THE TRAP (1946) Directed by Howard Bretherton

I have a real soft spot for these Charlie Chan films, especially those starring Sidner Toler as the Chinese detective. Warner Oland had been a good Chan and some of his films were very good but Toler brought humour to the role, especially when aided by the excellent Mantan Moreland as his faithful chauffer. The plots were cliché but it didn't really matter : this one featuring a group of show girls spending the summer at the beach. Needless to say murder ensues. The eagle-eyed viewers may spot future Superman, Kirk Alyn, as a policeman.  Bretherton's direction is functional. Rating: **

LE MAINS D'ORLAC (1960) Directed by Edmond T. Greville

This the French language version of  the 1960 French/English co-production THE HANDS OF ORLAC starring Mel Ferrer. In his documentary, MY JOURNEY THROUGH FRENCH CINEMA, Bernard Tavernier praises the work of director Edmond T. Greville. On the evidence of this and of the director's other English film, BEAT GIRL, this praise might well be misplaced, although, of course I have not seen any of his French films. This is a dull version of Maurice Renaud's novel, previously filmed with Conrad Veidt in the silent era and Colin Clive in the Thirties. Mel Ferrer just doesn't have the dramatic acting chops for the character of Orlac who believe a murderer's hands have replaced his own. The supporting cast is mainly English with Christopher Lee, Felix Aylmer, Donald Wolfit, Peter Reynolds and Donald Pleasance. Glamour is provided by Dany Carrel and Lucile Saint-Simon. Rating : **

BLAST OF SILENCE (1961) Directed by Allen Baron

BLAST OF SILENCE is a real curiosity. Made in 1961 on what looks like a miniscule budget it is very much a precursor to Jean-Pierre Melville's later masterpiece LE SAMURAI. A hired killer comes to town to kill a minor mob boss. Despite wishing to withdraw from the contract he fulfils the task but his reluctance makes him a target for those who ordered the hit because they now see him as unreliable. Director Allen Baron plays the lead despite not being much of an actor - the scenes where he has to interact with others in the cast are the least successful in the film - but he looks good, bearing a striking resemblance at times to early George C. Scott and middle period Robert De Niro. But in all other respects the film is admirable, visually very impressive. There is an excellent voice over narration by Lionel Stander, uncredited as he was blacklisted at the time. At its best the film is good enough to overlook its occasional minor flaws. It is a pity that Baron subsequent career was spent mainly directing episodes of television shows such as CHARLIE'S ANGELS. Rating : ***

Allen Baron

JIGSAW (1949) Directed by Fletcher Markle

 A real curiosity. Made by a group of film-makers with vaguely left wing politics and anti-fascist intentions this badly made, acted and scripted political noir is, frankly boring despite a good opening and a lively end. It drags dreadfully and nobody ever seems to be able to define what it is really about. The only fun is checking out the unbilled appearances by Dietrich, Fonda, Garfield and Merideth (among others). Sometimes good intentions are not enough.

DRIVE A CROOKED ROAD (1954) Directed by Richard Quine.

Leaving Andy Hardy and Judy Garland behind, in the early 50's Mickey Rooney set out to toughen his image with film like this one and Don Siegel's BABY FACE NELSON. Richard Quine had previously directed the excellent Film Noir, PUSHOVER, which gave Kim Novak her first starring role and here he directs Rooney as a poor slob who gets seriously screwed over by a beautiful woman who is in league with a couple of bank robbers (Kevin McCarthy and Jack Kelly) seriously in need of a getaway driver. As a fan of Film Noir I appreciated the uncompromising ending which doesn't offer the romantic get out that spoils so many films. It's an unpretentious movie but a really good one. Rating ***

THE STREET WITH NO NAME (1948) Directed by William Keighley.

