13: BEAST FROM HAUNTED CAVE / Gene Corman Productions

Monster Monday with Tabonga begins now!.. Gene Corman takes us to Deadwood, South Dakota for this little snowbound thriller, a nice break from Bronsan Canyon and Griffith Park. Roger went back to Deadwood a year later to shoot SKI PATROL ATTACK, using pretty much the same cast.

This is a nice Mexican lobby card that used to be in my collection. One tagline from this flick sez... "Screaming young girls sucked into a labyrinth of horror by a blood-starved ghoul from Hell!"

The music is by two great composers, Alexander Laszlo and Fred Katz, and, we've heard their work many times before, here at The Dungeon...

Lettuce bring in our Monster Monday helper, fuzzy little Ralphie The Tarantula!.. Wie gehts, Ralphie? He's here to start the show, so, without further interruptions, ahem, push the big red 'GO' button there by the invisible lounge chair, now, Ralphie! Here's the theme and a booze-fuelled bathtub tune... BEAST FROM HAUNTED CAVE!

Frank Wolff plays Alex Ward, leader of a small gang of thieves, in Deadwood to steal some gold and then head to Canada. Sheila Noonan plays Gypsy Boulet, Alex's 'secretary.' Sadly, Frank suffered from depression and killed himself in December 1971 at age 43.

Michael Forest, with 229 credits, is still acting today, and, has a project now in post called MONDO HOLOCAUSTO! Last year he played a judge in THE SCARLET WORM. Here, he plays ski instructor, Gil Jackson.

I'd bet money that Sheila was actually nude in the bathtub there, because, I think she was that sexy! Sheila also looked good in Jerry Warren's THE INCREDIBLE PETRIFIED WORLD. In this scene, Alex yells for Gypsy to shaddup!

This is how you messed with kid's minds in the fifties, look how they framed Gypsy in this shot!

I like signs like that, whatever it means!

Gypsy's a bit of a flirt when she drinks! You see Alex watching the action in the background.

But, Alex has more important things to worry about, like, getting his hands on those gold bars. That's Richard Sinatra (Frank's cousin) as Marty and Wally Campo as Byron, the gang.

So, it's off to Canada, remember to take your rifle when you go skiing!

On the way, Marty sees the girl he left in a cave with the Beast earlier, plastered to a tree with some kind of web.

At Gil's cabin, the radio spills the beans on Alex, Marty, Byron and the gold bars... Smoke 'em if you got 'em!

Marty discovers another cave entrance. He goes inside and finds Gil's maid, Byron and another woman nailed to the cave wall with those infernal webs!

I swear, if they would have only put crazy looking bug-eyes and weird teeth behind some of that hair, the thing would have been much better. I'll never forget Bob Burn's make up on Chris Robinson (creator of and played The Beast) in an early issue of Famous Monsters, really freaky.