ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU / Columbia Pictures - 1957

Welcome to Friday Frights with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon! Tonite we gots a lil' flick that seems to get forgotten about, so, we're gonna remind you now...

I mean, it's even got Allison Hayes in it for Hell's sake! It was originally double billed with another Columbia picture, THE MAN WHO TURNED TO STONE.

The story goes like this... A crew of sailors went down with with their ship 60 years earlier with a treasure of diamonds onboard. A legend says that the treasure is now guarded on the ocean floor by the dead sailors, who are now zombies! But, a group of treasure hunters don't believe in zombies (or, ghosts), so, they continue with their plans to search for the fortune.

One tagline reads... "ZOMBIES OF THE OCEAN DEEPS!"

The music is by an uncredited Mischa Bakaleinikoff, one of our favorite composers! What an awesome guy, he even had 458 Music Dept. credits besides his composing credits! Here's a few movies he composed music for... THE SPIDER'S WEB, THE FACE BEHIND THE MASK, CRY OF THE WEREWOLF, RHYTHM ROUND-UP, THE THIRTEENTH HOUR, DEVIL SHIP, THE DEVIL'S HENCHMAN, MULE TRAIN and SPOOKS!

Let us now bring in that fuzzy lil' freek and Dungeon helper, Ralphie The Tarantula! Whowray for Ralphie The Tarantula!.. He's standing next to the big red 'GO' button, and, ready to start our Eariffic Earclip for ... ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU!

I think them words speak for theirselves!

Gene Roth plays Sam, the chauffeur. We fondly remember Gene's performances in SHE DEMONS, THE SPIDER, THE GIANT LEECHES and THE THREE STOOGES MEET HERCULES. He ended up with 267 acting credits.

Sam plows over a zombie standing in the middle of the road and Miss Jan Peters wants to know, why?.. The film was shot at the LA County Arboretum & Botanic Garden! The zombie he ran over was played by Karl 'Killer' Davis!

Here's the gang of fortune seekers. It's the fifties, so, you needed to be drunk most of the time... Cheers!

Allison plays flirt, Mona Harrison, and is married to her wealthy husband there, George.

Marjorie Eaton plays Grandmother Peters, the keeper of the legend. You'll best remember her as the old biddy who gets the cat's brain in the super weird, MONSTROSITY! She was also in NIGHT TIDE and THE THREE STOOGES IN ORBIT.

Man, striped suits always cause those weird looking morays!

Morris Ankrum, playing Dr. Eggert, was in soooo many great horror and sci-fi films, check this list out... ROCKETSHIP X-M, FLIGHT TO MARS, RED PLANET MARS, INVADERS FROM MARS, EARTH vs THE FLYING SAUCERS, KRONOS, BEGINNING OF THE END, THE GIANT CLAW, HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER, HALF HUMAN, CURSE OF THE FACELESS MAN, FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON, TOWER OF LONDON and X: THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES!!!.. We salute you, Morris!

Great part here, worth seeing just for this! A zombie comes in the house, picks a guy up over his head and throws him into the wall, hard!.. Looks totally awesome!!

Nice grouping of walking dead!

A flare gun can come in real handy when confronted by those zombie critters from the sea!

Mona joins the guys on the boat for the first dive for the treasure. Of course, Jeff Clark, played by Gregg Palmer, has a few puffs on a smoke before putting on his diving helmut. Gregg played the radio announcer in ABBOTT AND COSTELLO GO TO MARS and was in THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US!

Later, Mona falls under a trance after being attacked by the monsters.

She's quarantined in her bedroom, kept there by the flames of candles.

A little zombie on man action here! Ray 'Crash' Corrigan plays one of the sailors. Remember, Ray played IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE!

Dr. Eggert grabs the chest of diamonds from Jeff, which now makes the zombies really go berserk!

Love this part... One zombie tries to board the boat when Cap'n Sneaky there pops up and puts a torch in his face! A second later, he quickly bails back into the sea from where he sprung... Now, that's how you handle a zombie!!

Tune in tomorrow for Saturday Shock to see what old Eegah!! has in store for us, here at The Dungeon!