Post WW2 Twentieth Century Fox produced a series of semi-documentary style thrillers that promoted the work of the F.B.I and the U.S. Secret Service. These included THE HOUSE ON 92ND STREET, 13 RUE MADELEINE and THE STREET WITH NO NAME. The first two were directed by Henry Hathaway, while STREET WITH NO NAME was helmed by William Keighley whose name springs to mind as the co-director of the Errol Flynn ROBIN HOOD film. Lloyd Nolan appears as F.B.I man, Briggs (who first appeared in 92nd STREET) who picks a young agent (Stevens) to go undercover to entrap a notorious gangster (Widmark).  Mark Stevens was a useful, if somewhat inexpressive actor, who appeared in a few notable film noirs, was a sort of low-rent Dana Andrews (and I do not mean that disrespectfully) and gives his best performance hear. Lloyd Nolan is an actor that I admire more every time I see him, whether it be in his Michael Shayne private eye B-movies or as the ruthless gangster, Mickey Dwyer, in JOHNNY APOLLO, but here his involvement in minimal. For me, this is the best of the trio. Rating ***

HELL'S ISLAND (1955) Directed by Phil Karlson.

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Interesting B-Movie noir (in colour) written by Maxwell Shane with uncredited contributions by director Karlson and star Payne. All three have respectable film noir credits so it was relatively easy to construct a story out of genre clichés : take the basic premise from THE MALTESE FALCON, a self-serving femme fatale, a fat man villain in a wheelchair, a fallen hero and a voice over etc. etc. But Karlson was an effective director back in the 1950's and Payne worked well with him on several minor noir classics, so the whole thing moves along nicely without offering any real surprises but never getting boring. Rating **

THE MAN WHO WOULDN'T DIE (1942) Directed by Herbert Leeds.

Snappy little B-moves, one of a series with Lloyd Nolan as private eye Michael Shayne. It's an old dark house mystery with ghostly killers, disappearing bodies and screams in the night. Of course it is all smoke, mirrors and clichés but it works wonderfully thanks to the wise-cracking script and Nolan's performance. A good supporting cast includes Henry Wilcoxon and Francis Ford (former silent director/actor and brother of John Ford), At 1 hour 4 minutes it is hard to fault it. Rating ***

NIGHT WORLD (1932) Directed by Hobart Henley.

I watched this because I'll watch anything with Boris Karloff in at least once. What a pleasant surprise it was. The story is set in a night club during one evening and tells the story of various members of management, customers, staff and showgirls. Being pre-code the film is fairly risqué in its dialogue, costumes and visuals (check out the two dummies on the stage behind the chorus girls) and the film even features an obviously gay character. There is an interesting and ultimately tragic subplot involving the Afro-American doorman (Clarence Muse). Lew Ayres is a young man trying to come to terms with the murder of his father by his mother (played by Hedda Hopper) who is befriended by chorus girl, Mae Clarke (revealing a very naturalistic acting style). George Raft is a lecherous gambler. Boris Karloff has a prominent role as club owner Happy MacDonald trying to cope with a cheating wife and some threatening bootleggers. Karloff was fresh from FRANKENSTEIN and the film doesn't miss the chance to include a "Frankenstein" joke, although, oddly, it doesn't involve Karloff. All in all a very satisfying little movie, which with a 58 minute running time leaves one little time to get bored. Oh, Yes, there is also an early musical number choreographed by Busby Berkeley. Rating ***

Pre-code goodies

THE TERROR (1963) Directed by Roger Corman.

