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Initially there are shades of 'Jeeves and Wooster' with Murray Selwyn and his servant Twigg in this mildly amusing crime-comedy. Selwyn arrives home one day by taxi and Twigg carries his purchases into the house. However they soon discover they have also acquired a briefcase stuffed with five pound notes left in the taxi by the previous passenger. These are actually forged notes made on engraved plates by an expert engraver called Joe Pasquale who is currently doing 10 years in Dartmoor. The plates were never found by the police but they also fall into the possession of Selwyn by circumstances too complicated to explain here. The rest of the film is concerned with a criminal gang's efforts to acquire the plates (ably led by Elwyn Brook-Jones) and their frustration at always being one step behind the location of the plates.

Throughout the film, circumstances lead the police to suspect Selwyn of being implicated in the crime and much of the humour involves his truthful explanations to the incredulous police Inspector Archer (nicely played by the usually staid Clive Morton). Overall the acting is good with Guy Middleton as Selwyn being his usual suave self and the plot fast moving.

Apparently this ultra-rare film has not been seen since its initial release but if you're an aficionado of British second features of the 1950s I venture to say you will not be disappointed with this one

Eileen Hannay (Dinah Sheridan) is the singing star of an Irish operatic society but gives up to marry Terry O'Keefe (John Bentley) who, we soon discover, is something of a ne'er-do-well. Unbeknown to Eileen, Terry had been involved with Carole Wells, another singer in the society who had loaned him some money. Peeved at him now marrying Eileen she tells him to pay up, take up again with her or suffer the consequences. Meanwhile Terry and Eileen return to her late parent's run down estate in Donegal to start married life but thanks to Terry's intolerance of the local Romany's (Eileen's mother was a gypsy), his fondness for drink and pressure from Carole, things start to fall apart.

I could best describe this film as a very modest drama-cum-musical with a dollop of schmaltz here and there, particularly in scenes featuring the boy Paddy. In other words the hackneyed plot has a bit of everything in it yet probably appealed to a 1940s audience. With an operatic society and gypsy encampment featured, there are excuses for musical interludes of an Irish flavour but they don't blend in well with the action, rather they appear to be there just to prolong the film.

This was John Bentley's first film and he went on to become a stalwart of many a British second feature films particularly in the 1950s and often on the side of the law so it's unusual to see him play the 'baddie'. Dinah Sheridan was already a veteran of some dozen films by this time and she gives a competent if unspectacular performance but she does look lovely. We do, thankfully get some light relief in the form of Moore Marriot who seems to be reprising his popular character Harbottle from the Will Hay films albeit with an Irish accent.

All in all, a film of its time with curiosity value only.

The plot in this curiosity is simple enough. A cinema usherette is murdered immediately following a dalliance with the cinema manager and with the killer on the loose, we follow the police attempts to catch the person responsible and a newspaper's (ironically The News of the World) efforts to get the story. Some attempt was made to make a kind of semi-documentary out it (rolling printing presses etc) but I suspect it was hoped to deflect from the plot's deficiencies.

I'm really not sure why this film was ever made. It was released in 1947 when British Cinema was perfectly capable of making professional and entertaining films but this film is neither of those things. It looks and feels as though it was made at the dawn of talking pictures with some stilted performances, erratic editing and simplistic storyline.

There are some faults in the actual physical quality of the film but I'm not criticising those because this is obviously a rarity that must have been rescued from the darkest corners of Renown's vaults and if you are like me, curiosity means you must watch it for your own satisfaction.

So – accept this film purely as a rare curiosity and nothing more. However it is notable for one thing. The sharp-eyed viewer will see the very first screen appearance of the great British character actor John Le Mesurier. His first film is often quoted as being DEATH IN THE HAND from 1948 but he appears here as a newspaper employee called into his editor's office and has one line to speak.

Celia (Hy Hazel), an attractive but hard-up actress, has a passion for expensive hats. She is offered the chance to earn some money to buy one by her friend Larry who runs a detective agency. His clients Mr and Mrs Haldane were concerned for their rich Aunt Nora, having had no contact from her. The Haldanes had visited Nora's country house only to be told by her new, younger husband Lester (John Bailey) that she was ill and did not wish to see them. Celia reluctantly agrees to infiltrate the house by posing as a replacement housekeeper.

