[Handyman Joe]

First up four classic villain portrayals

The Devil Thumbs a Ride (1947) - A crackerjack of an hour with the expected sadism of Lawrence Tierney's hitchhiker psycho levened with unexpected knowing humour. This film feels incredibly fresh, almost Tarantinoesque in the way it plays with genre. In short it's fast, funny, mean, playful, sick and exciting - check it out.

Woman's Prison - Ida Lupino rules the roost and this picture as the cinemas most evil prison chief. Among those she brutalises are noir bad girls Audrey Totter and Jan Sterling - that's how bad ass she is. This is up there with Caged in the classic WIP list.

Gaslight (1940) - I loved the 1944 Hollywood remake with it's luxuriant sets, Ingrid Bergman emoting and all round quality but, man, Anton Walbrook in this version - the most OTT moustache twirling baddie ever? The League of Gentlemen have based their careers on this character! 'You have the wits of an animal!'I loved the mix of British humour and psychological torture here - a real classic.

Port of New York - textbook late 40s docu-noir with all the usual traits - specific locale/crime, undercover cops, portentous narrator, etc - what makes it memorable is Yul Brynner (with hair) as the posh voiced psycho heading up the dockside drug cartel - a lesson in how to be charming, eccentric and utterly terrifying.

Ransoms

The Big Sleep (1978) - The Winner version - another pot pouring of star cameos, wash wah music, flashy zooms, tits, godawful acting (looking at you Candy Clark) and, yes, guilty entertainment from MW. Relocating Chandler from the mean streets of LA to the English Home Counties is just the start of the madness. Mitchum sleepwalks through proceedings. Poor Jimmy Stewart miscast as General Sternwood and looking so old. Strangely the plot is a lot more comprehensible than the 46 version. Features worst car chases ever.

Crashout - mass prison breakout, a gang escapes the turkey shoot - can they disappear? Start again? What a cast - William Bendix, William Tallman, Arthur Kennedy. This is a brutal, brilliant film - some near the knuckle stuff that simply wouldn't be attempted today in a mainstream movie. The denouement in the snowy mountains is perfect.

Blueprint For Murder - So so sub Hitchcock shenanigans - did Joseph Cottens new wife really poison her daughter? Could she now do the same to her son? Trouble is the answer is obvious and my expectations weren't messed with half enough. Average.

Man in the Attic - Remake of The Lodger. Jack Palance as Jack the Ripper should be amazing but the ticks and sneers never come to the boil, there's no real tension or memorable set pieces - it's strictly a B lister.