WITHOUT WARNING - "The Story Without A Name" (1952)

 This Saturday Night Special was a muchly appreciated recommendation from KD, and lucky for me and you, I was able to find a decent copy of it on YouTube to watch!

 "Without Warning" might seem like one long 77 minute public service announcement...........
............ but it's a really good one!

 There's basically two ways to do this. People are getting killed and the time in the movie is spent trying to figure out who is doing it, or you've got people getting killed, you know who the killer is, and the movie is about seeing how long it takes them to get caught!

"Without Warning" falls into the latter category, as you are introduced to the killer in the first few minutes!  

This particular killer has a bit of a unique modus operandi, he uses a pair of garden shears!

The grisly murder is  in all the headlines!

In the meantime, the cops start a manhunt!

 No, it wasn't the milkman who did it!

 Then all the weirdos come out and start confessing to murders they didn't commit! One idiot goes nuts choking that doll to demonstrate how he murdered the girl! (He was too stupid to know she was stabbed to death!)

 The geniuses in the lab helped with a lot of the investigative work back then!

 So here he is! He's a normal enough guy for being a gardener!

Adam Williams as Carl Martin was a staple on TV for three decades and was on "Science Fiction Theatre," "Thriller," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," and two episodes of "The Twilight Zone," "A Most Unusual Camera," and "The Hitch-Hiker."

 Carl Martin spots himself another possible victim! We don't know much about why he does what he does, but we do know he likes blondes!

 So here's the message to all the beautiful young women in the world, don't trust strangers, even if you are a two-bit floozie, because something really bad might happen to you if you're not careful about the kind of people you hang out with!

 Well, she was not listening very good at all!

 He takes her where all guys go on their first date!

Like Nowhere'sville Daddy-O!

What did I tell you?

Angela (Creature With The Atom Brain) Stevens gets credit as the 'blonde!'

 The two cops investigating the case are played by Edward Binns who was also in two "Twilight Zone" episodes, "I Shot An Arrow Into The Air," and "The Long Morrow," on the left. On the right is Harland (Donovan's Brain, The Monster That Challenged The World) Warde!

The plan is to send out all these blonde gals out to the local dives, and see if they can flush out this creep! Of course, they will all each be closely watched by a plain clothes cop for safety!

 Marilee (The Rifleman, Rawhide) Phelps is the next potential victim!

Adam does a good job of being a lying sleazeballl!

 It looks like they are finally going to catch this bastard, and then he notices he's being followed!

 This time he leaves a weird clue, a steel suppository!

 Byron Kane is the Police chemist. 

What he's doing here is actually making a cup of coffee!

Byron was not only an actor, but he was also the associate producer of the "Peter Gunn" TV series. He was in "Gog," "The Monster That Challenged The World," and "The Twilight Zone" episode titled "From Agnes - With Love."

 Sure made me wonder where they found this ramshackle shack overlooking the highway that they used as Carl Martin's home!

 When they finally catch the rotten sumbitch, well, that's the end of the story!

 See you in Hell Carl, you piece of garbage!

 

  "Without Warning" has got an awesome cast, a swingin' soundtrack, and here's the place where you can watch it,

Para Nada, Gratis, like Free, so why not?

BATTLE OF BLOOD ISLAND / One Of Corman's Puerto Rican Trilogies - 1960

Today we have the third installment of Roger Corman's Puerto Rico Trilogy that includes THE LAST WOMAN ON EARTH and CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA. In the story, two American soldiers are the only survivors of a unit wiped out in a battle with Japanese troops on an isolated island. The men, who don't like each other at all, try and find a way to put their differences aside in order to evade the Japanese and survive the ordeal...

This thing stars Richard Devon and Ron Gans as the soldiers. Richard was in SPACE PATROL in 1954 and worked for Roger Corman on THE UNDEAD, TEENAGE DOLL, THE VIKING WOMEN and WAR OF THE SATELLITES in the fifties and played Detective Stewart in BLOOD OF DRACULA. Ron Gans was in HOT ROD, KILLERS FROM SPACE, OPERATION MAD BALL, HIGH SCHOOL BIG SHOT, THE WILD RACERS and THE THING WITH TWO HEADS.

