TASTE OF FEAR - Clifton Parker - "Ice Cream Of Fear!" (1961)

This week's Saturday Night Special is part two of an impromptu quasi-tribute to Ronald Lewis originally called "Taste Of Fear," but like a good majority of films of this ilk, it's name was changed to "Scream Of Fear" because somebody somewhere thought it had a better taste to it! So..... without further delay, let's get this puppy rolling!

First off, there is something about this title card and the opening scene from this movie that is very misleading, but you're going to have to figure that out on your own!

This scene is actually out of order as far as the movie is concerned. In the movie, this is what you see before the title card and the credits roll. Some guys are trolling the lake, searching, and finding the body you saw in the title card! This is a pretty awesome shot with those snow covered mountains in the background that lets you know right off that this is not a normal movie! The spooky music is provided by Clifton (CURSE OF THE DEMON) Parker!

The man of the hour is once again Ronald Lewis, not as a race car driver this time, but as Robert, the chauffeur for a very wealthy family! Bob, as he sometimes called, has just picked up the estranged and crippled daughter and heiress Penny Appleby at the airport, and is taking her to her Father's estate in France! Penny has been out of country for many years! The petite but oh so lovely Susan Strasberg has the role of Penny! Susan's career wasn't filled with much horror, but she was in two Night Gallery TV episodes, and starred in two classic cult stoner drug movies, "The Trip," and "Psych-Out!"

Penny Appleby is greeted by Jane Appleby, a cordial stepmother she has never met played by Ann (Breaking The Sound Barrier) Todd, and told that her Father is out of town for a few days on a business trip! They have gone to great lengths to make Penny's stay a pleasant one, by adding makeshift ramps to aid in her mobility!

It doesn't take long before Penny rolls into a room that appears to house none other than a dead version of her Father!

Penny reacts predictably to the situation!

The dead Father is played by Fred Johnson who was in "The Quatermass Xperiment," "The Curse Of Frankenstein," "The Brides Of Dracula," "Doctor Blood's Coffin," and was also the guy in the Yeti suit in "The Abominable Snowman!"

In reality, the room is nothing more than a storage area for a bunch of oddball garage sale items! Is Penny really totally out of her mind?

In a frantic retreat, Penny rolls her wheelchair into what appears to be the strangest swimming pool I've ever seen, and is fished out of the water by the ever so heroic chauffeur Bob!

At dinner that night, her Father's good friend, a shrink named Dr. Pierre Gerrard, tells Penny that maybe her mind is why she is crippled, and not her body! Penny then explains that her mind has no control over the broken back she received when she was tossed off a horse many years previous! The Doctor is played by none other than Christopher Lee, who it is said is on record as saying that in his opinion, "Scream Of Fear"  is THE best film Hammer ever made!

The next night her Father's body appears in Penny's bedroom! They find a wet spot in the chair where Penny saw the body, so her and Bob deduct that the body must be stored in this freezer, but after prying off the lock, they find themselves in the wrong!

"Why Bob, Why?" Susan Strasberg is so beautiful, sweet and innocent, it's a real shame she succumbed to breast cancer at the age of 60 in 1999!

Whoa! Looks like they need a better pool cleaning service, that's for sure! Unfortunately Ronald Lewis's career fizzled out in the 70's,  and after that he became quite despondent and decided to end it all by taking a bunch of barbiturates in 1982!

Having nowhere else to look, Bob takes the plunge, and indeed finds the body of Penny's Father at the bottom of the pool!

The two of them decide to go to the police and report what they found! Seemingly, the Stepmother, probably in cahoots with the Psychiatrist, wanted Penny to go mad, so she would be the one to inherit all the money instead!

I had no idea that General Motors ever made anything but automobiles, but I guess in Europe in the 1960's, they were apparently in the crane business!!

"Scream Of Fear" is a great little thriller, so for all of you who have never seen it, even though it's been out for more than 50 years, there is no way I am going to give away the ending! You can find it on Netflix as a double Feature with "The Gorgon," and it's also available on Amazon! If Christopher Lee and I both think it's that good, I don't think it's worth arguing about! Just do it!

RADIO RANCH / Mascot Pictures - 1940

It's another Friday Cowboy Theater with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. What we gots is the re-edited version of the 12 chapter serial THE PHANTOM EMPIRE from 1935, the alternate title for this 70 minute movie is MEN WITH STEEL FACES. It stars the popular singing cowboy Gene Autry who has an amazing 147 soundtrack credits. Boy, do I remember his version of 'Here Comes Santa Claus" from when I was a kid!

Eegah!! sent over a very nice soundclip from the flick, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there by the escape hatch, NOW, Rufus The Gnat! Here's our audio offering for... RADIO RANCH!

Gene and the gang are doing their weekly radio show from Radio Ranch for the big listening audience that used to exist back then...

