klokkenluider (2022)

"Don't tell him you told me!"
Ewan, a government whistleblower, and Silke, his Flemish wife are hidding out in a rural rental house waiting for a journalist (Olivia Coleman) to arrive so they can tell their story. Meanwhile they are joined by two protection officers, and cannot help but argue and reveal secrets as the officers also bicker.
Tightly driven talky.

room to let (1950)

"I must carry on with my work!"
Curly Minter (Jimmy Hanley) reminisces about his time as a cub reporter and in particular a story that happened in London in 1904. Following a fire at a mental institute he begins to suspect that Dr. Fell (Valentine Dyall) may in fact be the infamous Jack the Ripper.
Based as it is on a BBC radio play, this is overly talkie but Valentine makes fine use of his menacing tone of voice to add a sense of unease to the proceedings.

sisu (2022)

"Wait!"
Grizzled old prospector Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila) discovers a sizable amount of gold and sets off into town to exchange it. It is then that we discover this is Lapland in the dying days of WWII and there are some very nasty Nazi's out there willing to do anything to take his gold.
Very brutal and obviously outlandish tale, but its always fun to see Nazi's get more than whats coming to them!

hammerhead (1968)

"Good luck to you Hood, I think you are going to need it."
Charles Hood (Vince Edwards) is recruited by British Intelligence to get close to international crime boss Hammerhead (Peter Vaughan), who is suspected to be trying to steal NATO defense secrets. If that wasn't complicated enough, model Sue Trenton (Judy Geeson) has taken a shine to Hood, and trails him wherever he goes.
A swinging London riff on James Bond, with a distinctly one dimentional central character that doesn't quite hit the mark.

sherlock holmes and the deadly necklace (1962)

aka Valley of Fear.
"Is he in constant fear for his life?"
Holmes (Christopher Lee) and Watson (Thorley Walters) pit their witts against their nemesis, Professor Moriarity (Hans Söhnker), who is plotting to steal an ancient necklace supposed to have belonged to Cleopatra.
It doesn't take much deduction to realise that this is one of the lesser Holmes movies.

breakout from opression (1978)

aka Sha chu chong wei.
"You tried to kill him!"
On release from prison Fonda Chiu (Fonda Lynn) tries to start her life over, and gets a job at a newspaper, but then she starts to suspect that someone has a vendetta against her.
A violent horror-thriller.

laser mission (1989)

aka Soldier of Fortune.
"I represent a number of concerned citizens in the United States."
Michael Gold (Brandon Lee) is a mercenary sent to Cuba to pursuade laser expert Prof. Braun (Ernest Borgnine) to come to the USA, but they instead end up in the hands of the KGB. Michael escapes, and vows to rescue the professor, but to do that he needs the help of the Professor's daughter (Debi Monahan), who he's told is a member of the KGB.
The bad acting, and action sequences are as plentiful as the cliques.

chase a crooked shadow (1958)

aka Sleep No More. The Prescott Affair.
"if you want to play games, lets play games."
Heiress Kimberley Prescott (Anne Baxter) has her world turned upside down when a man arrives stating he is her brother (Richard Todd). The brother she identified as dead a year earlier. In turmoil she calls the police, but the detective (Herbert Lom) declares all his papers are in order, and this man is her brother, but who is the man claiming to be Ward, and why has he turned up now?
Well executed mystery thriller with a twist.

they can't hang me (1955)

"Happy Birthday Jill!"
When senior civil servant Robert Pitt (André Morell) is condemned to hang, he tries to parlay his sentance down with a claim that he knows the identity of master spy Leonidas, who is about to smuggle out some top secret information. But will inspector Brown (Terence Morgan) believe him, and uncover the plot before Pitt hangs.
Thriller that shows potential, but lacks focus, with the light hearted banter interupting an otherwise serious drama.

nuits rouge (1974)

aka Shadowman. L'homme sans visage.
"The treasure of the templers."
Shadowman (Jacques Champreux), a thief disguised by a red mask, and his cat-suited assistant (Gayle Hunnicutt), hunt for the treasure hoarded by the secret sect of Knight Templars in Paris.
Stylish, but uneven thriller.

tread softly (1952)

"To be or not to be."
A theatre production is thrown into chaos when the star of the show Madeleine Peters (Francis Day) walks out at the last minute. Forced to find a new star, they pick Tangye Ward (Patricia Dainton), out of the chorus and things start looking up as they find a new theatre, but then they find out that it is supposedly haunted...
A passable thriller becomes muddled up with a 30's style romantic musical.

lady in the car with glasses and a gun (1970)