Here's some familiar PR scenery, this time we're in the Pacific on a remote Asian island! Anyway, this is a Japanese military encampment after they slaughtered American troops coming ashore.

Only two soldiers escaped death, one is Moe, he sneaks into the camp to see what he can see... Well, he sees this communications dude with a sexy photo of Betty Grable hanging in a choice spot for his viewing pleasure!

Back at the cave where Moe and Ken are staying, Ken's wounded, a Japanese soldier is ready to shoot Moe in the back when Ken tosses his bayonet into the enemy's gut, saving Moe.

Moe has to do all the heavy lifting, after beating up some soldiers, he's attacked on his way back to the cave!.. Hey! What's a guy have to do to get some respect around here!!

I swear, at least 60% of the movie is spent with these two just talkin' about stuff!

Then, the Navy goes sailing by without even waving bye-bye, making Moe a little crazy...

On a hunch, Moe piggy backs Ken (who can't walk) toward the shoreline.

Moe drops from exhaustion, he just can't go any further... But then, Ken sees something going on at a distance and shows Moe.

Moe runs for a distance and confronts two American soldiers there. He finds out that they have been rescued and runs back to Ken. The guy Moe's grabbing is none other than Roger Corman hisself, saving on budget costs! Roger did not direct this one.

So, Moe gives Ken a piggy back ride to freedom, prompting The End of the movie. Welp, that's it, join us tomorrow for our last post in November, here, at The Dungeon!!..

LA BAMBOLA DI SATANA - "The Doll Of Satan" (1969)

I hope everybody's thankful that they get to know about movies like tonight's Wacked-Out Wednesday Feature from Italy!

This movie is called "La Bambola Di Satana," and it's English title was "The Doll Of Satan!" 

If they changed the title to "La Bombola Di Satana," they could have called it "The Cylinder Of Satan" which would have been a more interesting choice, and just as informative!
An even sillier literal translation is from the German "Der Satan Ohne Gesicht" to
"Satan Without Face." Just for the record, Satan is not in this movie, unless you count the male lead, whose name was Jack Seaton!

 I kept wanting to say that this film is more Krimmi than it is Giallo, but now as I think about it, it's kind of a pretty cool combination of the two!

The basic premise is an olde rich guy dies, and leaves everything including his castle to his pretty blonde niece, but other nefarious people are wanting the castle because it's secretly sitting on a big pile of Uranium that is worth a fortune!

 So stuff some more Lira in the Silver-Vox, and let's get this party started!

 The older dude in the box by himself looks pretty suspicious I must admit!

 This film has an incredible soundtrack that varies from these rockin' club scenes to what sounds like outtakes from possibly a Ornette Coleman/Charles Lloyd/Sun-Ra free jazz horror set, all courtesy of Maestro Franco Potenza!

Erna (Carnal Revenge, Les Lesbiennes) Schurer is Elizabeth! They're trying to drive her krazy so she'll sell the castle cheap and fast!

The crazy girl in the next room doesn't have as much to do with anything as you would think!

Do women still use those eyelash curlers?

The dog's role is more important than the girl in the wheel chair!

They are having a big slumber party and are trying to do everything in their power to make Elizabeth think there's a ghost that was also named Elizabeth haunting the joint!

They keep drugging Elizabeth to make her have krazy dreams and hallucinations!

There's a fair share of nakedness like this, but not much actual nudity, and for some reason, it's all done very conservatively!

I'm taking a guess that at least 15% or more of the movie is Elizabeth in bed!

A couple of people get killed and/or tortured, but it's mostly all just a bad dream!

Miss Elizabeth is in a heap of trouble. Where's The Macho Man when you need him?

Hooded characters like this are always freaky!

Meanwhile, back in bed...............

Elizabeth is starting to wake up to the idea of selling the place!

 He's asking the dog, what does that tell you??

For my money, "La Bambola Di Satana" has a lot more in common with a film like say "House On Haunted Hill" than it does with countless Giallo flicks. Maybe it's the lack of stabbings or detectives that make it different, or maybe it's the fact that it was the only film that Director Ferruccio Casapinta's ever worked on in any capacity. Either way, it's worth watching just to hear the music if nothing else. Now somebody just needs to release the soundtrack!