Friday, March 26, 2010

THE VEIL - Edwin Astley & Leon Klatzkin "Tales Of The Unexplained" (1958)

Today's the 26th, and 2x13=26, so it's a Friday tweakin' twofer twonight! So what am I talking about? In 1958, the Hal Roach Studios produced a series of episodes in England for a never released TV show, and they called it "The Veil."

The very first episode was hosted by none other than Dr. Frank Baxter, who any true monster lover knows as the guy who did the introduction to "The Mole People," and once you hear his voice, you'll say, oh, I remember that guy!!

This first episode entitled ""The Vestris"" had Boris Karloff in it as a ghost at sea, and the whole affair was kind of a continuation or takeoff on Frank's other show, "Telephone Time!"

By the time they got around to the second episode, they had now gotten Boris himself to do the hosting, and the story was a bit hipper, more contemporary and was entitled "Girl On The Road!"

More "Thriller" than "Twilight Zone," "Girl On The Road" is a fairly simple ghost tale!

The music was put together by Edwin ("Devil Girl From Mars," "The Giant Behemoth") Astley, and Leon ("Gerald McBoing-Boing," "Adventures Of Superman") Klatzkin, so you know this is stuff off the top shelf!!

No, Kids!! Dont ever push an expensive European sports car with an Edsel.......

You're going to bend the license plate every time, and it will indeed come back to haunt you in more ways than one!!

One of Tabonga's best pals in "From Hell It Came," Tod Andrews as John Prescott, and Eve Brent who is still active and working today, as Lila Kirby, toast life or death, as it were!

Boris himself has a small, but important part as the all-knowing Morgan Debs!

Lila disappears on John, so he has to question some of the locals!!

Then the real true story comes out, Lila is dead, and John has fallen for a spectre!!


It's the deal of the century, two high-quality discs with all 10 episodes at a low price, and packaged as "Tales Of The Unexplained!" Catch it when and where you can, and "tell them Boris sent you!!!"

Thursday, March 25, 2010

ALEX CHILTON - "Walking Dead" A♠

It's an off night, and before another day passes by, I'd like to step down and take a quick moment to pay tribute to one of my musical heroes, the great Alex Chilton who passed away last week! With Jim Dickinson also passing not that long ago, it just seems like a time to take a moment to appreciate what you got! Alex Chilton didn't do many songs with horror titles, but there was this one called "Walking Dead" that is an absolute raggedy mess of sloppy genius that is almost a complete movie unto itself that everyone needs to assimilate at least once!!! I don't know about you, but I'm gonna miss him!!

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

SVENGALI / Warner Bros. - 1931

Welcome everbloody, to Wednesday Oldie Moldie B+W Bijou Theater Flicktime, here at the Dungeon... Today's feature is a very nice production from Warner Bros. in 1931, less than 2 years after the introduction of sound in movies!..

John Barrymore (The Great Profile) stars as Maestro Svengali, he falls in love with a 17 year old model, Trilby (Marian Marsh), then hypnotizes her to sing and eventually she marries him! There are even brief flashes of nudity, it's a Pre-Code film! After SVENGALI, Barrymore followed with another similar film the same year, THE MAD GENIUS. Warner Bros. paired him and Marsh in that one too!

Music in Svengali is classical oriented as you will soon hear. Uncredited music director is David Mendoza, he has 94 credits and worked from 1925-46 with titles like SWEET KITTY BELLAIRS, THE NAGGERS AT BREAKFAST, GOING WILD, I LIKE YOUR NERVE, THE MAD GENIUS, KISSING TIME, NO CONTEST!, GYPSIE SWEETHEART, NUTVILLE, MELODY MASTER: RAH, RAH, RADIO.. HIGH, WIDE And HANDSOME, RHYTHMITIS, THE BACKYARD BROADCAST, SHEIK TO SHEIK, TOOT SWEET, ATTIC OF TERROR, STOCKS AND BLONDES, ZERO GIRL, TOYLAND CASINO, THE HUMAN BOMB, PUBLIC JITTERBUG NO. 1 and SEEING RED!.. Great titles!!

