DR. TARR'S TORTURE DUNGEON / Producciones Prisma - 1973

Welcome to Friday Night Drive-In with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Tonite's offering is a Mexican production with a mostly Mexican cast and crew, but, it was filmed in English, then dubbed into Spanish for Mexican cinemas!! This title is actually the original version. The Mexican title is THE MANSION OF MADNESS...

It takes awhile to figure out what's going on, but, the inmates of an insane asylum have taken over the institution, they've imprisoned the doctors and staff, and put into play their own ideas of how the place should be run! I love this movie, it has my highest recommendation!

The music is by Nacho Méndez, which reminds me, I'm hungry! Nacho had 31 composing credits with titles like EL TOPO!!, HOT SNAKE, KATY CATERPILLER, THE KILLER TRAILER, KATY MEETS THE ALIENS and KING OF THE TAXI DRIVERS.

Letz bring in our littlest Dungeon helper and button pusher, the one and only, lil'... Rufus The Gnat!! Rufus sez heez redi 2 start our Eariffic Soundclip, so, push the big red 'GO' button located in or about sector Q, now, Rufus!! Here's... DR. TARR'S TORTURE DUNGEON!

The story starts with a group of travelers on their way to visit an isolated mental asylum. This is awesome, the carriage driver moves a tree that's blocking the roadway, all by himself!

The atmosphere created looks great.

Whatever place this is in Mexico, it's absolutely perfect for a film like this... Bizarroburg!

This still is so amazing, just soak it in! The dude wearing the hypno wheel is the Cult Priest.

Here's the Chicken Man you hear in the soundclip. Buck, buck...

Here's the part where the viewer starts to realize that something's really not right! It's unnerving when the happy goofs at the top of this very tall building begin to make the rope ladder sway as the visitor is climbing down, and, the guy still has to drop about 20 feet just to get off the thing! Meanwhile, everyone's laughing their asses off! You know, it was just a childish prank! Ha ha...

No one laughs more than Dr. Maillard, the one showing their guest around. If he looks familiar, it's because he played Dr. Karol in SANTO IN THE WAX MUSEUM and Mario in NEUTRON vs DR. CARONTE.

Nurses and staff are all now exotic slave artists and actors for the new leaders of the nuthouse!

The guest, Gaston LeBlanc, makes an escape out his bedroom window at night.

This reminds me, Eegah!! and I used to pick grapes during the summers in the early sixties! Grapes and gurlz always go together, no?!

Having escaped into the woods, Gaston discovers that it's filled with even more crazy people!

Maillard's helper likes to tease the people that are now on the other side of the cage!

It's time for the orgy, so, bring in Lady Godiva!.. Okay, sound the invisible trumpets!!

We're not crazy, you're crazy!!..

Looks like a giant chicken coop for people! And, it probably smells a lot worse than chickens in there!!

The helper gets caught and knocked unconscious by the angry prisoners, then, they get the key from his possession.

All Hell breaks loose in Hell!

Who else but a beautiful woman to end all the fun!

**Starting tomorrow, The Dungeon will be posting each and every day during the month of October, celebrating our 2011 Countdown To Halloween, so, get ready for that!! We've been saving up some special treats just for this occasion, you will not believe some of the things we have planned! Boowah, everbloody!!

KRIMINAL - Romano Mussolini - "La Máscara De Kriminal" (1966)

So today's my freakin' birthday! WTF!? BFD! "KRIMINAL" is the best present I could get or give, and it was all made possible by "The Web Of Mystery!" So, here you go!!

My how things have changed in just a few short years, "KRIMINAL" was a 1960's Italian comic that got co-creator, writer, and artist Max Bunker (Luciano Secchi) prosecuted more than once for his erotic-violent vision! Today it probably wouldn't even catch a passing glance! I'm surprised the Italians were that uptight! The other co-creator, artist and writer was Magnus (Roberto Raviola)!

The comic "KRIMINAL" ended in 1974, after 419 issues. In Spain, the character was known as "KILLING!"

In the comic, but not the movie "KRIMINAL" has the ability to wear different masks that change his identity! In the movie, he's more of a makeup artist!

The Dutch actor Glenn Saxon is KRIMINAL in this film and the sequel made two years later, "Il Marchio Di Kriminal," and he plays the role to perfection! To my knowledge, neither film has ever been released in the U.S.

