Wednesday, July 31, 2013

THE CURSED FILMS OF THE DUNGEON!!!

Well, it shouldn't probably come as much of a surprise that I'm getting just a little bit burnt out on the same olde format week after week, so I've decided tonight I need to do something just a bit different to give myself, and you a break, so it's time to get into the subject of themes or keywords that we have delved into here on this blog! Now the obvious words here would be things like Horror, Terror, Monster, Beast, Doctor, Vampire, Blood etc, but I've settled on a word that presents a fairly diverse set of movies, and that is Curse! So here they are in Chronological order:

          THE CURSED FILMS OF THE DUNGEON THUS FAR!

"The Mummy's Curse" (1944)

"Curse Of The Aztec Mummy" (La Maldición De La Momia Azteca) (1957)

"Pharaoh's Curse" (1957)

"Curse Of The Demon" (1957)

"Curse Of The Faceless Man (1958)

"Curse Of The Undead" (1959)

"Curse Of The Werewolf" (1961)

"The Witch's Curse" (Maciste All'Inferno) (1962)

"The Curse Of The Crying Woman" (La Maldición De La Llorona) (1963)

"Curse Of The Stone Hand" (1964)

"The Curse Of The Fly" (1965)

"Curse Of The Voodoo" (1965)

"Curse Of The Swamp Creature" (1966)

"Death Curse Of Tartu" (1966)

"Snake Woman's Curse" (Kaidan Hebi-Onna) (1968)

"The Curse Of The Crimson Altar" (The Crimson Cult) (1968)

"The Mummy And The Curse Of The Jackals" (1969)

"Curse Of The Headless Horseman" (1972)

Well, there you go, the curse lives on, because I'll tell you one thing, that was a Helluva lot more work than I thought it was going to be! 

Just for kicks, here's a couple more super classics we haven't got around to yet, but will sometime in the future!! I mean like, CURSES ARE FOREVER, right?

"The Curse Of Frankenstein" (1957)

"The Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb" (1964)

Kudos Grande to the Wrong Side Of The Art Gallery, who puts out some of the best poster art you're ever going to be lucky enuf to find! Now there's truly a site that deserves a higher level of recognition! Thanx Mikhail!!

Monday, July 29, 2013

THE 3 WORLDS OF GULLIVER / Columbia Pictures - 1960

It's another Monsterous Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Ray Harryhausen worked on THE 7th VOYAGE OF SINBAD prior to Gulliver, MYSTERIOUS ISLAND would come next. This famous Jonathan Swift story's about Dr. Lemuel Gulliver, a bored man with ideas of leaving his small village to persue bigger dreams. He takes a boat to India but during a storm he's washed off the deck and ends up on an island inhibitated by tiny people. The next place he visits has giant people, so, in the three worlds of Gulliver he's normal sized, a giant and a mini man.

Eegah!! sent over this very musical soundclip by composer Bernard Herrmann from the movie, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button over there next to the giant amoeba, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's our audio offering for... THE 3 WORLDS OF GULLIVER!

Kerwin (JACK THE GIANT KILLER) Mathews plays Gulliver, Jo (13 GHOSTS) Morrow plays his befuddled fiance, Gwendolyn. Has a ring to it, Gwendolyn and Gulliver...

This is probably the most famous scene from the story. What strikes me here is that he's on the beach, laying on sand, I don't think those ropes or stakes would really do anything to prevent him from easily getting up!

Gulliver becomes a popular giant among men, he can be very helpful when it comes to doing the big jobs!

He even prevents a war by scaring off the invaders and towing away their war boats!

In celebrating their victory, the lil' ones do their own version of a hat dance!

After leaving the land of little people, he lands on the shore of giant people! Lo and behold, Gwendolyn is already there, living in her own doll palace!

Gwen and Gull are attacked by this oversized squirrel, he's saved when the little girl that found him drops her pig-tail into the hole he's trapped in!

The movie just wouldn't be complete without this giant chess set.

Gulliver's captors turn on him and he has to do battle with this big ol' mean as Hell gator!

Gulliver and Gwendolyn escape and it's a harrowing adventure until they can barely get away. That's them in the basket.

Luckily, they make it back to the land of normal sized junk!!

Saturday, July 27, 2013

DER MANN MIT DEM GLASAUGE - Peter Thomas - "The Man With The Glass Eye" (1969)

Welcome to another edition of  The Edgar Wallace Saturday Night Special down here in The Dungeon!

