The Second Woman (1950) starts with an obvious Rebecca reference. There's an architect with a strange house and a secret in his past and a woman with too much curiosity. A great psychological thriller with some horror and gothic flavourings.

Here's my review.


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Devil and the Deep is a 1932 pre-code melodrama that takes some delightfully crazed bizarre turns. Charles Laughton (as a paranoid jealous husband) and Tallulah Bankhead in top form. Things get really crazy when they're both aboard the sub.

Here's my review.


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Black Tuesday (1954) starts with a jailbreak and ends with a tense blood-drenched siege. Edward G. Robinson in top form in a grim brutal hard-hitting but excellent movie with some film noir flavour (and a definite noir look).

Here's my review.


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The Shadow Strikes is a very low-budget 1937 B-movie based on the Shadow pulp novels and radio dramas. Unfortunately it plays out as a very routine unexciting and stilted crime B-movie with almost no masked crime-fighter elements.

Here's my review.


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In Diary of a Lost Girl (1929) Louise Brooks plays a victimised girl who suffers tragedies and then finds happiness as a prostitute in her second German film for G.W. Pabst. Pure melodrama. Has problems but worth seeing and Brooks is superb.

Here's my review.


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Black Angel (1946), a slightly underrated film noir based on a Cornell Woolrich story. A woman tries to prove her husband's innocence. Dan Duryea is menacing and self-pitying. Peter Lorre in top form. Lots of Woolrichian twistedness. Good movie.

My review.


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Double Door (1934) is a Paramount gothic melodrama that is almost a horror film. A malevolent insane woman terrorises her sister. Lots of menace, overheated claustrophobic atmosphere and wonderful over-acting. Odd, but excellent stuff.

Here's my review.


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