There are the go-getting teen cowgirl and cowboy pals at Radio Ranch, it's not long before they discover this mysterious pendant.

The underground civilization of Murania is overseen by the evil Queen Tika played by Dorothy Christy. Dorothy was the feisty Mrs. Betty Laurel in the great Laurel and Hardy classic, SONS OF THE DESERT!

Murania has weird devices to spy on surface activity.

This band of Devo nerds use the mines to reach the surface from Murania. Or, I suppose they could by Devo's grandads...

Here's a great shot of Smiley Burnette who plays Gene's faithful sidekick, Oscar. Oscar seems like an odd name for a cowboy to me.

This is the depth gauge they use in Murania to know where the Hell they are.

Losing his radio singing contract is the one thing that just can't happen to Gene, so, he sings from an airplane as his band plays at the ranch! Pretty clever...

I love this shot!

Smiley and his pals put on some robot suits and sabotage the Queen's plan for conquest!

Then, their melting ray device goes haywire!

Gene and the gang get the heck out of Dodge just in the nick of time before...

Murania melts into the center of the Earth. The last shot shows the Queen melt into goo!

Letz jest end this thing with another song!

THE FULL TREATMENT - Stanley Black - "Stop Me Before I Kill!" (1960)

Tonight's Wednesday Weirdness is an interesting little Hammer suspense flick from 1960 originally called "The Full Treatment," but the title as released in the U.S. was changed to "Stop Me Before I Kill!" for some stupid reason!

This is a shot from the opening scene, and the music from composer Stanley (The Crawling Eye) Black is swinging hard right out of the box! It might just be some of Stanley's best work!

The title is a bit of a misnomer, since the driver of this car just caused a head on collision, and the driver of the other vehicle died! If they really thought they needed to change the title so bad, they probably should have called it, "Stop Me Before I Kill Again!" That would have made more sense!

This accident is especially troubling since the man behind the wheel with his head through the windshield was a professional Grand Prix race car driver! As you can see by the endorsement on the side of the Castrol truck, his name is Alan Colby, a pretty big cheese in the racing world! Alan Colby was played by Ronald Lewis who the following year had the lead role as Sir Robert Cargrave in William Castle's creepy film, "Mr. Sardonicus!"

After a year of recuperating, Alan and his wife Denise played by Diane Cilento are going on holiday to the South of France in an attempt to start a new life together. In real life, Diane Cilento was married to Sean Connery for 11 years! Despite everything, Alan and Denise are very happy together, but there's just one small problem!!

Ever since the accident, Alan has this overwhelming and compelling urge to strangle Denise! Neither of them know why, but for some damn reason Denise loves him enough to try and deal with it! Now that's one dedicated wife! If she's not careful, she's going to become DEADicated instead!

It doesn't take long for the happy couple to meet up with Psychiatrist  David Prade as portrayed by Claude Dauphin! This well tooled Frenchman also played 'The President Of Earth' in Roger Vadim's "Barbarella!"

Ahh, but it seems the good Doctor's intentions are not 100% honourable! As it turns out, Sean Connery was not the only one who thought Diane was hot, especially when she's out skinnydipping!

Alan and Denise go back to London  to sort things out, and continue to try and put the pieces of their life back together! Alan sports the latest design in transistor radios around his neck! And you thought your ipod was cool!

After another attempt on Denise's life, despite misgivings, Alan finally gives in, and lets the Doctor, who also has a practice in London, try and find out what his freakin' problem is!

Alan is at least finally able to face his fears of driving, and gets set to drive in the Grand Prix again!

After many attempts, the Doctor finally breaks through using dream therapy and oxygen deprivation to get Alan to admit why he wants to strangle Denise so bad!

But then everything goes totally awry! The Doctor goes to Denise and Alan's flat, and Denise is gone, and all the evidence points in Alan's direction, including these surgical tools left to him by his father that are covered in blood and guts! Everything points to the fact that while Alan was blacked out, he killed Denise, cut her up, and disposed of the body in the trash chute!  The Doctor takes Alan to the Nuthouse, but on the way, Alan escapes!

As it turns out, the Doctor wanted Denise for himself all along, and all alone! He staged the whole thing, and lied to both of them,  and then talked Denise into going back to France with him while Alan was supposedly getting help after going completely mad, but Alan also had gone back to France, and after seeing them on a boat one day, followed them back to the Doctor's villa!

The Doctor finally admits to all his transgressions, and then turns the table on Alan, and gets his gun from him! As it turns out, the blood and guts were from his beloved cat! Yecch! What a freak!!

In the end, it probably wasn't such a good idea for the Doctor to ignore the sign that said the sky bucket tram that went back up to the Hotel was under repair! Yeah, the dirty bastard finally gets what he had coming to him, a free ride to Hell!!