CRY OF THE WEREWOLF / Columbia Pictures - 1944

It's Friday the 13th with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. What we gots here is another, also MARK OF THE VAMPIRE, attempt at half-ass horror from Columbia studios. Eegah!! and I remember this one from it's rounds on the fifties TV circuit, and, we always disliked it for one oblivious reason... There's no freakin' werewolf, it's a wolf played by a German Shepherd!!.. HELLO!!!

Speak of the devil! There's a rubber band around the upper jaw and snout of the doggie to make it look like it's snarling! Anywho, we have a little soundclip for your listening enjoyment, so, push the big red 'GO' button on the wall, now, Rufus The Gnat! Here's some wails from... CRY OF THE WEREWOLF!

The movie begins at a museum that is actually a mysterious old house with a secret chamber and crypt. Some of the shots of the place during the tour are amazing. And, it's the location of our first murder by the 'werewolf.' That's Fritz Lieber there as the dead Dr. Charles Morris, owner of the museum.

Here are Osa (ROCKETSHIP X-M) Massen as Elsa Chauvet, gypsy girlfriend, and Stephen Crane as the dead doctor's son, Robert. Stephen made a very wise decision to get out of the movie business a year later and opened a restaurant!

This is the police lab trying to figure out a fingerprint conundrum.

This dude learns the hard way that you just don't mess around with a female werewolf gypsy! Nina Foch as Marie Latour is on the left.

I always like to include a shot of a newspaper, we had two of them in our lil' weirdo flick, THE CREEP.

Yes, you too can make tons of cash selling insurance!

I like this scene where Robert barely gets away from the wolf in an elevator!

Nuthin' much cuter than a little gypsy doll with a big curse on it!

Robert finds a secret passageway to a crypt that has a chained stuffed wolf on display!

Then, there's the great Barton MacLane as Lt. Lane. Barton was also in THE WALKING DEAD, DRAEGERMAN COURAGE, TORCHY GETS HER MAN, BARNACLE BILL, DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1941), THE MALTESE FALCON, THE MUMMY'S GHOST, TARZAN AND THE AMAZONS, SCARED STIFF (1945), THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE and UNKNOWN ISLAND!

**Spoiler Alert - Finally, the werewolf is revealed to be Marie!

And, Elsa knows what she must do...

Ready?.. Here's the big transformation scene!!

I dunno... I'd like to see either Nina naked or the doggie in that dress! Yeah, that'd be a lot better!

Have a funky FRIDAY THE 13th!!!

STOLEN FACE - Sir Malcolm Arnold - "A Stolen Heart" (1952)

"Stolen Face" was produced by Hammer Studios the year before "Four Sided Triangle," a movie with a similar motive! In "Four Sided Triangle" a scientist duplicates his best friend's girl who he also loves, in "Stolen Face" a Doctor duplicates just the face of the woman he has been denied! Ironically, Sir Malcolm Arnold composed the music for both films!

Here's the Doctor driven mad with love, Paul Henreid as plastic surgeon Dr. Philip Ritter. Of course Paul will always be remembered for his role as Victor Laszlo in "Casablanca!" Paul also directed a lot of TV westerns in the 60's, and sometimes looks a lot like Richard Crenna!

This would be Mary Mackenzie as petty thief Lily Conover, a self-pitying convict in need of a boost of self-confidence only a plastic surgeon could bring her! Mary's career was cut short by a car accident at the age of 44!

Speakin' of freakin' car accidents, the Doc falls asleep at the wheel on the way back from the prison, and it's determined he needs a break!

So he heads off to the country for a few nights stay at the world famous "Dog And Duck!"

So's how's a Doctor supposed to relax in 1952? Well, with a cigarette and a bottle of Johnny Walker Red, what else? Smoking was so common back in the day, people would even be smoking at breakfast!

When the Doctor hears the person in the next room coughing, he decides he had better go check it out. Too bad, he doesn't have his stethoscope handy, he'll just have to listen to her chest the good olde-fashioned way!! Her name is Alice Brent, and she's played by Lizabeth Scott!

The British Doctor and the American concert pianist hit it off pretty good, both stay a couple of extra days, and since it's 1952, you can only assume they would, as T-Rex would sing years later, "go all the way!" They even go to a local pub, where she gets to show off her vast array of "musical skills", but then suddenly she leaves his life just as fast as she entered it, because it seems she's already engaged to be married! Okay, so it's not really that exciting yet, but...

Lost and alone again, the Doctor decides he can kill two birds with one stone, when he makes the decision to give Lily Conover the face of Alice Brent!