"I am not lying. I have not been here before!"
Danielle (Samantha Eggar) is given the job of returning her bosses car to Paris, but decides to drive to the cote d'azur on a whim instead, as it's somewhere she's never been before, but is puzzled as she starts to be recognised everywhere she goes. Her confusion only grows when she meets Philippe (John McEnery), and the mystery deepens.
Fabulously shot, and intriguing thriller.

new town killers (2008)

"Aye, I'm in."
Teenager Sean Macdonald (James Anthony Pearson) lives with his flaky sister Alice Kelly (Liz White). Until he finds out that Alice owes £12,000 to some dangerous gangsters. A glimmer of hope comes from a job offer from two men. They offer him the twelve thousand to play hide and seek for twelve hours, but once he accepts he finds out that one (Dougray Scott) is a killer, and the game becomes deadly...
Decent thriller, that takes the basic premise of The Most Dangerous Game, and moves the location to modern day Edinburgh.

gun of the black sun (2011)

aka Luger of the Black Sun.
"Stay well and be lucky."
A Luger Pistol formally belonging to a Rumanian Nazi in WWII is found in modern day Bucharest. The pistol is endowed with mystical powers and Media Mogul Damien Lupescu (Richard Lynch) is intent on using it to attain world domination. But first he has to liberate it from its unsuspecting current owner, Axel O'Rourke (Gary Douglas).
Low on budget, high on ambition, which this only partially fulfills. Famous mostly for the acting debut of Ian Wright, the ex-Arsenal striker.

trauma (1976)

aka Exposé. The House On Straw Hill.
"You've here for me. For my pleasure."
Novelist Paul Martin (Udo Kier) rents a country house, for some seclusion. Moving in with him is his new typist Linda (Linda Hayden), whilst Paul's girlfriend (Fiona Richmond) comes and goes. The peace doesn't last long though, when two lads are shot, after having sex with Linda, and she doesn't mention a thing...
Slight story, that takes some time to get to the point, and spends too much time trying to build on the sexual tension between the trio, at the expense of the thriller element.

the seducers (1977)

aka Death Game.
"I'm a happily married man."
A happily married man (Seymour Cassel) is home alone when he takes pity on a couple of young women when they knock on his door during a storm. They tell him they are lost, need directions and are soaked, so he invites them in. Jackson and Donna (Sondra Locke & Colleen Camp) flirt with their host and seduce him. The next morning he is surprised that they are still there, and things rapidly turn nasty, as they tell him they are underage and threaten him...
The creepy-crawly, home invasion theme, could have been seriously scary, but is instead turned into something mildly irritating. An opportunity wasted.

the scarlet claw (1944)

aka Sherlock Holmes and the Scarlet Claw.
"The name of the third person is..."
Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) takes up a case, where the locals believe that a monster is slashing the throats of innocent victims, but as usual there is more to this than meets the eye.
A usual Universal deliver a well made and entertaining thriller, but one that doesn't stand out as anything special.

the thirteenth guest (1932)

aka Lady Beware.
"Wasn't your father's will unusual."
Mary Morgan (Ginger Rogers) arrives at the house where her father died thirteen years previously, only to be bumped off herself. Captain Ryan (J. Farrell MacDonald) and investigator Phil Winston (Lyle Talbot) try to puzzle it out, guessing that one of the guests at a dinner party held on the night Morgan senior died must be behind the murder, but the plot soon thickens.
Acceptable murder mystery, without rising above the mediocre.

the challenge (1982)

"Let's give them a little fun, show them what a fighter you used to be!"
Rick (Scott Glenn) is a boxer on the ropes, and down on his luck, when he is offered a courier job, delivering a samurai sword to Japan. As usual, this turns out to be more complicated than it first seems, and Rick learns about the strangely codified world of the Japanese samurai classes, and becomes determined to live up to their ideals.
A fish out of water, East meets West actioner, that follows the standard journey planner, but delves deeper than most, making for a more interesting thriller.

dr. morelle: the case of the missing heiress (1949)

aka Dr. Morelle.
"I've done my duty by you and I will continue to do so."
Dr. Morelle (Valentine Dyall) narrates the story of Cynthia Mason (Jean Lodge), an heiress who disappears. Could it have been her step-father Samual Kimber (Philip Leaver), who is over-bearing and resents Cynthia, or Cynthia's new boyfriend (Peter Drury)? To find out, Amy Frayle (Julia Lang), a friend of missing girl, decides to become the new housemaid.
Unremarkable thriller, of interest only to those who want to see one of Hammer's early films.