Monday, March 26, 2012

THE DAY TIME ENDED / Vortex Productions - 1980

It's Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Here's a little weirdie from the Charles Band gang, directed by the multi-talented B-movie maestro, John 'Bud' Cardos, Bud's first acting role was in Arch Hall's DEADWOOD '76. Jim (MONSTER FROM GREEN HELL) Davis (in his last feature film), Christopher (BIGFOOT) Mitchum and Dorothy (THE BEING) Malone star in this sci-fi adventure about a time warp.

Eegah!! gave us a soundclip for this flick, sooo, push the big red 'GO' button over there next to the hot pink whatchamacallit, now, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here're some sounds from... THE DAY TIME ENDED!

After an explosion of three stars in space, strange things start happening on Earth. This array of swirling lights reminds me of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS from three years earlier.

Then, at the Mojave desert home of the Williams family, this large neon green pyramid appears in the back yard! Natasha Ryan plays the small daughter, Jenny. Before this, Natasha was in KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS, THE AMITYVILLE HORROR and FATSO.

Later that night, this little space sprite appears in Jenny's bedroom and does some tricks for her. Apparently, because she hugged the pyramid!

Chris Mitchum plays concerned family friend, Richard. Chris and brother James are the acting sons of the iconic Robert Mitchum. And, by the way... It's Miller Time!

Something's preventing the Williams family from leaving their home, what could it be?!

From nowhere, this infernal machine appears. First, it threatningly chases the family around...

Then, it materializes some dinosaur-like beasts in the yard!

After one of the beasts kills the other, it turns it's attention to the house!

Just like in 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH and PUMPKINHEAD, this thing gets stuck with a pitchfork!

A yellow sphere comes down from the sky and attaches itself to the monster, then, sprinkles some cosmic pixie dust around and disappears the mean old thing!

The time warp seems to be slipping into the future, now, their land is part of a graveyard for machines from the past. Notice the futuristic buildings in the background. They did a crappy job of matching the shadow with the Phantom jet they pasted into the scene, on the right side of the top still.

So, at the end, things have settled down and they all look forward to living in the future...

Saturday, March 24, 2012

UNA LUCERTOLA CON LA PELLE DI DONNA - Ennio Morricone - "Lizard In A Woman's Skin" (1971)

Welcome to Surreal Saturday, and a flick tonight that was musically highly recommended to me by a guy who knows a lot about this kinds of stuff, Brian Horrorwitz over at The Trash Palace! It's called "Una Lucertola Con La Pelle Di Donna," or "Lizard In A Woman's Skin," and I found it to be available over at the Netflix!

Okay, so let's get this train of consciousness rolling! The very original music for "Lizard In A Woman's Skin" was composed by the incredible Ennio Morricone....

....and I've only got one thing to say: "Bitch's Brew!"

A Woman with nightmares, and...

...an indifferent husband...

....and what's it all add up to?

More bad dreams!!

Dreams of death, but are they really dreams?

A woman's been brutally murdered, and the prime suspect is too insane to have been able to do it! What's a detective supposed to do?

All the fine camera work was done by Luigi Kuveiller, who has lent his eye to 101 titles including "Investigation Of A Citizen Above Suspicion," "Andy Warhol's Dracula," "Andy Warhol's Frankenstein, and Dario Argento's "Deep Red."

Here's more of that indifferent husband action!

The very tense and uptight Carol Hammond is played by Brazilian born Florinda Bolkan!

If you're going to have a long chase scene, it should be someplace as cool as this!

Time to turn on the giant dildo!

Florinda Bolkan made quite a killing in Italian cinema with films like "Non Si Sevizia Un Paperino" (Don't Torture A Duckling) and "La Settima Donna" (Last House on The Beach).

They spend the whole movie trying to convince the viewer not to believe what they showed you at the beginning!

One more great shot, and we're almost to the end of this trip!

It's pretty difficult to pursue a murder charge when your star witnesses are this stoned! The actress Penny Brown was in the 1966 ultimate hippie flick "Chappaqua," that featured Ravi Shankar, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Ornette Coleman, Swami Satchidananda, Moondog, and The Fugs! The hippie guy is Mike Kennedy or Michael Volker Kogel, depending on how you want to look at it! Mike has only three total acting gigs, but he was in 28 different movies and TV shows as himself, the lead singer of the very famous 60's Spanish rock band Los Bravos! Los Bravos had the monster top 10 hit "Black Is Black" in 1966!

No surprise ending here!!! Follow your heart, follow your head, sometimes dreams do come true!

Hard to believe, but this actually a poster for a re-titled version of the same movie!!

Friday, March 23, 2012

THE HAUNTED HOUSE / Joseph M. Schenck Productions - 1921

It's Friday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. This silent short was on TCM lately, and, I recorded it, durr... So, here's a wild little fun ride as Buster Keaton lands himself in a... Haunted House!

The story's about a bank clerk that gets mixed up with some bank robbers in their 'haunted house' hideout designed to scare off police and snoopers.

At the bank, Buster gets glue all over the bills and causes some hilarious problems you can't even imagine! He even knocks one guy out so that he can pour scalding hot water under him to get him unstuck from the floor!!

Across town at the play, the set falls over on the actress. Buster liked things to fall over, this was the second time the house fell on this lady!! That bottom still is priceless...

The cops are chasing Buster because they think he's involved with the robbery at the bank. Buster always had the most interesting expressions on his face!

Law enforcement stop their pursuit after he runs into a notoriously spooky old house in the country.

Once inside, he starts examining some of the contents. He opens a book up, and...

The way Buster bounces when he hits the bottom here is wild, he does some amazing stunts in this 21 minute film. How many times did Scooby-Doo and Shaggy use this 'stairs into a slide' gag?!

Buster thinks that this guy in the play is the devil!

Watching Buster's face in this scene is so bizarre, he looks upon the character with like, frightened admiration! Really funny.

He gets involved in the robber's antics and thinks he's become a ghost!

So, he ascends the stairs to heaven, but, when he gets to the top, his name's not on the list!!

And, the stairs turn into a slide... All the way to Hell!!

Of course, it's only a dream, and, Buster gets his girl in the end!

Monster Music

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