'Celia' was one of the earliest films made by Hammer Film Productions on behalf of Exclusive Films. This small company ran on a shoestring and started out by making films of successful BBC radio programmes such as the legendary Dick Barton. It is hard to imagine a more budget budget-film than this one. All the interior shots were made entirely within a country mansion in Cookham, Berkshire, specially hired by the company for around £25 a week (1949 prices) with almost every room as well as gardens being used for shooting – and it shows. In fact, the star Hy Hazell happily lived in the mansion during shooting and so saved hotel costs. The entire film cost about £13,000. (The same mansion was used in the making of 'Doctor Morelle – The Case of the Missing Heiress' – released in June 1949). Miss Hazel gives an enjoyable performance opposite the creepy John Bailey.

Like a good number of British 'B' films made during the 1950s, this one offers a lead role for an imported American actor whose career had seen better days. In this instance Alan Baxter plays Mike Selby, a writer brought to England to give an American slant on a forthcoming play. The producer's daughter (Jennifer Jayne) finds him accommodation in a country hotel but this proves to be fateful. There he sees his former girlfriend Lilaine (Barbara Shelley) who is now married to Crawford, the hotel owner. She had originally run out on Mike to find someone with money but is now bored and apparently wants to rekindle their romance. After some initial resistance, Mike succumbs to her charms and is eventually persuaded to steal the jewellery that Crawford fences as a lucrative sideline. She concocts an elaborate alibi for him but things start to go wrong when Mike believes he has killed Crawford while stealing the jewels. Then he receives blackmail threats but who is blackmailing Mike, was Crawford really dead and what are Lilaine's real motives?

I was quite entertained by this second feature film which moves along nicely and throws in some twists along the way. However the performances of the two leads could not be more diverse. Alan Baxter seemed wooden and uneasy throughout whereas Barbara Shelley is cool and sexy. If fact her delivery at times reminded me of the young Lauren Bacall but sadly Baxter was no Humphrey Bogart. If possible, catch this film if only to see Barbara Shelley – she looks stunning.

Rex Banner, played by Peter Reynolds, is the proprietor of a news agency and having an eye for a good story, becomes an amateur sleuth to find out who murdered his friend Gospel Joe and as a consequence, who was responsible for the theft of the Delavine diamonds sometime earlier. Joe had information about the theft and had asked to see Rex but just as Rex finds his friends body the police arrive and he is initially treated as a suspect.

I found this film quite entertaining for a mid-1950s second feature with interesting characters, good acting, decent plot and a dash of humour. Peter Reynolds, who was often condemned to playing shifty villains in British films, is able and smooth in the role of detective, keeping several steps ahead of the clueless police. I have to say that any film with Honor Blackman, playing his delicious wife, will automatically get my vote. Bit-part spotters will be pleased to see two of Britain's most prolific here. Firstly Michael Balfour reprises for the umpteenth time the hero's sidekick, helping out with a spot of research for Rex and being on hand at the finale. Then the unsung Hal Osmond lifts an otherwise routine scene with a colourful cameo as the 'old man' with the cough. In my opinion THE DELAVINE AFFAIR is a slightly above average film for the genre.

The plot of DANGEROUS CARGO has most of the basic ingredients of a standard mid-fifties British B film. Tom Matthews is a trusted precious-cargo handler at a main airport. He has a chance meeting with an old wartime colleague Harry who takes Tom and his wife Janie to the dog track and they gratefully win some money. However Harry is chauffeur to a gang leader who intends to mount a raid on the airport secure vault but they need inside information about when precious cargos arrive. So Harry takes Tom to the dog track again and encourages him to bet but Tom ends up heavily in debt to a bookmaker, money that he cannot pay. This leaves him open to blackmail by Luigi, one the gang leaders, who forces Tom to reveal when the next precious cargo is due.

The film offers a fairly rare leading role for easy-going actor Jack Watling but his acting abilities are barely tested with this one. Susan Stephen who looks and sounds uncannily like Haley Mills plays Janie his wife. The villains try to be classic 1950s B film stereotypes complete with foreign accents (genuine in the case of Karel Stepanek who plays the gang leader Pliny and phoney in the case of second-in-command Luigi played by John Le Mesurier). In fact the latter's 'foreign' accent cannot be sustained and he frequently lapses into 'home counties'. Pliny preserves his anonymity from the other motley gang members by addressing them from an adjoining room with the aid of a microphone, speaker and two-way mirror. It's hilarious stuff and a novel system similar to that used by villain 'The Voice' in the early 1960s British TV serial 'Gary Halliday '. It's a bit of a shock though to see popular actor Terence Alexander playing the two-timing Harry but he is smooth and convincing.

