KINGU KONGU NO GYAKUSHU (King Kong Escapes) - Akira Ifukube - "Not A Chance Of That" (1967)

Once again the combination of Ishirô Honda, Akira Takarada and Mie Hama merged with music by Akira Ifukube makes for another fun eye candy movie to watch! Unfortunately, the cool music in this scene is pretty much buried in the background, but you still get the idea, and the dialogue is great! For more of exactly the same type of swinging music, go get yourself a copy of "Frankenstein Conquers The World." Very similar music by Akira Ifukube, but louder and much more of it! 

 

Rhodes Reason, Linda Miller and Akira Takarada share a drink with Mie Hama as they get ready for their big adventure. 

 

"Not a chance of that!!"

 Mie Hama was the first Asian woman to pose in Playboy or be a Bond Girl when she played Kissy Suzuki in "You Only Live Twice." 

 

CALTIKI - IL MOSTRO IMMORTALE (Caltiki - The Immortal Monster) - Roberto Nicolosi - "Caltiki Escapes" (1959)

When you hear Italian composer Roberto Nicolosi's name, words like Warrior, Crusader, Norman, Viking, or Amazon usually come to mind. "Caltiki" was an excursion into the unknown for him. He accepted and handled the challenge quite grusomely. 

 

Caltiki Escapes!

 When Caltiki starts separating, you can almost smell the stench of the stretching strands of slime! 

 

Linda tries to talk Max down off the bum trip he's on! 

 

Dumbass Max shoots the only person in the whole world that even vaguely likes him a little. What's next for Max? A whole lot of Bad Karma!! 

 

Max, Meet your blind date, Caltiki! 

 

Oh, that Max, he always was a sucker for a blob!

VILLAGE OF THE GIANTS/GHOST IN THE INVISIBLE BIKINI - Mike Clifford/Bobby Fuller Four - "Two Short Songs" (1965-66)

These two films "Village Of The Giants" from 1965 and "Ghost In The Invisible Bikini" from 1966 both had an abundance of music in them. Here's a couple of short leftovers to tease you with. One clocks in at 32 seconds, the other one is 36 seconds! First off, from "Village Of The Giants" is Marianne written by Jack Nitzsche, and sung by Mike Clifford. 

 

In 1962 Mike Clifford had a pop hit "Close To Cathy", that just missed the top ten, charting at #12. Let's all swoon together! 

 

From "The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini", here's......... 

 

The Bobby Fuller Four singing Make The Music Pretty! 

 

Well, I do believe this monster has been around the block a couple of times, but this is the first time that anybody was actually caught sleeping with one! 

 

We've seen a lot of Tommy Kirk on this site, and his contributions to offbeat cinema are above reproach. Here's one for Tommy, a good sport who got a bad rap!! This is an awesome still of him and Basil Rathbone, isnt it? By the way, just for the record, Tommy Kirk was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and Mike Clifford was a cop in Louisville, Kentucky before he got into the movies! Interesting!

HORROR (The Blancheville Monster) - Carlo Franci - "Scary Harpsichord Music" (1963)

Here's what you need to know! This Italian movie called "Horror" aka "The Blancheville Monster" is based on a story by Edgar Allen Poe. The music was composed by Carlo Franci or Francis Clark as he was credited in this film. Carlo also composed the music for "Maciste In Hell," also known as "The Witch's Curse," and a score of other "Hercules" and assorted sword and sandal flicks! It's spooky harpsichord music, and there's girls running around screaming! 

 

Harpsichord Music that is literally from Hell! 

 

Not really sure how they dealt with constipation back in those days, but dude needs a laxative! 

 

Okay, this is a movie, look real scared like!! 

 

Hear that music? Now look really startled! 

 

"AAAAaaaarrraaaaahhahAH!!! 

 

Good Night!

THE WAR OF THE WORLDS - Leith Stevens - "Wave The White Flag Square Dance" (1953)

We've written about Leith Stevens amazing body of work as a composer before, and once again he did just another fantastic job on "War Of The Worlds." His credits as composer of 'stock music' for monster movies was also above reproach, with titles like "The Werewolf" and "Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers." "War Of The Worlds" was an incredible accomplishment for 1953 and still looks Great today!!" 

 

In this movie, the party scene is a square dance at the social hall with this band calling the tunes! 

 

"Things go better with Coke!" 

 

Every film has got to have a hero! In this movie, it's not these guys! 

 

Martians either don't understand or just don't care about the meaning of "We're friends!" or the symbolism of a white flag! 

 

I really just don't think they care. What the three bozos forgot to take into consideration is, some Martians are just mean! 

 

This shot is quite frankly one of the most classic of any genre!

