TABONGA! AT THE MOVIES / The Fifties

Before I met Eegah!! in 1959, I saw 67 monster movies with my neighbors, dad and cousins from 1953-59. The thirteen movies I'm listing today were the ones that got to me the most or left a big impression in one way or another. Remember, I didn't see everything and these reflect only films I actually saw at the theater at the time...

VOODOO ISLAND was a pretty creepy movie, with all the killer plants and voodoo curses! And crap, it starred Dungeon Lord, Boris Karloff!

MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS was awesome, Universal had the biggest budgets and it showed. The giant dragonfly was a big bonus and the monster was truly terrifying, especially when he's wielding a sharp ax!

NOT OF THIS EARTH was one of the very best Corman productions, Paul Birch was a great villain, Beverly Garland I was in love with, Johnathan Haze was a wild character, cameo by Dick Miller and the unique Umbrella Monster was created by Paul Blaisdell... A winner!!

Wow, COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK was really something. It's one of those that you had to be there to see at the time, it was eerily haunting in all its black and white glory and weird music.

I remembered that THE FLAME BARRIER freaked me out pretty good, Blobs always occupied a special freak out spot in my overactive imagination!

I was 9 years old when I saw KRONOS, and, it blew my mind. For a sci-fi movie, it had it all. Besides the awesome robot, there were lots of other wild spacey things going on.

ENEMY FROM SPACE will always be my second favorite sci-fi movie from the fifties. I love this freaking creepy flick, Brian Donlevy IS Quatermass!! This card has been signed by the lovely Vera Day!

I like TARANTULA! the best of all the Universal fifties monster flicks. Man, at the time, it hit me between the eyes with a knuckle sandwich! The lab, the very convincing giant tarantula, the victims' gruesome makeup... The cherry on the top was Leo's last scene where his face was melting. That one was one of my top ten scares, it screwed with me for a long time afterwards!

CURSE OF THE DEMON was truly terrifying, like the night scene in the forest with those eerie sounds! When the Demon did appear, well, the goods definitely get delivered!

Man, did I love this flippin' over the top flick, THE BLACK SCORPION was action packed excitement in a stick of TNT! The big screen close ups of the scorpion's face were insane, since they turned the sound way up during those segments!

FORBIDDEN PLANET is my all time favorite fifties movies, that can never change. Holy cow, Robby, the incredible ID Monster, the super science, the fantastic crew, the saucer, Morbius, the sultry Anne Francis, the impossible electronic sounds, the scenery, and, on and on!..

My dad took me to see THE FLY when I was 10, I just was not ready to see the ultimate fifties makeup masterpiece, the twitching head of the monster!.. I thought I was gonna die!! The whole movie is fantastic, with Vincent Price and in colour.

Okay, THE BLOB takes 1st place in fifties scares for me, no shit, it messed with me the worst! Shown above is the sheet music for THE BLOB. I had the 45 single of this classic tune and played the crap out of it! Hope you enjoyed this little fun trip into the past... Tune in Wednesday when Eegah!! comes a knockin'..

THE WITCHES MOUNTAIN / Azor Films, Spain - 1972

Whoa!.. Today we gots one extreme wild an' wooly soundclip from 1972 Spanish flick starring Patty Shepard, her career was nothing but Euro flick from 1966-88, big total of 47! Some movie she star in are ASSIGNMENT TERROR, THE WEREWOLF vs THE VAMPIRE WOMAN, CRYPT OF THE LIVING DEAD and SLUGS (US titles)!!

Everything start when mom come home and crazy thing happening like weird writing on mirror and little daughter kill the cat!! Oh, by the by, all this have absolutely nothing to do with the flick, lady just having bad day!!.. WTF!!!

No wonder story not make a lot of sense, screenplay by FOUR dude! But, music is great and really out there for 1972 Spain, at least Tabonga think so! Dude responsible is Mr. Fernando García Morcillo, he end up with 64 composing credit from 1951-97! More titles he compose for: THE SECRET OF DR. ORLOFF, FANTASIA 3, A WITCH WITHOUT A BROOM, THE CANNIBAL MAN, VOODOO BLACK EXORCIST, NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS and HOWL OF THE DEVIL!

So, Ralphie the Tarantula tell Tabonga his clock say it time to press giant big red 'GO' button once again here at old Dungeon. Oh, an' he say this dedicated to 'Monte.' Don't ask Tabonga, you figure out how tarantula' brain work! El Monte de las Brujas! Better batten down you hatches for this one!!

Perv hero pro photographer Mario (John Gaffari) taking topless pics of Patty as she sunbathe in the Pyrenees. Then, he ask her if she want to explore area with him since he on photo assignment.

What else, she say okay! Producer remind her that if she refuse... No flick! Anyway, they head out for adventure.

They stop for night at old castle. Kinda weird inn keeper and place, but, hey, can have fun anyway, so, a wash! Okay, we take the room!!

Tabonga spend extra time to get this 'perfect' still, so, everbloody better appreciate it!