"KRIMINAL" begins with Glenn being put to death by hanging after his arch-rival Inspector Milton of Scotland Yard had finally caught him, but it was a clever ruse set up by Milton, for KRIMINAL to escape so that he would lead them to The British Crown he had stolen!

Things don't go so well for the first guy who catches up to KRIMINAL! The more they open the door, the more he strangulates!

KRIMINAL has got a very cool outfit, but you don't really know why he wears it, like here where he breaks into the bedroom of his ex-wife, and after he startles her, he removes the mask and identifies himself. It's not like Batman or Superman where nobody knows their secret identities, everybody knows who KRIMINAL is, but he's so damn tricky, it just doesn't do them any good!

Not twins, but two chicks who just happen to look alike, now that ought to fool those diamond thieves!! This is Helga Liné as Inge & Trude! There's a whole intricate plot about stealing and not stealing diamonds, and ripping off the insurance company instead! After KRIMINAL returned the British Crown unceremoniously back to Milton, he decided he'd get involved in this whole caper!

KRIMINAL's Ex-wife is Maria Luisa Rispoli as Margie Swan! Margie just happens to work for Mrs. Gold who is running this whole jewel swindle switch affair! Maria is pretty hot, but was only in 9 films, two of which were "Colossus And The Amazon Queen" and "Toto Vs. Maciste." "KRIMINAL" was Maria's last outing, and she chose to be credited as Susan Baker!

It's right about here that we get to find out how mean spirited KRIMINAL actually is! After striking up and affair with Mrs. Gold to find out more about how the swindle worked, she turns on him with a pistol in the steam bath, and KRIMINAL has no qualms about steaming her butt to death! After all, she was going to shoot him!

KRIMINAL heard Margie ratting him out to Milton, so when he hears the appointment time she set up in Milton's office, he heads on over to the office in disguise as an electrician to rig up a bomb to blow them both to bits!!

Milton catches on at the last minute, and just manages to escape a certain death! KRIMINAL is not playing around! He intended to get rid of both Milton and Margie permanently!!

The KRIMINAL skelton costume they came up with consistently looks cool and weird!

The swingin' music for this whole grand affair was composed by Romano Mussolini working as Raymond Full! Besides "KRIMINAL" Romano has only three more composing credits! "La Ragazzola" in 1965, "Tous Les Chemins Mènent à L'homme" in 1976, and "Circle Of Fear" in 1992! Lord knows what he did the rest of the time!!

After he kicks her boyfriend's ass, Kriminal reveals his true identity again! I think he does it so the girls can see how handsome he is, because he ends up taking them to bed with him anyway!

Inspector Milton has KRIMINAL trapped at the airport, but he manages to slip out in disguise with a bunch of guys who have a private plane, so nobody's paying much attention to them! Milton is played the fool again!

Nice outfit Helga!!

Director Umberto Lenzi provides the viewer with plenty of swell shots of KRIMINAL sneaking around! Umberto is probably better known for some of his grisly 80's horror like "Cannibal Ferox," "Nightmare City," and "Eaten Alive!"

Ivano Staccioli as Alex Lafont, Mrs. Gold's partner in crime, is the other major player in the game! He makes some bad choices and KRIMINAL ends up playing him like an out of tune fiddle! KRIMINAL puts some vitriol (sulphuric acid) in Alex's toiletries and his face gets seriously burned! Ivano had a long and outstanding career in both Sword and Sandal, and Spaghetti Westerns flicks!!

The poor witless Alex LaFont tries to get the drop on KRIMINAL only to get himself killed and disfigured, so that KRIMINAL can take on his bandaged identity to get into the bank where the diamonds are stored!!

That's KRIMINAL escaping with Alex's cool Ford Fairlane convertible!

KRIMINAL takes a moment to make sure his hair still looks good!!

After going through a whole ordeal that included a crazy train ride and escape, and losing all the diamonds, KRIMINAL just by chance happens upon Mary Arden as Gloria Farr sunbathing out in the middle of nowhere! Unfortunately for KRIMINAL, Gloria is also Inspector Milton's girlfriend! Mary was in Bava's "Blood And Black Lace" and was also the model used in Italian photo-novels of yet another skeleton-clad criminal, "SADISTIK" - "The Diabolikal Super-Kriminal!"

Es todo! "Sei Finito KRIMINAL!" Don't worry, the criminal mastermind will be back, but now for me, it's onward to The Annual Halloween Countdown and bringing scary back!!