To make things right Dr. Ritter marries Lily after all the surgeries are completed, and he is one happy camper, except at this point, a minion of olde adages apply, like beauty is only skin deep, or you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink, or as Bo Diddley would so succinctly announce, you can't judge a book by lookin' at the cover!!!

Lizabeth Scott does a fantastic job in both roles, taking on two personalities with ease! There were no real monsters in Lizzie's career, but she was in "Scared Stiff" with Martin and Lewis, and co-starred with Elvis in the 1957 feature "Loving You!" Also before Hollywood she toured with the "Hellzapoppin'" road show! Born Emma Matso, Lizabeth will turn 90 this year!

Lily talks the Doc out of watching the boring opera, and they head on over to one of her old hangouts, and the joint is jumpin'! Two thirds of his time on screen, the Doctor is smoking!

The one downturn in the whole film is that this is the worst shot I've ever seen of any band ever, but the good thing is, Sir Malcolm's music is swinging! It's funny to me that when Hammer went from film noir to horror, the music went from swingin' to very serious and orchestrated. It's hard to imagine what the soundtrack from "Horror Of Dracula" or "Curse Of Frankenstein" would have sounded like if the music had been created by somebody like Peter Thomas!

Lily has no wants, but she has needs! The Doctor would buy her anything she wants, but just like any addict, she can't stop stealing! She didn't exactly buy that broach on her throat, and she's proud of it!

Alice, in the meantime, has been on the road, wowing the public, and coming to the conclusion that she doesn't love her devoted traveling partner, and fiancee any longer, and seeks out Dr. Ritter. When she sees the picture of who looks like her on his desk, he spills the beans on the whole lowdown of what he's done, and what a loser he is, and what a loser his wife is too!

Doing his best impersonation of Godzilla, the good Doctor takes crap from Lily one last time!

Let's just say the two women finally meet face to face on a train, there's a catfight, and in film noir terms, there is a happy ending for some of the characters, almost, kind of, depending on how you look at it!

THE BRAIN EATERS / Corinthian Productions - 1958

It's Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. This is another classic bad fifties flick that Eegah!! and I saw at the theater back in the day. In the movie reviews section of our '64 self published monster rag, DWRAYGER DUNGEON, well, what else, we gave it a bad review! Also, our band, HERMANOS GUZANOS, even did a sci-fi cover tune of it!

...A few weeks ago, Riverdale, Illinois was just another quiet small town. Then, on that Saturday shortly after midnight, a living nightmare began!.. This is the only script Gordon Urquhart ever wrote. Bruno VeSoto directs, Ed Nelson stars and produces, Roger Corman is executive producer. And, this is the only movie Corinthian Productions ever produced!

The music's by Tom Jonson, this is his only film credit. Anyway, get ready for our Terrorific Soundclip... Push the big red 'GO' button situated near and/or by the shelf of Tabonga Art, now, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here're some sounds of terror from... THE BRAIN EATERS!

One should never pass up the opportunity to show a beautiful 1956 T-Bird! The metallic 'alien' structure is actually quite large, I'm trying to imagine how much of the slim $30,000 budget it ate up.

Senator Walter K. Powers shows up from Washington to find out what the Hell's going on around here! Played by Cornelius Keefe in his last role.

Love this shot of Dr. Kettering scampering through the tubular interior of the structure.

It was still legal to peddle Brain Eaters on the corner in 1958!

The mayor is infected by one of the crazy critters and ends up going berserk! Check out those wild camera angles.

Damn beatniks!..

Kettering accidently lets a small chunk of Brain Eater get onto his arm. His assistant, Alice, tries to help, but, what the heck can she do?.. Scream real loud!!

There's nothing much more unsettling than small weird things creeping around in tall grass at night, but, those white pipe cleaners they use for the antennae seem plain goofy! No one takes credit for the creation of these weirdo little monsters.

Alice is the next target of the underground conspiracy. This shot always bugged me... I don't know anyone who puts a light under their bed!

This obedient dude takes a fresh Brain Eater out and places it on the floor in Alice's bedroom. Looks like a bunch of hair from a grody shower drain!

A lot of people have been infected with the little parasite creeps!

Inside the thing, they find the lost Professor Cole, played by a bearded Leonard Nimoy, spelled 'Nemoy' in the credits. You can hear him speak in the soundclip.

After he barely escapes the rampant creatures inside with Professor Cole, Alice shoots Kettering at close range! Not his day.

Kettering sacrifices himself to assure that the power lines fall directly onto the structure, thus electrocuting all the little nut-brained eaters!..

We'll end der show wif' 'dis cool Mexican lobby card!