MONSTERS CRASH THE PAJAMA PARTY - "Spook Show Spectacular" (1965)

Conceptually interesting, but unbearably droll, and pretty much devoid of any music we're interested in, "Monsters Crash The Pajama Party" does have one little scene where the slumber party girls are listening to the radio and singing along a bit. With a title like that, you'd think this movie would rock out, but it doesn't! It's really difficult to recommend a film where they wouldn't even pitch the extra $100 to at least get a decent gorilla suit. Life's too short to use cheap gorilla suits! The good news, it's a very short film!! Do dah do da dum dum doo doo da do da dah!! You know, it's just not the same without the monsters running into the audience, because this is not a movie you were supposed to pay attention to you. The shock or horror was in the 'live' surprise! 

 

Here's the Guys!!! Stud City!! 

 

Here's the Gals!! Seems almost impossible, "Hot" times five!! 

 

Slumber party time with potato chips and Coca-Cola! Woo, Woo!!  

Dum Dum Doo Doo

 

  Watch out for who might be creeping up behind you! Ha, Ha, Ha!!! On this one, who knows who is doing this music! We're probably the only people in the world who care but, if you care, rent or buy the whole fun-filled package from Something Weird! They deserve the credit for reviving this crap from the grave!!

THE NASTY RABBIT - Pat & Lolly Vegas - "Robot Walk" (1964)

So it's Friday night, and you know Eegah and Tabonga like to rock out on the weekend, so here's a real dandy of a tune from a real stinker of a movie from our fave Arch Hall, called "Robot Walk!" I read somewhere online recently where they actually slammed this almost perfect little tune! Unbelievable! On this one song, Arch hands over the reins to Pat & Lolly Vegas and here's the reason why! Are you ready?? Way before this movie, Pat and Lolly Vegas, from Fresno, Calif, also recorded the singles "Let's Go" as the Routers, "Surf Stomp" and "Batman" as the Mar-kets, and "Hotrodders Choice," "Dawn Patrol," "Double A Fueler," and "Satan's Chariot" as the Deuce Coupes. They were part of the house band on "Shindig" and backed Sonny and Cher, Elvis, and more before becoming "Redbone" in 1969! I have no idea what these guys are doing today, but it sure would be fun to find out, because they must have some stories to tell!! 

 

If you can find it, "Robot Walk" was released as a single in 1964 backed with "Big Surf" by Pat and Lolly this time using the name The Sharks. 

 

This is one of the few songs presented on this blog that would have been much better without the insipidly inane dialogue, screaming and whining, but we take what we can get around here! 

 

Pat and Lolly, you guys rock!! Robot Walk!!

BLUE DEMON CONTRA LAS DIABOLICAS - El Klan - "The Solo Dance" (1968)

You know, the other day, Tabonga and I were hanging out talking crap with Rodan and Caltiki about the good old days, and of course what subject always comes up is wrasslin'!! Remember when they would have a scientific wrasslin' match?? It would be between two good guys, with no dirty moves, and was usually boring as hell. I remember one match between Pepper Gomez and some other Good Guy, where I think they ran across the ring and bounced off the ropes going over and under each other like 47 times in a row! We'll take a Lucha Libre masked free-for-all anytime instead! That said, here's another suave little tune by "El Klan" from the film "Blue Demon Contra Las Diabolicas" with our favorite twin saxes, groovy guitar, jungle bird calls, extra funky keyboards and sensual outer space vocals! What a sweet suite! Standing ovation please! Tequila Milagro con Blue Demon es muy bueno, una celebracion mas fina! Todo classico! Gracias! 

 

El Klan Rocks!

 Is that good stuff or what???

THE RETURN OF DRACULA - Gerald Fried - "Theme and Costume Party" (1958)

Composer, conductor, and oboist Gerald Fried might have one of the more remarkable careers we've written about yet, at least as far as TV is concerned anyway. Need proof? How about 9 episodes of "Star Trek", 45 episodes of "The Man From Uncle", 9 episodes of "Gilligan's Island", 2 episodes of "Lost In Space" and 5 episodes of "Mission Impossible", and that was just from 1965 to 1968! In the 50's he composed music for an wide array of films including many classic JD movies and horror films besides "The Return Of Dracula." Killer JD titles include "Dino", "Cry Baby Killer" and "High School Big Shot." More horror/sci-fi titles he composed for are "Curse Of The Faceless Man", "The Flame Barrier" and one our faves, "The Lost Missile." The man is obviously a genius, what else do you need to know?? 

 

Halloween party, the real good old fashion way, dunking for apples with some Dixie music blowing in the background! 

 

Belle Mitchell as Cornelia had a career in the movies that started in 1915 and continued well into the 70's!! Wow!! "That's right folks, have some fun!!" 

 

Francis Lederer makes for a pretty sleazy Count Dracula! 

 

Get back Drac!! Return Of Dracula