 I was a big Roger Corman fan back in the 1960's but somehow was lucky enough to miss this mess. Reportedly made from an idea by Leo Gordon written on a napkin during a lunch date with Corman. Boris Karloff owed the director a couple of days so Corman set to work with the ghostly help of Monte Hellman and Francis Coppola and cobbled together this supernatural nightmare. To be fare the available DVD is a dreadful transfer and is panned and scanned but it hardly seems worthy of better treatment let alone a restoration. The plot is jumbled and not helped by interminable padding. The cast is interesting with not only Karloff but the young Jack Nicholson and Corman regulars Dick Miller and Jonathan Haze but it hardly rates as a milestone in anybody's career. When it was first shown in Britain critic John Cutts, writing in Films and Filming magazine said the film was comparable with Ingmar Bergman. I can only assume he was joking. Rating *

WYATT EARP'S REVENGE (2012) Directed by Michael Feifer,

This straight to video film is atrocious. Badly acted and directed with little or no attempt at period atmosphere. Val Kilmer plays the ageing Wyatt Earp being interviewed by a reporter and recounting the story of how he hunted down the killer of the woman he loved, dance hall singer, Dora Hand. Along the way he enlists the aide of Bat Masterson, Charlie Bassett and Bill Tilghman. Although inspired by a true event (the accidental killing of Dora Hand) the plot of the movie is total nonsense.The lawmen named had, at best, only a peripheral involvement in the events and no pursuit, as depicted in the film took place. The only cast member worth mentioning is Kilmer and he delivers a strange monotone performance of no interest. Rating *

FRONTIER MARSHAL (1939) Directed by Allan Dwan

Another re-telling of the Wyatt Earp story. As usual all the plot points and characters have been thrown into the air to see where they land. This time around Wyatt Earp is an ex-army scout who arrives in Tombstone and becomes town marshal. He meets Doc Halliday (sic) who here is not a dentist but a doctor. The central story follows the familiar story later used by Ford in MY DARLING CLEMENTINE but diverges when Doc is murdered by Curly Bill Brocious and Earp heads to the O.K.Corral alone. Earp is played by Randolph Scott without any attempt at accuracy but Cesar Romero is an acceptable Doc, although John Carradine, who is one of the film's villains, would have been a better choice. Uniquely, Eddie Foy Jr. appears as his own father. The film is watchable but nothing outstanding. Rating **

SEVEN KEYS TO BALDPATE (1935) Directed by William Hamilton and Edward Killy,

This is based on a play by George M.Cohan which in turn was based on a novel by Earl Derr Biggers who was better known as the creator of the Chinese detective Charlie Chan. It was originally filmed in 1917, starring Cohan himself, again in 1925 and several remakes followed including one 1947 and again, in 1983, under the title of HOUSE OF LONG SHADOWS which boasted Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and John Carradine. The version discussed here dates from 1935. A writer accepts a bet that he can write a mystery novel in twenty-four hours while staying overnight in a creepy old deserted hotel. His efforts are continually interrupted by various characters including a gangster, a damsel in distress and the local hermit. Although dated this is quite entertaining if one is able to tune into this kind of old dark house mystery. The lively cast is led by Gene Raymond (bearing a startling resemblance to a young Danny Kaye), Margaret Callahan, Moroni Olsen, Eric Blore, Henry Travers and Walter Brennan. Rating **

I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF (1957) Directed by Gene Fowler Jr,

I read once that this was Ringo Starr's favourite movie. It is certainly a classic of 1950's schlock horror, Coming from producer Herman Cohen it is the prime example of that strange hybrid that combined horror and teenage rebellion, Troubled teenager, Tony, is always getting into fights and eating his hamburger raw. Psychologist, Dr,Brandon, sees Tony as the perfect choice to regress to one of man's more primitive states. Luckily, when one of Tony's friends is killed while walking home through the woods, the janitor at the local morgue, born in the Carpathians, recognises the signs that a werewolf is on the loose. Low-grade nonsense, maybe, but highly enjoyable nonetheless, if you are in the right mood. Cohen went on to produce two more teenage horrors, I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN and BLOOD OF DRACULA and a host of other horror movies well into the 1970's, Gene Fowler Jr. was mainly a television director and his only other notable feature was the under-rated low-budget I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE. Michael Landon, of course, went on to find fame in both BONANZA and LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRARIE. Whit Bissell who played Dr.Brandon was a familiar face in films and television and a year later he got tp play Dr.Frankenstein in Cohen's next horror film. Notable among the supporting cast is Guy Williams who is best remembered today as Disney's ZORRO and as Mr.Robinson in LOST IN SPACE. Rating : ***