Tonight's German feature is titled "Der Mann Mit Dem Glasauge," or auf Englisch, "The Man With The Glass Eye!"  The music is once again produced by the genius mind of Mr. Peter Thomas!!

Right after the first victim gets stabbed, we get the oh so famous Edgar Wallace Spash, this time in, well, I was going to say living colour, but I guess in reality, it's actually dead colour! Edgar Wallace and Peter Thomas together again in colour! Now that's a combination punch that's hard to beat!!

A glass eye is left behind to perplex the authorities!

Speaking of authorities, these two are the main two guys! Working out of the "new" Scotland Yard, on the left is the "get down to business" ex-Nazi, Horst ("Derrick" a German TV show that ran for 281 episodes from 1974 to 1998 as the main character, Stephan Derrick) Tappert as Inspector Perkins, and on the right, Hubert (The Haunted Castle) von Meyerinck as eccentric horndog head honcho Sir Arthur! Hubert started his acting career back in 1921!

We've watched over 1600 movies in the last six years, and I think this shot right here is just about as creepy as it gets! Just freakin' weirdsville, and if that dummy named Snookie isn't weird enough just to look at, it also calls the ventriloquist Daddy when they are alone together! The ventriloquist Eric is played by Otto (Scandal In Fairyland) Czarski!

Strange characters abound, this is Jan (Illegal Border) Hendriks as the knife-throwing midnight cowboy wannabe Rubiro! Rubiro has an ongoing feud with the freakcase ventriloquist!

This dancer who was with the guy in bed that got killed in the opening scene has just put on a mask not that different from the binoculars in "Horrors Of The Black Museum," except this time, instead of getting poked in the eyes, she is stabbed in the upper lip with two poison nails causing instant death!

Right here is where this movie really starts getting very strange! You're never going to guess what this young detective's name is, are you ready? Sergeant Pepper!!! Sergeant Pepper is played by Stefan (Will Manages The Whole Thing) Behrens! Now I don't really think Stefan is a bad actor, but whoever dubbed his voice into English needs to be given fifty lashes with a wet noodle! I don't even know how to describe it, it's that annoying! Let's just say it's like the worst whiney cartoon voice you've ever heard, but as bad as it is, it doesn't totally ruin the picture! Almost, but not quite!

Narziß (The College Girl Murders) Sokatscheff has the role of The Boss, the man with the glass eye, but guess what? More trickery, he's not even the boss! That's the kind of stuff that makes this film great!!! I think he takes his eye out at least 3 or 4 times during the course of the film!

Ilse Pagé is Miss Mabel Finley, Sir Arthur's secretary! Ilse was also in "Creature With The Blue Hand" where she played the character of, what else? Miss Mabel Finley!! She was also Miss Finley in "The Monster Of  Blackwood Castle," and "The Zombie Walks!" Mabel is an extremely interesting character that has more than a normal amount of air in between her ears! She doesn't have a driver's license because she has a tendency to get the accelerator and the brake mixed up!

Two more of the main characters in all this confusion are Karin (Hoopla, Now Comes Eddie) Hübner as Yvonne, and Fritz Wepper as Lord Bruce Sheringham! Fritz was also co-star in 281 episodes of "Derrick" as Inspektor Harry Klein, and is still working today!

These are The Las Vegas Girls! They all have lots of potential to be shipped off to South America as love slaves with a cargo of heroin!

Christiane (Star Maidens) Krüger as Las Vegas Girl Linda on the left, and Marlies Draeger as Las Vegas girl Leslie on the right are invited to a party of ill repute, and are not real happy about it! Actually, it was Marlies' role in the Jerry Cotton classic "Death And Diamonds" that caused me to seek out this film, and I have no regrets even though her role here is fairly minimal!

                                                                   Surf's Up Girls!!

Someone dressed as Snookie takes his Daddy out on one final date!

Mabel seems totally oblivious to Sir Arthur's advances! You can bet that while he's giving her lessons at billiards, he also has his hand on her ass, and she doesn't object at all!

When it's found out that the hollow billiards cues contain heroin, Mabel innocently tastes a sample or three before being whisked off by the inspector!

"The Man With The Glass Eye" is a fairly serious movie, that you can't really take seriously! The humour is tongue in cheek, and scenes like this where the Las Vegas girls are being abducted in a truck that says "Fresh Meat" will keep you wondering for quite a while whether this is a comedy or not! Leave it to "Sinister Cinema" to keep this stuff alive! I'm just glad somebody has the cajones to do it!!

Monster Music

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