the high terrace (1956)

"Stephanie. Why do we always have to quarrel?"
American playwright Bill Lang (Dale Robertson) comes to the aid of leading actress Stephanie Blake (Lois Maxwell) when the show's producer is killed, with her scissors being the murder weapon!
A competant but standard B-pict mix from the time.

last holiday (1950)

"just live for pleasure."
Salesman George Bird (Alex Guinness) learns he is terminally ill. So with months to live, he cashes in his savings and moves into a luxury hotel to live it up. There he meets a variety of people, and starts to get involved in their lives, and his luck finally seems to change, just when he cannot take advantage of it.
Melancholic social comedy, with a finely nuanced performance from Guinness.

the hand (1960)

"He says he sold his hand for £500."
Three British soldiers are tortured when captured in Burma. With two returning to civilian life minus their right hands. Years later Inspector Munyard (Ronald Leigh-Hunt) investigates the case of an inveterate alcoholic who has £500 on him, and one amputated right hand. At first the police disbelieve his story, until he's murdered...
Quick moving, though slight, thriller.

blood of the vampire (1958)

"This man is kept alive artificially, he has no heart...here is his heart for which he has no further use."
Dr John Pierre (Vincent Ball) is convicted of malpractice when one of his patients dies and sentenced to an insane asylum run by the brutal Dr Callistratus (Donald Wolfit). When his conviction is overturned Callistratus tells the authorities that he died trying to escape. In reality he has him working on some gruesome experiments and a cure for a rare blood disease that Callistratus suffers from. But then Pierre's fiance (Barbara Shelley) turns up to find out more about her husband's death.
A vivid gothic horror that tries to mimic the Hammer house style, but suffers from not really knowing what it wants the villain to be, a vampire or a Frankenstein type mad scientist.

bond of fear (1956)

John Sewell (Dermot Walsh) is a businessman off on his holidays, taking the family and a caravan to the South of France. Unfortunately for them Dewar (John Colicos), an escaped killer stowes away, taking one of the children hostage and forcing them to take him with them. Can John get Dewar through the police checkpoints and protect his family from the killer?
A decent enough little thriller, that betrays its meagre budget, but nonetheless manages to transcend its b movie status.

booby trap (1956)

Professor Hasdane (Tony Quinn) is an absent minded inventor who works for the Ministry of Defense. He's developed a bomb housed within a pen. A bomb that is set off by the sound of bells. On his way home from a demonstration he manages to leave a suitcase in a taxi which is found by cheeky cockney wideboy Sammy (Harry Fowler). Unfortunately the suitcase has a live pen bomb in it. Sammy offloads the case to a fence, before he's approached by the professor who is trying to find the case. Sammy tries to help the prof to find it once he learns there's a reward, but in the sort of co-incidence that only happens in films, Sammy's employer is Hunter (Sydney Tafler) a dodgy club owner and who sells drugs which are hidden inside pens! No chance of a mix up happening there then is there?
A likable little film that is carried by the charm of the comical Harry Fowler as he pursues the pen through a variety of bizarre circumstances.