attack of the giant leeches (1959)

aka Demons of the Swamp.
"Laugh if you want, but that weren't anything that nature put out there!"
After the town drunk maintains he's seen a giant creature in the swamp, he's laughed at. But then people start disappearing, and they stop laughing. Eventually local Game Warden Steve Benton (Ken Clark) gets wind that somethings up, along with Dr Greyson (Tyler McVey). Will they discover what's eating the locals, and can they defeat them?
Low budget monster flick, featuring Jan Shepard as the inevitable love interest. Produced as a drive-in quickie, this has its moments, and makes for a passable 60 minutes, if you like cheesy creature features.

man from tangier (1957)

aka Thunder Over Tangier.
"OK honey, you'll be alright."
Chuck Collins (Robert Hutton) accidentally picks up the wrong coat when leaving a barber's. The coat he ends up with, is owned by crook Mr Armstrong (Emerton Court). Armstrong has just fled Tangier with some forging plates, chased by gang boss Voss (Martin Benson). Voss sends Michele (Lisa Gastoni) to London to pick up him and the plates, and she's led to Collins. Meanwhile Armstrong takes a quick flying lesson from seven stories up.
British noir, treads the well worn British b-movie path. Faded American star, falls into the clutches of a femme fatale, and against the odds solves the case and gets the girl. Not one to seek out.

trancers (1985)

"I've got your warrent right here!"
Los Angeles in the 23rd Century and Jack Deth (Tim Thomerson) is a trancer hunter. He's on the trail of Whistler (Michael Stefani), leader of a quazi-religious cult, that turns people into hypnotised zombies, known as trancers. Whistler manages to give Deth the slip and travels back in time to the 1980s. Jack is sent back to prevent Whistler from killing his ancestor amongst others. With the help of Lena (Helen Hunt), can Deth end Whistlers reign of terror.
Think Bladerunner with zombies rather than robots. Add a Terminator twist. Then lower the budget and whammo - you have Trancers! Better than I made is sound, this actually uses a neat script to transend its low budget origins.

the giant gila monster (1959)

"Have you heard the reports of a "giant lizard"?"
Some hot-rod kids from hicksville come across a giant gila monster, and one, Chase Winstead (Don Sullivan), stops rocking and rolling long enough to help stop it ruining the city.
One of the lowest budget 50's monster movies out there, bad acting, bad script, bad special effects, but still it has enthusiasm and to me cheap and cheerful is good.

dune (1984)

"The spice must flow."
In the distant future, people mine Spice, a product that can fold time, and is thus essential for space travel. This precious substance is only found on one planet, known as Dune. The politics that come with big business impacts on Paul Atreides (Kyle MacLachlan), when his family, one of the ruling houses of the universe, are killed. Can he survive and is he in fact the prophet that can end the suffering of the planets?
Big budget film, that attempts to bring to the screen the first of the Dune novels. This it does with partial success, but suffers from some major miscasting, and an over complex script, (to follow it, it helps if you have read the book).

tremors (1990)

"They only respond to vibration, right?"
Perfection, Nevada is a nowhere place which Valentine McKee (Kevin Bacon) and Earl Bassett (Fred Ward), plan to leave as soon as possible. But before they can, they run into what becomes known as graboids, huge tunnelling creatures that eat anything that they come across, hunting by seismic vibrations in the earth. They team up with what is left of the townsfolk in an attempt to survive, amongst them seismologist Rhonda (Finn Carter).
Fun monster movie, blessed with a script that doesn't take itself too seriously.

Tremors II: Aftershocks (1996)

"Man Burt, you put a whole new shine on the word 'overkill'."
The owners of a Mexican oil refinery seek out Earl Barrett (Fred Ward), and pursuade him to go down there and rid them of their pesky graboid problem. He teams up with Grady Hoover (Christopher Gartin), and geologist Kate Reilly (Helen Shaver) to sort out the problem, but with more than they can handle, Earl seeks help from his old friend Burt Gummer (Michael Gross), and his big guns.
Cheerful low budget hit, gets a cheerful follow-up. The law of diminishing returns applies here, but it still makes for a diverting 90 minutes.

till death us do part (1969)

"If the bombs don't kill us, we'll starve to death eating this crap!"
A prequel to the popular TV series. The film gives us the story of Alf Garnett (Warren Mitchell) and his family as they survive the Blitz during WWII and move on from these dark days, charting the ups, the birth of Rita (Una Stubbs), and downs, the break up of the tight-knit community in the 1960's.
Episodic, and slightly flat, but has its moments, mostly when we watch the delight Mrs Garnett (Dandy Nichols) has as Alf inevitably ends up squirming, due to his big mouth and or actions.

the servant (1963)

