carry on admiral (1957)

aka The Ship Was Loaded.
"I've come ahead to see that everything is shipshape."
Two friends, Tom and Peter (David Tomlinson & Brian Reece) switch identities after getting drunk. unfortunately this means that Tom, a parliamentary secretary, gets mistaken for a naval captain, and causes a number of catastrophes in the process.
Lacks logic and laughs, a fatal flaw for a comedy.

the traitor (1957)

aka The Accursed.
"One of us is a cold blooded killer..."
A group of wartime resistance fighters, attends a reunion of their unit, but they begins to suspect one of his colleagues may have in fact been a Nazi agent, who will go to any lengths to prevent their cover from being blown.
Standard whodunit, that is given an interesting twist. It's stagey but helped by the use of a number of well known faces, playing against type, including Christopher Lee, and Anton Diffring.
British, Spy, Michael McCarthy, Gilbert Gunn, Reknown,

the case of charles peace (1949)

"I fear no one, not God nor the Devil."
A dramatisation about a true crime story, the one man crime wave that was Charles Peace (Michael Martin Harvey) from 1850-1877, when he was convicted of murder.
A mundaine run through the life of a rogue, who no doubt could charm people, but was also quick to anger and killed a number before being caught.

dentist in the chair (1960)

"Is that the way you usually treat your patients."
David (Bob Monkhouse) and Brian (Ronnie Stevens) are dental students, who inadvertantly sell some stolen dental equipment supplied by Sam (Kenneth Connor). With the police on their trail they try to pass off Sam as a student whilst trying to get rid of the evidence.
A run of the mill 'doctor' style comedy, it has its moments, but they are few and far between. Thankfully Peggy Cummins livens things up as the love interest.

murder at 3am (1953)

"3am, 6th of December, at the Roxy."
A mugger is on the loose, but this time he has killed his victim whilst robbing them. Detective Peter Lawson (Dennis Price) has no clues and is under pressure from his bosses and the press. Then his sister's fiance Edward King (Phillip Saville) comes up with a theory and Lawson begins to suspect Edward may be the murderer.
A competent quota quickie that unusually casts Price as the hero, rather than his usual cad role. Listen out for the shockingly melodramatic, and intrusive, organ soundtrack, straight out of a Todd Slaughter murder mystery!

dead man's evidence (1962)

"The condition that that fella is in his own mother wouldn't know him."
A body washes up on a beach in Ireland and David Baxter (Conrad Phillips) is sent to investigate from London. But it soon transpires that the body in the morgue is not the same body. Baxter tries to get to the bottom of the mystery with the help of Linda Howard (Jane Griffiths), who found the corpse.
Cod Irish characters pack out this dull, talkie, and uneventful drama

the third alibi (1961)

"I'm just waiting for the right oportunity."
Norman Martell (Laurence Payne) is a composer who is having an affair with his wife's step-sister Peggy Hill (Jane Griffiths). When Peggy announces she is pregnant, Norman asks his wife Helen (Patricia Dainton) for a divorce, but she refuses. So he hatches a plan to get rid of her, devising a complex alibi for himself and Peggy, but the best laid plans...
An intreging little film, with numerous plot twists to keep you on your toes. Keep an eye out for an uncredited Dudley Moore accompanying Cleo Laine, pre his decision to take up comedy.

the gelignite gang (1956)

aka The Dynamiters.
“You like to live pleasantly, how would you like to go on living pleasantly?”
Insurance investigator Jimmy Baxter (Wayne Morris) is on the trail of a gang of jewel thieves. Meanwhile his young secretary Sally (Sandra Dorne) has also turned detective and finds some pertinent clues of her own…
A quota quickie, with a decent plot, and plenty to keep the punters happy.

beat girl (1959)

