ERCOLE ALLA CONQUISTA DI ATLANTIDE - Armando Trovajoli & Gino Marinuzzi - "Hercules And The Conquest Of Atlantis" (1961)

Over the years, there have been scores of films, TV shows, cartoons, and video games, all about the cat with the amazing strength named Hercules!

"Hercules And The Captive Women" made in 1961 is a classical example!

An alternate title for this movie is "Hercules And The Conquest Of Atlantis!" The strange music was composed by Gino Marinuzzi Jr. and Armando Trovajoli! Armando just passed away this year at the age of 95! Armando had 218 music credits that included a lot of Dungeon faves like "Werewolf In A Girl's Dormitory," "Mole Men Against The Sons Of Hercules," and "Toto Vs. Maciste!" Gino only had 26 musical credits, but that list includes "Planet Of The Vampires," "Kommissar X - Drei Gelbe Katzen," and "The Son of Hercules vs. Venus!" Pretty heady stuff!!!

Hercules says "Really?"

This particular adventure brings Hercules to the shores of some distant beach water, where he must deal with a woman known as Antinea, The Queen of Atlantis!

Laura Efrikian as the Queen's daughter Ismene, has been imbedded in the side of a hill! Hercules to the rescue!

Herc says "What The Heck?"

This olde geezer is pulling all the strings, including the ones on the condor Herc fights along with a snake and a lion! But that's just all fodder for the proverbial Herculean cannon!

Time to literally break out the big guns! Herc now has to do battle with this mini-dinosaur creature, and he uses his big guns to break off the creature's horn, which renders it useless, kind of like shooting a zombie in the head, but not without an epic struggle of massive proportions first!! The best Hercules movies always contain some kind of fantasy elements, and this one is no exception!

Message to tough guys: It's really hard to look menacing when standing with your hands on your hips!

Hercules doesn't look exactly macho in this outfit either! The Playboy centerfold pose circa 1961 doesn't help!

The Queen of Atlantis looks like a small UFO has landed in her hair! The Queen was played by bad girl fave, Fay (Dragstrip Girl, Teenage Doll) Spain!

The guys on the island are all plagued with bad acne, and none of the girls want to go out with them!

Hercules gets real confused and almost busts a brain cell!

And then it dawns on him, "What am I doing here? Help Mr. Custer!"

 Give the makers of "Ercole Alla Conquista Di Atlantide" credit for employing lots of extras just like in "The Walking Dead!" I like that guy laying up there on that whatever-the-Hell-that-is outcropping!

The Queen's Army of super secret special forces shows up and tries to give Herc a bad time!

When the Queen's guards take their helmets off, they all kind of look like the same guy! WTF?!!

Now Herc is really confused! This was Reg Park's first on screen appearance as Hercules! He would go on to reprise the role four more times in "Hercules In The Haunted World," "Samson In King Solomon's Mines," "Hercules, Prisoner Of Evil," and  "Hercules The Avenger!" Whether you call him Ercole, Ursus, Samson or Maciste, it's all the same guy, good ole Hercules!!

Aw, what the Hell? It all turned out to be a big joke! Smile Herc, you're on "Candid Camera!"

IL MOSTRUOSO DOTTOR CRIMEN / Internacional Cinematográfica - 1953

It's Mexican Monstruo Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. What we gots is the very first major horror/sci=fi movie from Mexico, it's based on the Frankenstein story and also laid the foundation so many of the wild 'n' weird south-of-the-border films that followed. Alternate titles are EL MONSTRUO RESUCITADO (original title), MONSTER, THE RESURRECTED MONSTER and THE REVIVED MONSTER. Music's by the awesome Mexican composer, Raúl (THE BEAST OF HOLLOW MOUNTAIN) Lavista.

Eegah!! sent over a little soundclip of some creepy piano music from this flick, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there next to the monstruo mask, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's our audio offering for... IL MOSTRUOSO DOTTOR CRIMEN!

The movie's set in the Balkans, the story's about a journalist, Nora, who's ordered by her boss to answer a mysterious advertisement placed by a Dr. Ling. She meets Dr. Ling at the docks and he takes her to his mansion located miles away.

Dr. Ling plays some strange music for Nora, in his room full of beautiful female statues with a skull on the piano.

He shows her his laboratory and some weird surgical experiments he's working on.

Nora wants to see his face, so, he shows her!

Another great 'monster in the mirror' shot.

Back in the city, Nora tells her boss everything she learned about the strange doctor, including all the creepy parts. Unfortunately, the doctor is there listening to their conversation behind a partition, oops.

For revenge, the doctor comes up with a plan to kill Nora without implicating himself. He would create a handsome creature to lure her back to his place, knowing that she would never go back there after he confronted her late one night in the cemetary.

He uses this thing's life force to reanimate his 'man.'

I love this still...

Anywho, the reanimated dude meets Nora at the club, and, she's dazzled by his charm. She agrees to go with him and he takes her back to the doc's place as ordered.

Problem is, dude has fallen in love with Nora and starts fighting with the doc, good fight scenes and action here. Great ending, dude throws the doctor out the open window where he falls 100 feet to his death, whoa!!!.. Then, the police arrive and fill dude full of lead, bringing this classic flick to it's end!

DVÆRGEN - Ole Ørsted - "The Sinful Dwarf" (1973)

Thanksgiving might be over, but here's some unrefrigerated turkey leftovers for you, hope you don't  get sick, because...............

.........................."The Sinful Dwarf" is kind of like a bad case of salmonella or botulism, so just don't eat any questionable smoked salmon before you watch it!

 These shots of children's toys are not the least bit comforting, because everything is abused in this film!

The movie opens with a full grown woman playing hop scotch! Gee, do you think she just might be a little naive and immature, and will readily fall into the evil spell that "The Sinful Dwarf" casts on her. Next thing you know she's in a dirty cell with some other girls forced into a life of heroin addiction and unwilling prostitution! How much fun can you have in one movie?

 Torben Bille is "The Sinful Dwarf!"  His name is Olaf! Okay, so what else do you want to know except that you should avoid this movie like the plague! Actually, there is one other thing, the music in the movie is pretty interesting, and was created by the phenomenal Ole Ørsted! "The Sinful Dwarf" was made in Denmark, and here's an inside joke for you, this movie has an actor in it named Ted Neumann!

 This is exactly what you might want to do if you decide to view this film! Drink a whole fifth of gin! I'd drink about half of it before you even turn on the TV, and then consume the other half during the course of this film! You might actually enjoy the movie after that!

 The best and maybe the only part of this movie worth watching is this little song and dance number put on my Olaf and his Mother, who was played by Clara Keller in her sole Film outing!

 Clara Keller performs not one, but two songs, "Cho Cho Bamba," and "The Game Of Love" in this movie!

 "The Sinful Dwarf" is a sick, twisted exploitation film, and I'm sure some people think it's freakin' fantastic, it just so happens that I'm not one of them!. I got this sucker off of Netflix, and it's hard for me to believe that out of all the movies I'd like to watch that aren't available like "Carolina Cannonball, " "Capture That Capsule," Curse Of The Moon Child," and "Good Girls Do," this turkey is! Oh, well, that's just the way it goes sometimes! Just like this movie, life ain't fair!!