THE AVENGERS - "Return Of The Cybernauts" (1967)

Here we go again, it's time for the Saturday Night Sequel down here in The Dungeon!

 

The internet seems a little confused about "Return Of The Cybernauts." The IMDB has it as the first episode from Season number six of "The Avengers," that aired on February 21, 1968, and Wikipedia says that it is episode number seventeen of Season five, and aired on September 30, 1967.

 

Here's another interesting piece of information, starting with Season five, all episodes of "The Avengers" were filmed in colour, but since they didn't begin transmitting in colour until November of 1969, they were all still broadcast in black and white when first shown!

This outing we have the venerable Peter Cushing as the evil Paul Beresford.

Paul Beresford is worse than evil, because he's pretending to be John and Emma's friend, but his real intentions are to kill them in the most horrible way possible!

Instead of sending out a mercenary robot to kill people, Paul is sending out robots to kidnap people, smart guys who will be able to conjure up the most painful way of dying.

Why is Paul so mad at Steed and Mrs. Peel? It's because he believes they caused the death of his brother Dr. Armstrong played by Michael Gough in the other episode, and he wants them to pay for it!

6'5" perennial bad guy Terry Richards has the role of The Cybernaut.

Terry was in four more episodes of "The Avengers," an actor and stunt man in many films, and was the Arab swordsman that gets shot in "Indiana Jones And The Raiders Of The Lost Ark," in this memorable scene!

Even though his intentions are to murder Emma Peel, Paul obviously also desires her!

Ami (Rentaghost) MacDonald almost steals the show as the secretary with a crush on herself, who gets tossed across the room by The Cybernaught.

Diabolical Paul has everything, including a huge two-way mirror so he can spy on his guests.

Who's that knocking at my door?

Patrick Macnee was born into a wealthy family, but his Father, a horse trainer, pissed it all away drinking and gambling, and so Patrick was raised by his Lesbian Mother, and her lover Uncle Evelyn.

Paul's captive scientists come up with a device in the form of a watch that turns the person wearing it into a virtual zombie, aware, but powerless to do anything except take commands, or in other words, it basically turns them into human cybernauts! This one is for Mrs. Peel.

Mrs. Peel is now powerless!

What an idiot, she's completely under his control, and all he wants to do is kill her. I think I could come up with something better than that!

Steed notices there's something wrong with Mrs. Peel, but not before she judo chops him in the neck!

Frederick (The Persuaders, The Pretenders, The Protectors) Jaeger reprises the role that he had in the other episode as the Bunsen burnin' Benson.

Ouch, that hurts!

They end up turning the tables on Paul, and the cybernaut squeezes the life out of him!

The cybernaut is deactivated, and this time Steed gets to push it over with one finger!

CORRUPTION - "This Is Not A Woman's Film" (1968)

Tonight's Weird Wednesday presentation is called "Corruption." An equally descriptive title would be "What A Bunch Of Freakin' Weirdos."

I'm pretty sure the woman with four eyes makes this the weirdest poster I've seen lately!

"Corruption" is a movie about a couple whose lives get off track and they quickly descend into a cesspool of feces.

 

Peter Cushing is renown surgeon Sir John Rowan. 

He's doing a fairly good impression of me watching movies on this computer night after night!

Sir John's fiancé is a beautiful model named Lynn Nolan as played by Sue Lloyd, who we just saw recently in "The Baron," as Cordelia Winfield.

 

It's a real Arty Farty Party that Lynn has dragged Sir John to!

This dude is like a human canvas.

Sir John is a very serious professional, and this isn't his bag at all.

Lynn's photographer asks her to pose for a live impromptu  shoot at the party.

Sir John doesn't like it when the photographer asks Lynn to partially disrobe, and they get into a pushing contest, and the next thing you know..................

...................One of the big bright lights gets knocked over and smacks Lynn right in the kisser!

As you can see, the guests are horribly dismayed!

Lynn gets a very nasty burn on the pretty face that her whole career is based on, and will be disfigured for life.

She's pretty distressed by the whole situation!

Sir John decides to devote his life to finding a way to make Lynn beautiful again, and after scouring for weeks through a myriad of books, he thinks he has found a solution. The only thing he needs is this pituitary glad that he illegally removes from some hapless corpse in the morgue.

Obviously, the artist who did the poster did not know in what part of the body the pituitary gland was located since he's cutting into her stomach.

This colourful laser machine will play a big part in the story!

The operation is a success, and Lynn is returned to her original beauty, but there's one small problem. Because the gland came out of a dead body, the results only last for a few days, and that's where the rub comes into play. Now Sir John has to get a live pituitary gland, and that's going involve breaking some laws.