STICK (1985) Directed by Burt Reynolds,

Burt Reynolds proved that he could direct with the excellent SHARKEY'S MACHINE but there is little evidence of that here. Based on a novel by Elmore Leonard this tale of an ex-jailbird out to revenge the death of a friend in a drug deal never really comes together. Supposedly the film originally contained more humour which was cut by the film company but I can't imagine that it would improve what we see. The cast, led by Reynolds (in poor health and condition after an accident while filming  CITY HEAT  with Clint Eastwood) includes Candice Bergen and Charles Durning, but their performances are strictly by the numbers. George Segal is another matter and his outrageous over acting and mugging are embarrassing. Rating *

DOWN 3 DARK STREETS (1953) Directed by Arnold Laven

Arnold Laven (1922-2009) was a director who spent almost his entire career in television, making episodes of just about every series imaginable. On occasions, however, he would, emerge to direct a mid-budget feature before disappearing back into television land. Among his theatrical feature were GERONIMO, A ROUGH NIGHT IN JERICHO and THE GLORY GUYS, the latter from a Sam Peckinpah script. DOWN 3 DARK STREETS is, I think, one of his most interesting movies. It belongs to that sub-genre of documentary-like thriller purporting to show the investigation methods of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, complete with narration. When FBI agent Zack (played by Kenneth Tobey, taking time off from his monster fighting duties) is murdered, another agent, John "Rip" Ripey, takes on the three cases he was working on in an attempt to discover which of his investigations led to his death. The script is by the writing team of The Gordons (Gordon Gordon and his wife Mildred) based on their own novel. Four years earlier Broderick Crawford had co-starred with Glenn Ford in the film CONVICTED, Neither actors knew that both were destined to play FBI agent Ripley in different films, Crawford in the film under discussion and Ford in 1961's EXPERIMENT IN TERROR, also based on writing by The Gordons. It is perhaps a surprise to find that Gordon Gordon went on to become a stalwart of the Walt Disney studio. The cast of DOWN 3 DARK STREETS is excellent. The ever reliable Crawford headlines with Ruth Roman and Martha Hyer supplying considerable glamour in their excellent performances. Support comes from some familiar character actors including the aforementioned Kenneth Tobey, Claude Akins and William Schallert. All in all, very acceptable late night viewing. Rating ***

Martha Hyer and Broderick Crawford

MAMMA MIA! (2008) Directed by Phyllida Lloyd.

Christine Baranski, Meryl Streep, Julie Walters

Okay, here goes my street cred (if I ever had any). Some films exist completely outside the given parameters of "film art" and become "events" and whether you like them or not has little to do with the cinema. This is why people queue up for the sing-a-long showings of such films as THE SOUND OF MUSIC or THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW. I was never an Abba fan back in the day but I have a strong affection for MAMMA MIA! for several reason, not all associated with its quality as a film. Firstly I have seen the film on DVD at least ten times because my late partner, who was suffering from Alzheimer's Disease, during the final years of her life, loved music of all kinds and even at her most disturbed she could happily settle down an watch this with me. It was probably the last film she enjoyed and as it made her so happy it has a very special place in my heart. Secondly, ever since the days of the television series CYBIL I have adored Christine Baranski and will watch her in anything. Thirdly, the film does exactly what it says on the box. It isn't Bergman, Kurosawa or even Scorsese and certainly isn't Shakespeare but it was never intended to be. It is an entertainment, no more, no less and it is expertly put together by Phyllida Lloyd and her team. Of course, there are those who never quite get it - to use a phrase, they just don't hear the music. On the subject of music I am amazed at the criticism of the singing efforts of the stars of MAMMA MIA!, most of which has been aimed at Pierce Brosnan. Somebody even suggested that all the vocals should have been over-dubbed with the original Abba recordings! The only member of the cast with a musical theatre is Baranski but everybody does fine, very unrefined nature of the vocals fits perfectly the tone of the film. Sometimes it is enough to just have fun.. Rating ****

POWDER RIVER (1953) Directed by Louis King.