As a British B film aficionado I found it mildly entertaining but not a lot.

Having previously been married to a criminal, Jane Foster (Jane Hylton) takes over a coastal pub named 'The Quiet Woman' to start a new life with the help of her loyal and protective employee Elsie (Dora Bryan). She is indignant to discover that the previous owner had allowed an amiable local artist and part-time smuggler Duncan McLeod (Derek Bond) to use the pub for storing contraband goods but despite this, a romantic attachment develops between them. Helen (Dianne Foster), an old flame of McLeods, tricks her way into staying at the pub to pose for him but becomes jealous of Jane and taunts her about knowing her past and threatens to expose her. Pressure then mounts on McLeod when an old Naval colleague Inspector Bromley (John Horsley) arrives at the pub to stay for several weeks. He now is working as a customs officer. And then Jane's escaped convict husband turns up and demands her help.

This is a pretty typical British B picture of the period with flimsy plot and the minimum of props, much being made of outdoor filming and studio-bound back projection of seascapes in the latter stages that fail to convince the viewer the action is taking place in mid-English Channel. The best aspects of this film are the solid acting from a cast of well-known character actors/actresses of the period. In particular Dora Bryan gives a nice performance as Jane's trusted friend who is fiercely protective of her employer while keeping the romantic aspirations of McLeod's sidekick Lefty (Michael Balfour) at bay. The pleasant coastal photography gives the film a genuine seaside atmosphere.

If like me, you grew up with second feature films like this in the early 1950s, then you accept them as entertainment and enjoy the way things were done in those far more innocent times. If you criticise them, it should only be done against the criteria that prevailed then and not by today's standards. Given that, the only disappointment for me was the weak, improbable ending. I have the distinct impression that the scriptwriter suddenly decided he had better things to do than invent a plausible finale. A pity.

This charming film has never been available commercially and has not been seen on British television for many years. Fortunately the last time it was shown I recorded it to videotape and retained it. Its rarity is a great pity because the film is gentle, humorous and entertaining, genuinely recreating the atmosphere of a Welsh village of yesteryear where minor incidents become major events in the villagers' lives.

As film opens we see Geraint Llewellyn, excellently played by Clifford Evans, on a train returning to his native village of Cwmpant after being transferred back there for good from London. (Incidentally, for any railway enthusiasts out there, the opening shots of single line track were filmed on the long-closed Carmarthen to Cardigan line in South Wales on the approach to Conwil Station).

Immediately on his return he is offered the position of choirmaster to replace the recently deceased incumbent. He is persuaded to accept, particularly as their next production is the challenging 'Messiah'. With the choir assembled in the village hall, he hands out the major singing parts but Mrs Lloyd (Rachel Thomas), who has sung the contralto part for the past 12 years and who expects to do so again, is shocked when the part is given to Mrs Davies (Betty Cooper). She gives Geraint a piece of her mind with a display of controlled petulance and reminds him that she once came second on three occasions in the National Eisteddford. He reluctantly points out that her successes were "some time ago" at which Mrs Lloyd storms out dragging her poor son Cliff (played by John Fraser) with her. This leads not only to a split between the Lloyd and Davies families but between the village itself. And to make matters worse, Cliff Lloyd is courting Mrs Davies's daughter Olwen (played by Maureen Swanson). Happily the situation is ultimately resolved to everyone's satisfaction.

'Valley of Song' was the film debut of Rachel Roberts and she is superb as the village gossip 'Bessie the Milk', so much so that she virtually steals every scene in which she appears. Also in his second uncredited film part is Kenneth Williams, later to become much valued as one of Britain's great comedy actors but in this film, he is on screen for about 10 seconds and has only one line to say. Another notable moment is the brief appearance of Desmond Llewellyn (as the schoolmaster) who, a decade later, was to become well known as the 'gadget man' in the James Bond films.

These days, the film would be seen as very much a period piece. For instance, there is a scene where four coal-blackened miners are walking through the village and burst into song on seeing Geraint. Today, you would be hard pressed to find a Welsh miner let alone one who is prepared to sing in the street. To sum up then, a very gentle, if predictable story, well acted, nice location shots and if like 'old' British films and can handle all the Welsh singing, this would probably be the film for you.