So, on wif' da show!.. Tabonga' pet, Ralphie The Tarantula, took vitamins this morning and he say he ready to be pushin' that big old red 'GO' button and start our Eariffic Earclip 4 tudae...

And, he dood it, so here's ...SVENGALI!

Start with Maestro Svengali looking for singer. This lady sound like hurt animal, and it grate on eardrums! Not great... grate!

He tell her she stink!

She get so upset, she drown self in river!.. Story is part comedy.

John can really ham it up here, singing in the tub is a natch!

He look like some kind of psycho Abraham Lincoln!

The super sexy 17 year old art model, Trilby!! Remind Tabonga of back when he was in art school and could smoke in class!

Svengali notice that she gots a beau!

Through telepathic control, he imposes his will on Trilby's mind...

His thoughts travel to her bedroom over Caligari-style miniature sets by great set artist, Anton Grot!

The spell works and she joins him.

Luckily, we get a nice pre-code look at Trilby in art class!!

After the marriage, they tour together...

Trilby and Svengali are followed around by her ex, he knows their schedule because of newspaper announcements.

At the end, Svengali dies in the pulpit and she follows him to the grave!

Monday, March 22, 2010

NECRONOMICON - GETRÄUMTE SÜNDEN - Friedrich Gulda & Jerry van Rooyen - "Paroxysmos" (1968)

Seems like "Necronomicon - Geträumte Sünden" or as it was called in the U.S., "Succubus," is a whole lot of folk's little darling out of the whole roster of Jesus Franco films, but suckin' buses is just a little too arty for me, unless it's a Blue Bus, of course!

"Succubus" kinda gives me a chill, even though it's in the Mediterranean and made by one of my favorite directors with a cast of perennial greats, what in Hell could possibly go wrong?

Maybe I've just watched too many films lately, but for me this one lacks something in the testosterone department!

This is what I'm talking about, this is what those people were watching so attentively. This is exhilaration! Nuts to that!

The remarkable Janine Reynaud disagrees with me, but that's okay because she has a hip platter plopper!

Just like in all of Jess Franco's films, the music, supplied by Friedrich Gulda and Jerry van Rooyen this outing, swings like a noose in a breeze, exotic to erotic, and straight into the deposit box!!

Michel Lemoine is willing to argue that some of what is happening is not that bad, and I have to admit that's a very astute assumption from a man with a name very similar to a woman from my past that looked a bit like Janine Reynaud!

Janine and I have a lot in common, amzingly enough, at this point in the film, we were both doing exactly the same thing! How's that for coincidence?

Adrian Hoven, who we last saw in "Cave Of The Living Dead" not only was one of the stars, but was also one of the producers of this movie!

Wow! Like a pit stop on a delusional road trip to a castle made of sand, "Succubus" is all about eye catching candy and mind numbing games!

Permanent Dungeon stalwart Howard Vernon was not used to his full potential here, so he also gets credit as the still photographer! Howard, I don't think that's how you use a camera!!

Gotta give credit where credit is due, nice record collection!!

Just like Adrian's trying to do at this party, this movie is supposed to make you think, and it worked on me! I was thinking how much I really liked "Oily Maniac!"

How much fun is one person allowed to have??

Janine isn't drunk, in point of fact, she is actually doing a new dance called Do The Carpet!!

Uh, Oh, things are starting to get out of control around here, somebody call Webster Webfoot!

They even had time to have guest appearances by Frankenstein and Godzilla! What an Aurora of a deal!!

Is this heavenly scene just perfectly soft, senuous and sexy enough for you?

Weirdsville, just straight out Weirdsville!

Now it's time to prove how scary this whole fantasy business can be, look, a woman is screaming!!

That's right folks, believe it or not, that girl just did a cartwheel across from one side to the other right before your very eyes, is that incredible or what?? You can see how impressed the rest of the crowd is, as they can barely contain their excitement!! Have you ever noticed how similar the words excitement and excrement are?

It's a Jess Franco film in a mind staggering location, what else to you need to know?

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??