But, fun get all wrecked because of perv inn keeper!

Next day they go on merry way and Mario waste lots of time an' film because he forget to take off lens cap!

They wander all over countryside and eventually stumble upon old witch place.

Old bat seem kinda okay but then she like to put long pin in doll head for some reason... Hmmm! Wacky!

Mario snoop around and find large quanity of pogey bait, and so he dispose of it best way possible!

Time to get hell out of another place! But, where in hell we going?

That night Mario and Patty get trapped and coven of witch come an' have big ceremony on mountain top!

They come for Patty!! "Patty, Patty, fo fatty!"

Okay, to make crazy mix-up story short... Patty turn into witch, Mario get ass kick good by gurlz!! Perfekt ind!

THE SCI-FI AND MONSTER MOVIE POSTERS OF REYNOLD BROWN (1955 - 1960)

 

In 1994 they made a movie called "The Man Who Drew The Bug-Eyed Monsters." It was a documentary about a truly astounding artiste named Reynold Brown, who was responsible for creating many of the everlasting movie posters from Science Fiction and Monster Movies of the 1950's and 60's.

 

 

This Saturday Night Special is dedicated to that man! Prepare to be amazed!

Let's get started with the classic "Creature From The Black Lagoon" from 1955.

We've shown you many of these posters before, mostly because of the studio, but not the artist, who for the most part, always stayed sinfully uncredited!

 

Just keep reminding yourself that this is all the work of one man, because it really is a little bit hard to believe! Again in 1955, here's the poster from "Revenge Of The Creature."

 

Another from 1955, here's Reynold's poster for "Tarantula!" I like the weird double spacing on the stars names they did to get the composition right. Reynold paid great attention to the expressions on all the little people in the background, but the posters were printed so cheaply, a lot of his detail was lost!

 

 

Still from 1955, here's "This Island Earth," a color film that deserved an even more colorful poster. Reynold's compositions are starting to also get busier.

Probably one of the reasons that Reynold could paint such good flying saucers was because "during World War II he worked as a technical artist at North American Aviation."

 

In more than one instance Reynold's poster art was more exciting that the actual movie. "Curucu, Beast Of The Amazon" from 1956 is a perfect example!

 

This is how cool Curucu could have really looked!
 

 1957 was a big year for Reynold like this killer poster from "The Deadly Mantis."

Reynold did not only paint posters for the monster movies, he did over three hundred, and many of them were for mainstream films like "The Alamo."

 

 

Small or tall, Reynold got the call, and every one of these films is a classic! Again in 1957, he did the poster for "The Incredible Shrinking Man." And never forget this was long before the internet or Photoshop, and this all had to come out of the mind of one man!

What a great poster for the 1957 film "The Land Unknown." Actually a whole lot of kids were pretty disappointed seeing movies like this after seeing a dynamic poster like this one.

Now this is one of my favorites from 1957, "The Monolith Monsters." The movie is wack, and this poster of Reynold's explodes with excitement. It's almost three dimensional! I need to take a break, I think I'll go watch it for a while right now!

This poster for the 1957 adventure film "The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent," aka "Viking Women And The Sea Serpent," is ten times more exciting than the movie. 

 

You'd think that would probably be enough for most people, but Reynold was just getting started, and 1958 was really a banter year for him!

Is there a more classic poster than "Attack Of The 50 Ft. Woman?" Maybe, but it's debatable!
 

From attacks by giant women to puppet people, there was no stopping Reynold!

Again in 1958, this was the poster from "Attack Of The Puppet People."
 

 

This "I Was A Teenage Werewolf" poster also from 1958 was a beaut!

Believe it or not, Reynold didn't really like making these monster movie posters that much. It was just a job to him, that considering everything, didn't even pay that well, but that didn't stop him from putting his all into each and every one of them, many times to find his artwork chopped up by some art director.

 

 

What kid in 1958 wouldn't want to go see "Monster On The Campus" after viewing this poster?

Reynold developed this style where the images popped out at you, almost in 3D. This 1959 "Atomic Submarine" poster is a good example of that.

 

Some of Reynold's early work was drawing cartoons, then he turned to illustrating magazines with artwork like this, and his work also appears on the covers of a score of paperback books!
 

This 1959 poster from William Castle's "House On Haunted Hill" is way beyond classic!
 

By 1960, the face of horror was changing, and the films based on the tales of Edgar Allan Poe became a popular subject. This "House Of Usher" poster is as equally amazing as the monster posters were.

Also in 1960, the Italian horror films like "Black Sunday" were becoming very popular, and Reynold came up with this incredible imagery.

By 1970, the movies were becoming too sexy and violent, and Reynold decided after creating the poster for "The Dunwich Horror," that he had just had enough, and he went back to doing the art that he loved, painting cowboys, and enjoying life as best he could.

To find out everything they never taught you in school or history class, go to

The Reynold Brown Website

where you can find out so much more about this great man and gifted artist!