24.11.13

the criminal (1960)

aka Concrete Jungle.
"You're a lier, a thief. Crook scum."
The daddy of B-wing, Johnny Bannion (Stanley Baker), gets remission and immediately pulls off a robbery, that puts him right back inside. Once inside he soon finds that things have changed since he was release six weeks previously, and pressure is put on him to reveal where he hid the cash.
Gritty thriller, filmed with panache by Losey.

go kart go! (1963)

"You fixed it! You dirty rotten swine!"
The Damson St kids, (including a young Dennis Waterman), decide to join the racing set, but this puts them up against the Craven gang, led by the unscrupulous Harry Hagartty (Frazer Hines), a right set of rotters!
Fine children's film, with enough drama and humour to entertain even the most jaded of kids.

dracula (the dirty old man) (1969)

"Very nice!"
Alucard (Vince Kelley), comes up with a plan to get himself some women. He enslaves a man who stumbles on his cave retreat and turns him into a 'Jackalman', and gets him to snare the women for him.
Low budget flick, which pads out a virtually none existant script with long leering shots of naked women as they are groped and raped by the lecherous vampire and his wolfman sidekick.

murder by television (1935)

"Just how long have you been interested in television?"
An inventor dies whilst demonstrating his version of television to businessmen, and naturally the police arrive to determine the cause of death, and in doing so realise that he was in fact murdered, but by who, and how?
Uninvolving whodunnit, which only survives due to its featuring Bela Lugosi as one of the suspects.

lady dracula (1978)

aka
"Taxi! Taxi!"
Dracula nibbles on a young woman (Evelyne Kraft) before being hunted down and killed. Forward 100 years and her coffin is unearthed in modern day Germany, and she's hungry.
You want a comedy, that also mixes in vampiric horror? Well you've come to the wrong place here, as all attempts at producing laughs or scares are let down by a lame script, acting and direction.

the ten gladiators (1963)

aka I dieci gladiatori. "Better the innocent are eliminated, then the criminals are left alive." Some hooded men, led by Glaucus Valerius (Roger Browne) try to kill the corrupt Claudius Nero (Gianni Rizzo), but a group of innocent gladiators, inc the Rock (Dan Vadis) are charged with the crime and told they are to be decapitated. Obviously they choose not to accept this arbitary judgement, and plan to escape...
Mixing in the struggle of Christianity into the story of Nero's crazy antics, this is an entertaining adventure of the Saturday matinee variety.

charlie chan in london (1934)

"Not very good detective, just lucky old chinaman."
Charlie (Warner Oland) is passing through London on his way back to Honolulu, when Pamela Gray (Drue Leyton), a beautiful young socialite begs him to help prove her brother is innocent of a crime which has condemned him to be executed in a few days time. On reviewing the facts Chan is on the case, and mixing it up with the suspects at a large country estate.
An early outing for Chan, which establishes the formula, whilst offering up an entertaining whodunnit.