DIE WEISSE SPINNE - Peter Thomas - "The White Spider" (1963)

Bug Kudos to Sinister Cinema for bringing out the series of Edgar Wallace films, "England's Master of Mystery & Horror" at a very reasonable price, and for including titles like "The White Spider" which even though it isn't an Edgar Wallace film, or English, it falls into the category of "And Others He Inspired" quite nicely!

No strangers to the strange world of Edgar Wallace, director Harold Reinl, and writer Egon Eis are able to spin this tale of a mad makeup artist as well as the master himself!! Harold Reinl also directed "Room 13" and the three best Jerry Cotton Movies! Mystery movies just don't get much better than this!!

A staple in German films of this era, Dieter Eppler shines like a bald diamond as the multi-faceted, and multi-faced Summerfield! Eye patch AND sunglasses at night, now that's a wild cat!! Summerfield is a very bad dude, and besides car crashes, he also has a penchant for cable and hangings!

Karin Dor as Muriel Irvine, the tortured widow left behind, made a successful transition from German to U.S. film, with her roles in Alfred Hitchcock's "Topaz" and Ian Fleming's James Bond vehicle, "You Only Live Twice."

Is the little white spider good luck or is it bad luck? Muriel's husband dies in a fiery car crash as he was leaving The Club, but what's really behind the whole thing?

The Germans have their own special ways of dealing with employees that they have a disagreement with!

Meet Horst Frank as Kiddie Phelips, one of the most devious henchmen you don't ever want to meet. He looks harmless enough, but he is a vicious killer! Last time we saw Horst was as crime boss Larry Link in the classic Jerry Cotton feature, "The Traps Snaps Shut At Midnight!"

The last, but definitely not least major player in "The White Spider" is yet another Dungeon iconoclast, Joachim Fuchsberger as just plain ole Ralph Hubbard!

Ralph is literally up to his ears in trouble as the smartass ex-con trying to help Muriel sort out all the problems after her husband's untimely demise!!

The music for "Die Weisse Spinne" was composed by one of the Dungeon's major musical heroes, and all around nice guy, the masestro Peter Thomas! Peter's work is always just one step above the rest, driven by boundless imagination and unpredictable jazzy scores. Besides everything else, he wrote the music for "Raumpatrouille" the German Space Patrol, The Jerry Cotton films, and a score of Edgar Wallace movies. Just a couple of titles we may have never mentioned before are "To Hell With School," "The Mysterious Magician," and "Face Of The Frog!"

Kiddie and Summerfield have a brief disagreement, and Summerfield quickly shows Kiddie who's the boss with one of his cable lasso tricks!

Ever want a cheap but very effective scary ass Halloween mask? Well, don't forget about the old silk stocking over the head routine, it always looks freaky!!

There's also a very mysterious force being emitted by the authorities, and even the local law enforcement can be subject to intense interrogation!

I can't count high enough, so I don't know exactly how many different personas Summerfield takes on during the course of the film, but I'm pretty sure it's more than Tony Randall in "7 Faces Of Dr. Lao!"

Here's even a couple more, let's hope he got paid salaries for each different character, it would only be fair!

In the film "The College Girl Murders," I wrote that Joachim Fuchsberger was chewing gum throughout the whole movie, in this one, I think he's munching on something about half the time! What a great character!

Joachim is the only one smart enough to carry wirecutters around with him!

I'm not sure exactly who to credit for set design, but isn't this a wild amalgamation of objects? There's a skeleton, a Balinese carved mask, a poster of a polka trio, and Lord only knows what else just for starters!

In The End, this whole amazing film gets a most deserved standing ovation, kinda like when CREAM reunited, it's an all-star ensemble!!

DER UNHEIMLICHE MÖNCH - "The Sinister Monk" (1965)

 

It's a Sinister Saturday Night Special down in The Dungeon with another Edgar Wallace tale of woe, "Der Unheimliche Mönch," oder auf Englisch................................

 

 

........."The Sinister Monk!"

 

"We know where to find him, it's right about here, in London some place!"

And this would be the him in question! This is a story of cold-blooded murderer, and what happens after a young girl is murdered in a famous English boarding school.

 "The Sinister Monk" has an all-star cast that includes:

Harald (The Brides Of Fu Manchu) Leipnitz as Inspector Bratt, the man who has to untangle the whole mess!

 

Perennial Dungeon favourite Karin Dor is Gwendolin Gilmore, the girl who inherited the money, because of course, there has to be a girl who inherits the money, and a seriously nasty family who all want to get their mitts on it!

"The entire country lives in terror. The newspapers call the mad killer "The Sinister Monk."

Siegfried (The Mysterious Magician) Lowitz is the villainous Sir Richard.

Ilse (The Curse Of The Hidden Vault) Steppat is Lady Patricia.

 

Hartmut (Überfahrt) Reck is the sniveling Ronny.

Uta (The Oblong Box) Levka is Lola.

Rudolf (The College Girl Murders) Schündler is the eccentric mask making in house artiste!

Dieter (Curse Of The Blood Ghouls) Eppler is Sir William. 

There are a lot of Sirs in this film, but not many gentlemen!

"Who is "The Sinister Monk?"

Siegfried (Room 13) Schürenberg is back as Sir John, a role he would play for at least six more movies after this. "The Sinister Monk" was also the last of this series of Edgar Wallace films that was in black and white.

Und..........Last but not least is Eddi Arent as Smith, who if I counted correctly was in eighteen of these Edgar Wallace masterpieces!

 

Let us not forget the man who wrote this show, Mr. Edgar Wallace!

And his Co-star, the man who wrote the score, the always astounding, Maestro Peter Thomas!

25 GOOD REASONS TO WATCH OLDE MOVIES!!

Just Some Of My Favourite Actresses! (Out Of Hundred's)

So I saw what a thought was a recent post at The Cathode Ray Mission blog that said "The latest blog thing is to list your 25 favorite actresses so I thought I'd give it a try," so I thought I would also give it a try, even though, as usual, I'm about 7 1/2 years late!

This is basically an impossible task, but it's a good place to start when thinking about things like this! 

Lists are incredibly difficult, but here you go from my twisted perspective!
This list is in no particular order, and is by no means complete!

#01- MARLIES DRAEGER

#02 - KARIN DOR

 #03 - GRACE KELLY

#04 - LINDA DARNELL

 
#05 - BEVERLY GARLAND

 #06 - ANNETTE FUNNICELLO

#07 - ALLISON HAYES

 #08 - SENITA PELKEY

#09 - FAITH DOMERGUE

#10 - JAYNE MANSFIELD

#11 - FAY SPAIN
 #12 - LORENA VELZAQUEZ

#13 - YVONNE MONLAUR

#14 - STELLA STEVENS

#15 - CONNIE STEVENS

#16 - THE COLLINS TWINS (Two for the price of one!)

#17 - TUESDAY WELD

#18 - ANNE FRANCIS

#19 - SHARON TATE


#20 - CAROLINE MUNRO

#21 - HILLARY HEATH

#22 - HAYLEY MILLS

#23 - MARY WORONOV

#24 - EVA BARTOK

#25 - ELISA MONTÉS