THE MANSTER / Lopert Pictures Corp. - 1959

Welcome to Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon! Tonite we gots one of the very first monster movies Eegah!! and I saw together, and, we liked it! Compared to THE INCREDIBLE TWO-HEADED TRANSPLANT and THE THING WITH TWO HEADS, this flick kills!

For the unfamiliar, the story goes like this... American reporter, Larry Stanford, is sent to interview an eccentric Japanese scientist working on weird experiments in his mountain laboratory in Japan. The doctor realizes that Larry is the perfect subject for his next experiment, so, he drugs and injects him with a serum. Eventually, Larry transforms into a hideous, two-headed Manster.

The music is by Hirooki Ogawa, who had a total of 27 composing credits with titles like THE MAN IN THE MOONLIGHT MASK, THE MONSTER GORILLA, THE CHALLENGING GHOST, THE LAST DEATH OF THE DEVIL and DIARY OF A MAD OLD MAN...

Okay then, let's bring in our lil'est Dungeon pal, Rufus The Gnat, so that he can push the big red 'GO' button over there and start our Eariffic Earclip for!.. THE MANSTER!

This is the sadistic Dr. Suzuki...

He even experiments on his own family members!

Now, he has to kill and dispose of another one...

The twisted doctor gets ready to inject his serum into reporter, Larry Stanford. Larry's played by British actor, Peter Dyneley. Peter had many TV roles (was the voice of Jeff Tracey in the 'Thunderbirds' TV series) and was in these movies... HELL BELOW ZERO, THE INBETWEEN AGE, FEMALE FIENDS, HOUSE OF MYSTERY, CALL ME BWANA and THE EXECUTIONER. He died at the young age of 56 in 1977.

While out partying with the doctor's lovely assistant, Tara, Larry starts to feel the effects of the serum in the bath house.

But, after a couple of bottles of saki, Larry's feeling no pain! That's Kinji Hendrix there on the electric Shamisen!

No, Larry's not having an LSD flashback!!

Then, of all things, his wife pops in for an intervention. That doesn't make Larry happy at all! Jane Hylton plays his wife, Linda, they were married in real life.

Larry gets a bad omen from the local Shaman.

...DIRTY BARNACLES!!!

Linda gets to meet her new bed mate, Bobo!!

Back at the ranch, things still ain't goin' that great!

Larry shows up to settle the score with Dr. Suzuki. In fact, that's what Larry just said to him... "What's up, doc?"

Larry kills the doc, knocks out Tara and then carries her to the erupting volcano!

Face it! If that thing was attached to you, you'd want it off, too!!!

A few moments from now, the thing tosses Tara into the volcano! Maybe that's why this is the only flick she was ever in.

After the separation, Larry changes back to himself, only then to have to fight the monster to it's death!

George Wyman plays the separated monster, George also had a part in BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE that same year.

Here's my very own Mexican lobby card from this cool movie!

Ghoulnight Everbloody!!..

THE ΩMEGA MAN - Ron Grainer-Country Joe and the Fish-Max Steiner-Arlo Guthrie - "Armageddon Time" (1971)

For a big-time film production, "The Ωmega Man" is shockingly not really that great! I'll take the Vincent Price version of Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend" over this or the Will Smith version any day, and then some, and I'm a big Charlton Heston fan!

The best way I can describe it is that this is the way Charlton Heston looks like he feels about the whole production! Just not real sure!!

Crusin' through a deserted city with "Theme For A Summer Place" playing on the 8-track, and turned up to 10! "Theme For A Summer Place" was originally titled the "Molly And Johnny Theme" and was written by mega composer Max Steiner, and I don't know if that's the Percy Faith or the Hugo Winterhalter version! "The Ωmega Man" is kind of like a continuation of "Human Highway" if world destruction had happened biologically instead of nuculearly!

One of the main concepts of "The Ωmega Man" is that the future is full of perks if you're lucky enough to survive! If you run out of gas, do you take the wimpy route and call the Auto Club or Onstar, no, you just go get yourself a brand new Mustang, and drive it right off the showroom floor!

Got nothing better to do during the day, you can go down to the local theatre, and watch a movie! Here's a local theatre flyer, stains and all, from the early 70's donated by our pal, not Greg G, but Gregg G, from back in the day when double features were still standard fare!!

Roll that film, and pick yourself out the best seat in the house!

If you only had one movie to watch, I'd say that "Woodstock" was a pretty good choice! One thing I really do like about "The Ωmega Man" is that it gives me a chance to mention another one of our favorite bands of all time, "Country Joe and the Fish" and "a little something we like to call rock n'soul music." From the first time I heard those mystic organ swells of "Sweet Lorraine" I was hooked! The fact that some of the world's greatest and most influential musicians like Country Joe and the Fish, the Steve Miller band, Love, Link Wray, and The Seeds etc, are not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and some members like Michael Jackson and John Lennon have been inducted twice, just proves what a bogus outfit it really is!

When the movie's over, it's time to hightail it back to the swingin' bachelor pad before all the freaks come out at night!!

Now here, Charlton looks like he means business, and it makes for a nice portrait of The Man!!

More perks of being the Last Man on Earth! Good food, good drink, and good music! Now if that damn phone would just quit ringing!!! The rest of the music in the soundtrack was composed by Ron Grainer who also wrote the theme for "The Prisoner" and "Dr. Who!" What a slacker!

That's Anthony(Dead Zone)Zerbe on the left, and Lincoln Kilpatrick on the right, as members of the nocturnal, and really pissed off "Family!" The Family's sole goal is to cleanse what's left of the world of scumbag's like Dr. Neville! Lincoln was another freak in the other Charlton Heston future flick, "Soylent Green!"

The Family's not into picking up litter, and they've got a catapult, and they are literally Hell bent on destroying the good doctor! I think The Family are mostly just jealous because Dr. Neville's got better stuff than them.......

.....like a high-powered rifle with a telescopic infrared sight!

Dr. Neville is starting to lose it just a bit while he's out on a shopping excursion!

He even thinks he sees a real person! Enter new character, Rosilind Cash as Lisa!

The doctor had a good thing going, nice pad and a swell wine cellar, but those diabolical Family bastards never give up, and it was only a matter of time until they slipped through his security system!

It's all about unions, you see, zombies and freaks can generally be dealt with on an individual basis, but when they get organized, they become a real threat!

You probably thought they were just trying to be cool, wearing their sunglasses at night, but here's the real reason why they don't like light in any form whatsoever!

Time to blow some stuff up!!

Dr. Neville meets up with Lisa again, and they escape together in the worst motorcyle chase scene I've seen lately! Even when they're moving, you can readily see that it's not Charlton Heston! Now I'm starting to wonder what else isn't real, maybe the whole movie is fake!

With Lisa back at the pad, the doc is rockin' it with a sound system that contains four speakers, an 8-track player, and a mixer! Get down!

There's some dumb romance between the doctor and Lisa, and then she too becomes infected, and then The Family really destroys the doctor's place for the last time!!

There can be no happy ending when the entire population gets wiped out not once, but twice! Three strikes and we're out!!!