AKA Wild for Kicks.
"Well you've gotta live for kicks, that's all you've got."
Jenny (Gillian Hills) is the rebelious teenage daughter of Paul Linden (David Farrar), an architect who has recently got remarried to Nicole (Noëlle Adam), a young Parisian. Jenny hangs out in coffee bars listening to jazz, and causing trouble to her parents. Especially when she finds out that Nicole used to be a stripper, but then she catches the eye of the lecherous Kenny (Christopher Lee), a local stripclub owner, trouble for Jenny cannot be far away.
Featuring Adam Faith, Oliver Reed and Shirley Anne Field, this is a sleazy and down right grimy look at the beatnik scene of coffee bars and strip clubs. It also features an early score by John Barry soundtracking Soho's grimier side. Just the everyday story of a spoiled little rich girl.

kill me tomorrow (1957)

Bart Crosbie (Pat O'Brien) is a washed up drunken hack journalist, who finds himself in the middle of a murder inquiry, when his editor Brook (Ronald Adam), is murdered after trying to expose a local mobster Heinz (George Coulouris). Brook's dying breath tells Bart who did it, but Bart needs lots of money fast to pay for his son's operation. So he comes to an arrangement with Heinz. For the price of the operation Bart will confess, leaving Heinz in the clear. Only one problem remains, Jill Brook (Lois Maxwell). She's Brook's niece and the person who stumbled on Bart standing over her uncle's body, gun in hand, but even so she comes to believe he's innocent. Worse of all the police believe her and they cut him loose, leaving Heinz believing he's been double-crossed, and you don't want to cross Heinz!
The actions of a desperate man as his confession crumbles, gives a nice angle. The actors fill out their parts well, and there's even room for Freddie Mills (a British boxing legend), and Tommy Steele (rocking out as himself) to pop up. All in all it makes a solid, if not a classic film noir.

pit of darkness (1961)

Richard Logan (William Franklyn) wakes on waste ground in Wapping, with no recollection as to how he got there. On returning home he’s told that he went to work three weeks previously and never returned. He realises that he's got selective amnesia and is told that he is a partner in a safe making firm. Could it be that there is a connection between these two facts? His wife then informs him that she sent a private detective to find him, and he was murdered three days ago, in Wapping! Then the phone rings, it’s a woman who makes out like she’s his mistress, but Richard denies having a mistress...things are getting trickier and Richard is determined to find out what he’s been doing for the last three weeks. All the while being questioned by his suspicious wife (Moira Redmond), and his doctor (Nigel Green).
A taut little thriller, with some nice dialogue, a strong cast and no nonsense direction.

it's a wonderful world (1956)

Two struggling song writers (George Cole and Terence Morgan) meet a struggling French singer (Mylene Nicole). They try and flog songs to and she auditions for Ted Heath, they sell nothing, but she gets a job after singing one of their songs. Meanwhile Cole, having been constantly told that his songs need a gimmick, comes up with the idea of playing songs backwards and passing them off as new pieces by an avant garde jazz musician. Morgan reluctantly goes along with the scam and the 'composition' become hugely popular, in an emperors new clothes way. Whilst this is happening Nicole is also making a name for herself as a big band singer. Can they keep up the scam and will Nicole catch on?
Not the greatest film of it's type, but still a bright and breezy British musical in glorious technicolour, that documents a pre rock n roll Britain, obsessed by big bands and crooners.

tread softly stranger (1958)

Johnny Mansell (George Baker) a gambler, turns up at his brother Dave's (Terence Morgan), in order to lay low to avoid some bad lads in London. First he meets his brother's girlfriend Calico (Diana Dors) and finds out his brother is in trouble himself, having dipped into the factory wages to keep his girlfriend in the manner she has become accustomed to. Dave has eight days to replace the money, Calico suggests they steal the wages instead. Johnny is against the idea, prefering to gamble to get the funds. But which way is Dave going to go, and now johnny is here, which brother is Calico going to go for? This is a good atmospheric crime thriller, set "up north" and with suitably blunt northern vowels! George Baker is the cool and calm big brother, with charm to spare. Whilst his brother is all nerves and prone to cracking up at the slightest thing. Then there's Diana Dors, all smoldering sex kitten vamp, very much a diamond in the rough, sparkling in the grim northern industrialness.