"The simple classics are always the best."
Tony (James Fox), an aristocrat, hires manservant Hugo Barrett (Dirk Bogarde). Barrett wastes no time in getting his sister Vera (Sarah Miles) employed in the household, and she makes herself available to Tony, Then when Tony returns early from a weekend away with his girlfriend Susan (Wendy Craig) they find Barrett and Vera, in Tony's bed. Tony promptly sacks them, but later rehires Barrett. When he does the tables then turn, as the master/servant relationship flips, moving into darker realms.
A study into the class system, and who needs who, in the master/servant relationship, and is alive with a homosexual undercurrent. Stylishly underplayed from a claustrophobic and edgy script by Harold Pinter; all to a subtle jazz soundtrack.

the breaking point (1950)

"I'm a boat jockey, it's all I know."
Fishing boat captain Harry Morgan (John Garfield) hires his boat out and is none too particular as to who to. This policy gets him into trouble when four men who have chartered the boat turn out to be thieves on the run after a racetrack heist.
Nicely made film noir based on an Ernest Hemingway short story, full of witty one liners.

body snatchers (1993)

"If we'd known what was waiting for us we would have run."
A teenage girl (Meg Tilly) and her family move onto a miltary base for the summer, due to her father's work. Displaced and a typical teen. she's not happy to be there. Then things start to become weird, with odd occurances leading to her discovery that aliens are cloning army and replacing personnel.
Featuring a screenplay co-written by Stuart Gordon, this is an interesting adaption of the classic 50's Macarthy paranoia sci-fi, and whilst it will never surpass the original, this is a solid and entertaining horror.

pickup on south street (1953)

"I'll drive you back in a hearse..."
On a crowded subway, Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) picks a girls purse , and unknowingly takes some top secret microfilm destined for a Communist agent. Candy (Jean Peters), the girl, tells her ex-boyfriend, who she was doing a favour for. He and the FBI, who were watching the girl, are both determined to discover who the pick pocket is, and recover the goods. Then the police bring in Moe Williams (Thelma Ritter), an informer, who fingers McCoy...and the chase is on.
A stone cold classic; a gritty spy thriller, mixing hard-nosed cops, low life crims, and Communist spys, duking it out on the New York waterfront. Fuller used the reds under the beds plot mearly as a framework on which he hung a story concentrating on the participants lives, their decisions and the subsequent repercussions. Ritter was Oscar nominated for her role in this.

girl on approval (1961)

"I'm not staying."
Ann and John Howard (Rachel Roberts & James Maxwell) foster a young, surly, and mistrustful teen (Annette Whiteley), and set about trying to restore her faith in people. A journey that nearly brings them to breaking point.
A fine drama, that doesn't fall into the trap of believing that there are short cuts to a happy family life with foster kids.

carry on spying (1964)

aka Agent Oooh! Watch Out for the Spies.
"I cannot smoke those, they make me deaf!"
STENCH have stolen a top secret formula and Agent Simpkins (Kenneth Williams) and three of their new recruits, (including Barbara Windsor in her first Carry On), are sent to retrieve it.
A send up of spy movies, from early Hitchcock, through The Third Man, to the then recent James Bond, this is one of the funnier films in the series.

kiss of the vampire (2009)

aka Immortality Yours.
"Why can't I get her out of my mind?"
An American midwest town is overrun by a coven of vampires. Meanwhile, as they feast on their prey, an Illuminati scientist is trying to find their secret to immortality. A human/vampire romance also adds complications to the situation. Or it would if I gave a damn about anyone in this.
Aside from being badly scripted and acted, this features the least scarey vampires I've ever seen. Their response to confrontation, is to stand and snarl a bit, then run at people, before stopping and waiting to get steaked! And if one of them is steaked, then then run away! This lowers the bar for just about every bad film out there - you don't have to reach very high to be better than this!

fallen angels (1995)

aka Duo luo tian shi.
"You can't get close to some people."
The story of a professional killer (Leon Lai) living in Hong Kong, who wants out. He undertakes his last hit and also tries to distance himself his old life and his handler. Intertwined is the story of a mute, who makes a living by breaking into stores, opening them for business at night, and then forcing people to buy the products stocked.
Stylised and socially disconected drama, where people can be most alone in a crowd.

the sword of el cid (1962)

aka La spada del Cid.
"I order you to surrender the two swords."
Two brothers marry into El Cid's family to gain prestige and power, then start to cause trouble with a capital T, and all for a couple of measly swords!
Intrigue, sword fights, offended women, castles and battles. Historical though hardly epic drama.

rattle of a simple man (1964)

"I'm as good as you lot any day!"
A gang of Manchester United fans are up in London for the Cup final. They include Percy (Harry H. Corbett), a 39 year old mother's boy. When the lads end up in a stripclub Percy takes a drunken bet to chat up and sleep with Cyrenne (Diane Cilento), who he considers a lady, but the rest of the lads have clocked as a prostitute. Feeling sorry for him, (having overheard the bet), she takes him home. There he opens up to her and begins to believe that she may be the one.
Apart from Corbett's appalling northern accent, this is a charming character study, full of gentle humour, that adds a level of drama half way though, when the lady's delightful upbringing is unveiled, and we see she is in fact from an abusive Italian family.