Sir John struggles with the fact that he was sworn to saving lives, not taking them, but his love for Lynn is so strong, he has no other choice, so he takes a trip to visit a prostitute whose room is full of strange dolls!

Maybe he was doing her a favor!

After the second successful operation, Sir John and Lynn decide it's time that they take a little vacation, and then the effects start wearing off again, and now it's also starting to affect Lynn's mental state.

So Sir John has to go out and do it all again. This time a stranger on a train is the unlucky victim!

Strange lens! Look at the size of Peter's arm!

Sir John is no longer a happy camper. This is not the gig he signed up for, so it's kind of a race to see who completely loses it first, him or Lynn!

In the meantime, this group of hooligans show up looking for their gal pal that had been staying with Sir John and Lynn, but got a little freaked out when she found a woman's head in the freezer, and they had to kill her too.

There's a big scuffle and the laser machine gets turned on and goes wild and crazy and it's like the perfect ending! Everyone dies!

It could have even happened an hour sooner, and I would have been fine with that too!

THE MUMMY - "Nerve-Shattering Shock!" (1959)

 This evening's Saturday Night Special is a classic from 1959, and even if it is basically just a cover tune, it's still a classic! Sometimes remakes are as good or better than the original, I'm not going to say that about "The Mummy," but at least it's in colour, and that's a good place to start!

 In 1957, Hammer Films decided to start remaking some of the classic themed Universal horrors, and the first one was "The Curse Of Frankenstein" with Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and Hazel Court. Next up in 1958, again with Cushing and Lee came "Horror Of Dracula," and in 1959, they released tonight's feature film, "The Mummy," once again with the same two stars. Over the next ten or fifteen years, Hammer released no less than six Frankenstein sequels, eight Dracula sequels, and three more Mummy movies. Not stopping there, they also released seven more Vampire movies, a werewolf movie, two Dr. Jekyll films, and a Phantom of the Opera movie. It seems the only Universal classic monster they didn't try was "The Creature From The Black Lagoon," and I'm assuming that's because it was basically from the same era, not 20 years in the past

 Peter Cushing as John Banning is in Egypt on an archeological dig with his Pop! He can't fully participate because he's broken his leg, and will have a limp the rest of his life if he doesn't get it attended to, which he doesn't!

 George Pastell as Mehemet Bey, tells them they need to stop digging or they are going to be in deep shit! Boy, did he call that one right!

George racked up 80 exotic credits before passing away at the age of only 53. In the 60's he was in various "Dr. Who," and "The Saint" TV shows!

 The scroll inside the box is where it all begins!

It's always funny when the scientific geniuses are the stupidist ones! Some people just don't see it, even when it's right in front of them!

 Three years later!!!

 Homeboy is now considered 'mentally disordered.' These days he'd just be another homeless person!

 The large box that was being delivered to the new weird guy's home falls off the wagon because the drunk driver was driving too fast! (A D.U.I. checkpoint would really have prevented a disaster in this case!) But...it was a mmumy in the box, and since he's already dead...

 Sir Christopher Lee has never looked better!!

 It was after visiting hours at the nursing home......That's number one in the revenge department!

Almost looks like The Creature in this shot!

 The brother who was also on the quest is the winner behind door number two!

 In a flashback scene, we find out that Kharis (The Mummy) was a man in another lifetime with a Cleopatra complex!

 And that's why he was subjected to an eternity of servitude and protection to his lover, Princess Ananka! (He's like, Damn, I really screwed up here!)

 The mummy is going for a triple play, and the last on the list is John Banning! The trippy part is that Princess Ananka is a dead ringer for John Banning's wife Isobel!

 Yvonne Furneaux had the double role of  Isobel Banning and Princess Ananka!

Yvonne was also in "The Death Ray Of Dr. Mabuse," and her last role was in a movie I have never heard of until tonight "Frankenstein's Great Aunt Tillie," in which she was Matilda 'Tillie' Frankenstein with Donald Pleasence and June Wilkinson! (I thought I needed to see it, but I just watched the trailer on YouTube,...Maybe Not!) Sometimes I feel like I'm on a giant international scavenger hunt! If I did the math right, Yvonne turned 91 last May.

 John Banning is ready! 

(Does anybody out there not like Peter Cushing? He is SO freakin' consistently cool!)

 The mummy is choking the crap out of John when Isobel comes into the room so John yells at her, "Let your hair down, Let your hair down!" so that she looks more like Princess Ananka!

 That immediately gets the mummy's attention!

Like in all good western movies, the hero rides off into the sunset!