PORT SINISTER - Albert Glasser - "Beast Of Paradise Isle" (1953)

After all this time, I can't believe we haven't run out of titles yet, but believe it or not, 2012 might just be the weirdest set yet, and to give you a taste of what I'm talking about, let's usher out the old, and in with the even older, a relatively obscure flick from 1953, with the very cool name, "Port Sinister!"

So you got to figure, it's 1953, kind of a transition period for horror and sci-fi flicks trying to break away from Universal Frankenstein and Dracula in some new form of terror. Sometimes it didn't really work all that great! In theory or legend, it seems there's a mysterious sunken island place called Port Royale, that resurfaces every so many years that has hidden pirate booty on it!

As I finished writing this, I just read this news article, some 58 years later, I don't know if they'll find any pirates's booty or giant crabs, but a new island is forming right now as we speak, very similar to the concept of Port Royale, and you can read all about it right HERE!!! Freakin' Amazing!!

James Warren is Tony Ferris, the scientist who predicts Port Royale's next appearance, and he's looking for a backer! James wasn't really that familiar of a face to me, but with credits like "Ding Dong Williams" and "Slightly Dangerous," it's no wonder! It turned out that James had quite another talent, and after he finished acting, he turned to painting, and did quite well with it!

Lynne Roberts is Joan Hunter, the skeptical doctor who is forced to go along to find out if it's true or not! Lynne's career went back all the way to 1936, and included stuff like "Circus Girl," "The Mysterious Miss X," "The Bride Wore Crutches," and "The Phantom Speaks!"

The bad guys catch wind of the whole situation and give Tony a big headache, so that he misses the boat!

Then they have to explain the whole cock and bull story to Dr. Hunter, so she alone sets off to sea with them!

The marvelous Marjorie Stapp has a small role as the technician who tells Tony Ferris where he might just be able to find a guy who is crazy enough to fly him out to the general area where he thinks Port Royale is set to surface! Marjorie went on to be in some awesome flicks like "Indestructible Man," "The Werewolf," "Kronos," and "The Monster That Challenged The World!"

The iconic House Peters Jr. is the drunken pilot without a license who is the guy to get the job done. How's House for a cool name? It's even cooler that he's House Jr. His only regret after running out of gas is that he didn't bring more booze! If you're old enough to remember the Mr. Clean TV commercials of the 60's, you recognize House as the guy who played the immortal bald musclehead! Back in 1936, House was a Shark Man in the "Flash Gordon" series, and in 1949 he was Henchman Earl in the "Batman and Robin" serials! He's got a ton of great credits like "King Of The Rocket Men," "The Day The Earth Stood Still," "Red Planet Mars," "Target Earth," and "Rebel Without A Cause!"

The face that you've seen a zillion times, but probably can't put a name to is none other than William Schallert as Collins! William just might actually be THE hardest working man in show business, and this low-down role might just be the evilest of all his 360 appearances! Where do you start or end with a guy like this? I could devote a whole blog to his body of work. In "Mighty Joe Young, " he was a gas station attendant, he was Dr. Mears in "The Man From Planet X," he was in "Gog," "Them," "Tobar The Great," and "The Incredible Shrinking Man!" He was on "Space Patrol" and "The Twilight Zone," and he had the recurring role as Mr. Leander Pomfritt in 24 episodes of "The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis," and was also in 104 episodes of the Patty Duke Show, and that's all only up to 1966! William is still kickin' and was still doing stuff on TV as of this year! Standing ovation, please!!

Paul Cavanagh is the other evil bastard John Kolvac. Paul was no slacker himself, even though he passed away back in 1964, he still chalked up 148 appearances in such classics as "The Gorilla Man," "The Babe Ruth Story," "The Son Of Dr. Jekyll," "Bride Of The Gorilla," "The Strange Door," "Francis In The Haunted House," and "She-Devil," just to scratch the surface! Kolvac and Collins have just spotted Port Royale for the first time, hence the looks on their faces!

The music for "Port Sinister" was composed by another Dungeon Hero,what a gasser, Albert Glasser!! If you try out our search engine, you'll find Albert's name comes up about 18 times, because of all the Mr. B.I.G. movies he's worked on. For movies that are really about monsters, Albert Glasser was the go-to guy! "Monster From Green Hell," "Earth Vs The Spider," "The Cyclops," "The Amazing Colossal Man," "War Of The Colossal Beast," "Beginning Of The End," and the list goes on and on.

After they go ashore on Port Royale, Collins and John Kolvac get the rest of the crew drunk, so they can go find the treasure for themselves!

Okay, here's a giant crab!!!

Dr. Joan Hunter finds out the hard way that unlike Elvis Costello, this bunch of rogue pirate's aim is anything but true!

This is a very dark print, so I wasn't able to really see the intricacies of the smoking Port Royale set or the fine tuned action of this puppet crab! It's dark, and they don't show them very long, that's the trick!

Tony Ferris and the pilot Jim Garry managed to somehow float directly to Port Royale too. It's like a miracle I tell you! Not the kind of place you want to be standing around with your hands in your pockets!

They manage to rescue Dr. Hunter before the giant puppet crab had it's way with her! Nobody ever seems to be very surprised about anything, but now they have to find a way to get off the island before it goes down again!

Dr. Hunter volunteers to be a decoy!

The chase leads them across a very scary steaming thin lava crust with quicksand underneath it that they have to traverse very carefully! These rogues are all a bunch of cutthroats, so when one goes down, nobody ever volunteers to help! You know that "All for one, and all for one!" kind of deal!

Port Royale goes down for the final count!

Don't bother looking back folks, it's not set to resurface for another 600 years!

Even with that massive array of talent, "Port Sinister" barely manages to sprout wings, but it's still worth checking out! If the movie was half as good as this poster, it would have been great, but unfortunately, the poster is at least 13 times better! Before I forget, Big Thanx to everybody who has contributed to this place in any form, Happy Nuke Year Ya'll!! 2012 should be a gas!!!