Here we go again! POWDER RIVER is yet another re-telling of the Wyatt Earp/Doc Holliday story in which the names have been changed. Wyatt becomes Chino Bull and Holliday becomes Doc Mitch Hardin (here a doctor rather than a dentist and with a brain tumor rather than tuberculosis. Based on Stuart Lake's biography of Wyatt Earp the film draws quite heavily on John Ford's MY DARLING CLEMENTINE with the fictional Clementine becoming Debbie here. There is a street shootout at the end but this is surpassed by a well-staged gun battle on a ferry earlier in the film. Rory Calhoun is the Earp substitute and Cameron Mitchell fulfils the Holliday role. The Clanton become The Logans and it is interesting that here the script uses the names of some real-life Western badmen, Harvey Logan (played here by a suave, suited John Dehner) and his brother Loney. The real Logan was very different than depicted here and was, a couple of decades after this film is set (1875), a member of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch. French actress Corinne Calvet I found rather irritating, especially as her undoubtedly genuine French accent manages to sound fake!  Debbie is played by Penny Edwards in a meatier role than she was used to in the many B-Westerns she made with the likes of Roy Rogers and Rex Allen. The rest of the cast includes Frank Ferguson, Carl Betz and Robert J. Wilke. POWDER RIVER may be a remake of both the 1939 FRONTIER MARSHAL and the 1946 John Ford film but it has enough going for it to make it worth a look. Rating : ***

POWDER RIVER (1953)

MY DVD COLLECTION 26

KING KONG (1933)

I first saw the original 1931 film KING KONG when it was re-released in 1950 and it is hard to explain the impact it had on me. I was four years old going on five and it is fair to say that KONG along with two other films I saw about the same time influenced me beyond all measure. The other films were Disney's SNOW WHITE and Robert Siodmak's THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE. These films, and you can add THE THIEF OF BAGDAD, set me as a life long fan of Monsters, fantasy and horror in the cinema. My next encounter with the gigantic ape came in the early 1960's when the film was revived at London's National Film Theatre and fans of fantastic cinema came from all over England to see it. I met several people on that day who became close friends and I was introduced to the world of "fandom". So KONG means a lot to me. Of course their were imitators, some good like MIGHTY JOE YOUNG and some not so good (but fun) like KONG (1961). Inevitably there were unnecessary remakes - an awul one in 1976 and a brilliant one in 2005 but none could supplant  the magic and revelation of that first 1950 viewing of the original. Here are the giant apes in my collection : KING KONG (1933)  SON OF KONG (1933) MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (1949) KONGA (1961)  KING KONG VS. GODZILLA (1962)  KING KONG ESCAPES (1967)  KING KONG (1976) KING KONG LIVES (1986)' MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (1998) KING KONG (2005) KONG: SKULL ISLAND (2017)

KONGA (1961)

GARDEN OF EVIL (1954) Directed by Henry Hathaway,

Visually splendid Western with a first class cast that is badly let down by a stodgy script. The film is a big budget adventure  but fails to deliver any action until the last twenty five minutes preferring to  rely on endless talk. These stars are always watchable and Cooper always adds dignity and gravitas to any role - although here his character is  sketchily drawn and poor old Coop often seems ill at ease - understandably as his character could easily be dropped from the plot without much affecting the story. Motivations are all over the place. When the Indians finally attack we are presented with Apache Indians (in Mexico) who sport Mohawk style hair cuts. Budd Boetticher made a similar mistake with another tribe in the otherwise superior COMANCHE STATION. Rating : **

Gary Cooper and Richard Widmark