Cinema Essentials

Hurricane (released as "Mission of Honor" in the US) is a fictionalised version of the World War II exploits of 303 Squadron of the Royal Air Force. 303 Squadron was mostly comprised of Polish pilots, who had fled their own country after its invasion by Nazi Germany. They made their way to Britain and signed up with the RAF in order to continue the fight against the Germans. The film focuses on 303 Squadron's experiences during the Battle of Britain in 1940, during which time it became the RAF's highest scoring squadron flying the Hawker Hurricane fighter.

In this comedy, Michael Craig plays Jack Hopkins, an aircraft designer working for the aerospace company owned by Sir Giles Thompson (Cecil Parker). Sir Giles is trying to win a big order for his company's new supersonic jet airliner from American airline boss Paul Fisher (Alan Hale Jr.). To do this he needs to tempt him away from the products of a rival firm, Polygon, led by the aristocratic Lord Upshott (Roland Culver).

In Hell is a City, Stanley Baker plays Inspector Martineau, a detective with the City of Manchester police. Martineau was responsible for putting a notorious criminal, Don Starling (John Crawford), behind bars. As a result, when Starling was imprisoned he swore revenge on Martineau. When news comes that Starling has broken out of jail, Martineau is convinced that he's hiding somewhere in the city and wants to drop everything to bring him in.

But first Martineau has to deal with a robbery from a bookmakers run by Gus Hawkins (Donald Pleasence). The robbery led to the loss of £4,000 and the accidental death of a young woman, one of Hawkins's employees. As Martineau investigates the crime, he comes to suspect that Don Starling may in fact be responsible. Luckily, the cash from the bookmakers was stained with green dye, something that helps the police to gradually home in on the criminals. One by one, Martineau starts to track down Starling's accomplices, bending the rules a …

If I asked you to name the biggest film at the US box office in 1977, you might well guess (correctly) that it was Star Wars. But if I asked you to name the second biggest, you might struggle a little. Was it Close Encounters of the Third Kind ... or maybe the James Bond epic The Spy Who Loved Me? Nope. It was a cross-country car chase comedy called Smokey and the Bandit, a film as divorced from the era of modern blockbuster cinema as its box office rival Star Wars is inextricably linked to it.

Hammer was the little film company that blazed a trail through horror movie history. While Hammer produced a wide variety of films, including comedies, crime films, sci-fi and even caveman fantasy epics like One Million Years B.C., it was as a maker of horror films that it became most famous. So much so that it almost became synonymous with the horror genre, with the “Hammer horror” label becoming a brand name in its own right.

The General is probably Buster Keatons's most famous film, regarded by many as a silent comedy masterpiece. But it was also a disastrous one as far as Keaton was concerned, an expensive box office failure that led to his moving to MGM and losing his creative freedom.

Five Favorite Films of the '50s is a nice straightforward blogathon run by the Classic Film & TV Cafe, to coincide with National Classic Movie Day on 16th May. As the name suggests, writers are invited to choose their five favourite films of the 1950s and say a bit about their choices. So, as you probably guessed, these are my five picks.