in an unhappy marriage with Helen (Patricia Dainton) and is doing the dirty with Helen's half-sister Peggy (Jane Griffiths). When Norman puts Peggy in the club he tries to get a divorce but Helen refuses. Norman thus begins to plot the perfect murder...

Unfortunately, despite an intricate plot intended to build Norman a cast iron alibi, his attempt to gun down his wife ends in failure, instead he discovers that Peggy has been shot instead. Whats more the evidence which the police (John Arnatt) gather points to him doing it...

A modest but very intelligent film which contains a number of little plot points which all make sense in the end. The only criticism might be that all the main characters are rather loathsome.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

A spectacular film though also sometimes baffling especially early on, this isn't a film which will spoon feed everything to you though which is ultimately refreshing. 

Claude Lacombe (Francois Truffaut) is investigating mysterious happenings around the globe including the appearance of aircraft lost in 1945... fully fuelled and operational. 

Meanwhile electrical lineman Roy (Richard Dreyfuss) has a mysterious encounter of his own when strange lights overhead give him sunburn. Jillian (Melinda Dillon) suffers shock when her house is blasted by strange lights and her son goes missing...

Both Roy and Jillian have a compulsion and an obsession with a mountain in Wyoming. This just happens to be where the US military has launched a mass evacuation. What is at that mountain. Roy and Jillian go and find out. What they find exceeds anyone's expectations.

Although the film does sometimes drop into farce it is a wonderful experience visually. For a change the aliens arn't evil and the US military intent on shooting everything which moves.