THE NIGHT WALKER / William Castle Productions - 1964

Welcome to Friday Night Halloween Countdown Drive-In with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Our offering tonite is by one of our very favorite directors, Mr. William Castle, and, was written by Robert (PSYCHO) Bloch. By the way, we just scored a disc of Castle's PROJECT X, so, look for that one in the future!

The story's about a woman, Barbara Stanwyck, who's haunted by recurring nightmares which seem to be instigated by her husband, Hayden Rorke, who was supposedly killed in an explosion.

The catchy theme music is by another Dungeon favorite we've featured lately, the awesome Vic Mizzy! Vic made the most of his 33 composing credits by creating classic themes for THE ADDAMS FAMILY and GREEN ACRES.

Letz bring in our littlest Dungeon helper and button pusher, natcherly, it's... Rufus The Gnat! As they say in Green Acres, Hello der, Rufus!.. The lil' guy's here to start our Eariffic Soundclip, so, push the big red 'GO' button, now, Rufus! Here's... THE NIGHT WALKER!

What are dreams?..

What do they mean?..

When you dream, you wander into another world where everything is strange and terrifying... When you dream, you become...

A big ole' eyeball in a dude's fist?!.. No, you become... A Night Walker!!

The great Paul Frees does the narration. Paul has done some of the coolest narrations and character voices that it makes you head spin to see the list! Here are a few things he's done to remind us... He played Dr. Vorhees in THE THING, Barney Bear in MGM cartoons, the alien voice in EARTH vs THE FLYING SAUCERS, various voices in the US version of THE H-MAN, played a doctor in SPACEMASTER X-7, various voices in BEANY And CECIL, various voices in THE BEATNIKS, the Talking Rings in THE TIME MACHINE, Boris Badenov in ROCKY & BULLWINKLE, Dirty Dawson in ONE HUNDRED AND ONE DALMATIONS, various voices in TOP CAT, Disney's Ludwig Von Drake, various voices on FRACTURED FLICKERS, Barnyard Horse in MARY POPPINS, George and John on THE BEATLES TV series, Dr. Who's voice in KING KONG ESCAPES and Singer of 'The Darktown Strutters' Ball' in THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES!

Hayden Rorke plays millionaire Howard Trent, Barbara Stanwyck plays his wife Irene, and, Robert Taylor plays their lawyer, Barry Moreland.

Howard and Irene don't get along that well, as you will hear in the soundclip.

One night, Howard goes up to his room/lab and there's an explosion, killing him... Or, did it?!

Love this, the floor never gets fixed the entire movie, making sure you know it'll be an important part in the story!

Hayden makes an exceptional Night Walker!

Irene finally gets to meet the mysterious man in her dreams!

He convinces her to marry him immediately, so, they set out to find a justice of the peace. They find an open establishment.

The pews are packed!

As Fred Sanford would say to the minister!.. You big dummy!!

Then, Howard shows up and ruins all the fun... Great visuals here!

Irene's having kind of a bad day!

And, the time is exactly!..

So, who does this mysterious arm belong to?!..

Barry reveals what a total creep he is when he takes off his disguise!

There's a gun shot and Barry falls to the floor, dead from a bullet in the back!

Irene finds out from The Dream that there were actually two plots going on to aquire the money from her husband's estate.

The Dream tries to use a fire extinguisher to back Irene into the hole in the floor, but, ends up falling through it himself!

Bill leaves us with another one of his twisted little signatures!

Here's the Spanish poster...

Tune in tomorrow as we continue the 2011 Halloween Countdown!

TRIFFIDS / Hermanos Guzanos - 1988

Here's another monster tune by those crazy worms from their X-13 album!.. TRIFFIDS!

AN EVENING OF EDGAR ALLAN POE - Les Baxter - "Vincent Price" (1970)

As of May 27 of this year, Mr. Vincent Price would have been 100 years old, so as suggested for part of this Halloween Countdown, I'd like to share with you some info about a film a lot of people don't know about, Vincent Price in a one man show as Edgar Allan Poe!

There are four tales in this film, and each one is delivered with the enthusiasm that only a man of this talent can render! If people running high schools had any brains, they'd be showing this film in classrooms from California to Maine! The first story is the classic "Tell Tale Heart!"

The whole film is only 53 minutes long, and Vinnie is riveting!

Vincent Price was not only a fine gentleman, a patron of the arts and a culinary expert, he also had the uncanny ability to dig deeper inside than most and find the true madness that resides within each and every one of us!

Deeper and deeper into the madness until.......

.....Wait a minute, is that a real heart??

ON IMDB, Vincent is listed as narrator on this film, but boy, is that an understatement! This is so much more than a reading, this is an opportunity to feel the depth and depravity of Edgar Allan Poe's mad genius in all it's glory delivered in the first person!! I defy you to name a modern actor with big enough balls to attempt such a feat!!

"The Cask Of Amontillado" has special meaning to me because it's a poem I chose for a dramatic reading for a speech class I had in high skool!! There should be no doubt I didn't win any awards!

The limited music there is was composed by Dungeon hero and AIP workhorse Les Baxter! There's not much, but it adds punctuation to Edgar and Vinnie's performance!! Give Nicholson and Arkoff some extra credit for enabling this flick to exist! It's sure not the regular fodder most studios felt a need to release then or ever!

Just like today, "The Inqusition is in the hand of it's enemies!!"

Vincent Leonard Price Jr. managed to rack up 194 credits in his short 82 years on this planet, and as the beautiful scary Karen Carpenter would later say, "We've Only Just Begun!"

GREETINS' FROM FRESNO!

This is a handmade postcard Tabonga sent me in 1981!!