DEADLY DUO - "One Good, One Not So Good" (1962)

The  Special this night is a 1962 flick called "Deadly Duo," and deceit and trickery abound!

"Deadly Duo" is 70 minutes long, and the out of control car on the poster is 37 seconds of it, but then it does say "Double-Cross" on the poster!

 

So now there's a Mother/Widow left behind in Acapulco, Mexico, and a rich Grandmother who wants her grandson, because the Mother was once a dancer with her twin sister in a degenerate nightclub in Mexico!

 When I see a shot like this, all I can think is ...

"KRONOS!"

 Irene Tedrow was on almost every TV show you could ever imagine in the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's! She was in two "Twilight Zone" episodes, "Walking Distance, and "The Lateness Of The Hour," and was on shows as divergent as "Dragnet," "Dennis The Menace," and "Magnum, P.I.!"

 Marcia Henderson plays twin sisters, one good and one sorta evil!! The bad one is blonde, the good one is a brunette, or just the opposite of what it should be, as was Marcia Henderson's life! Marcia won an award in 1950 for her portrayal of Wendy in a Broadway production of "Peter Pan" that included Boris Karloff as a cast member! She was only 58 when she succumbed to the seriously nasty disease called lupus!

 Whoa! So That's what a Margarita tastes like! I could power a blog with this stuff! Wow!!

 I admit that "Deadly Duo" is not the most exciting movie you're ever going to see, but it is almost flawless in an early use of the same actress doing more than one character in a scene together ala "Orphan Black!" This was convincingly done 56 years ago! I'm impressed if nobody else is!

 C'mon, isn't this the greatest shot of bystanders you've ever seen or not?

 1962 - Smokin' and Drinkin' and Drinkin' and Smoklin'! I'm surprised any of us survived!

This club is called El Gallo, aka The Rooster, and they probably should have spent some more time there, and had some kind of musical act too, but they kind of missed that whole boat!

 So if you do a search for "Deadly Duo" poster, here's just a ramblin' sample of what you might find!

This 25 cent Dell paperback from 1959 is a damn fine example!

 I almost had a stroke when I came across this 1966 wrasslin' magazine that featured a 'special' "Deadly Duo" on the cover!

The 1964 Marvel comic "Strange Tales" featured a story called "Pawns Of The Deadly Duo!"

That's a really big ax!

Last but not least is this 1994 Image comic by the same name!

"Deadly Duo," two words that go together nicely I guess!

As my good friend, DJ, Musician, and Movie Maniac, Lord Litter would say......

CHEERZ!!!

GREAT LOOKING 1930'S HORROR LOBBY CARDS

It's Friday, so, must be time for some very attractive and valuable lobby cards from the 1930's, a fun time for horror movies back when...

THE CAT CREEPS from Universal Pictures did a lot of movies involving cats, black cats were always popular because of the stigma people had with superstition back then! People today are pretty much beyond all that crap, I mean like, what the Hell does it have to do with endlessly typing on a tiny little bitch keyboard, expressing your super important opinions?!!

Love this card for THE CAT AND THE CANARY. Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard star in the horror comedy from Paramount Studios, I can't say the I've seen this one... I'm sure it's a hoot though!

Warner Bros. produced DOCTOR X, one super wild flick in freakin' color, man, it kicks ass!! This poster is a different kind of style than most, almost looks clinical.

Bela uses his big ape to exact revenge and cause mayhem in MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE from Universal. His mad lab also serves as a creepy dungeon!

Wow, nice card for Universal's DRACULA'S DAUGHTER. That green skin is spooky, but, this is a pretty tame movie, not a favorite, too much drama!

Karloff The Uncanny stars as THE MUMMY, the first in a string of mummy movies from Universal. This poster is pretty interesting, especially the green mummy and reclining scantily clad beauty at the bottom!

Boris is back in THE MAN THEY COULD NOT HANG from Columbia Pictures, I remember seeing this one back in the fifties on TV, but alas, it was very... BORING!! Great poster though!

Universal's WEREWOLF OF LONDON is a really weird movie, and, entertaining as Hell... What a great lobby card, man, you get an eye full of horror!

Love this WHITE ZOMBIE card from United Artists, the colors and composition make for an eloquent collectible, Bela stars as a zombie master in Haiti... What I learned from this post is that I wish I had a ton of $$$ to invest in some of these beautiful posters! Well, we're back tomorrow with another installment from The Dungeon!!

HORROR MOVIES KAROFF & LUGOSI APPEARED TOGETHER

Here are the seven horror movies that Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi appeared together, always good stuff to be sure!

The first movie our guys appeared together was Edgar Allan Poe's THE BLACK CAT in 1934. Travelling across Eastern Europe, Peter and Joan Allison meet Dr Werdegast (Lugosi) on the train. When the bus taking them to their destination crashes, the Allisons go with Werdegast and stay with him at the foreboding castle of famed architect, Hjalmar Poelzig (Karloff). However, the Allisons find themselves in danger when it becomes apparent that Werdegast and Poelzig have a deadly history with each other. Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer.

A year later, the guys are back in THE RAVEN, another story from Poe. This time a wealthy judge coaxes the brilliant but eccentric neurological surgeon Dr. Vollin (Lugosi), who also has an obsessive penchant for Edgar Allen Poe, out of retirement to save the life of his daughter, a dancer crippled and brain damaged in an auto wreck. Vollin restores her completely, but also envisions her as his "Lenore," and cooks up a scheme to kidnap the woman, then, torture and kill her fiance' and father in his Poe-inspired dungeon. And, to do his dirty work, Vollin recruits a wanted criminal (Karloff), and turns him into a monster to guarantee his subservience!

In 1936, they star again in THE INVISIBLE RAY. In this story, a scientist, Janos Rukh (Karloff), convinces a group of scientists and supporters to mount an expedition to the African continent to locate and study an ancient meteorite of great significance. He exposes himself to the highly toxic radiation of the meteorite, and while an antidote devised by Dr. Benet (Lugosi) saves him from death by radiation poisoning, his touch causes instant death to others. Back in London, the benefits of the meteorite's controlled radiation offer Dr. Benet an opportunity to restore eyesight to the blind! The antidote's toxicity excites Prof. Rukh into paranoid rages as he seeks revenge against the members of his expedition, who he accuses of stealing his discovery for their own glory!

The boys are back in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN from 1939. Wolf von Frankenstein returns to the Baronial manor from the United States with his wife Elsa and son Peter. He's not welcomed by the locals, who are still terrified of his father's work and the monster he created. The local Burgomaster gives him a sealed briefcase left by his father and inside, Wolf finds his father's scientific notes. At the manor house he meets his father's assistant Igor (Bela) who has a surprise for him, the monster his father created is still alive, although, in some sort of a coma. Wolf's initial attempts to re-animate the creature seem to fail but when Peter says he saw a giant in the woods, it appears he's met success! When people are mysteriously killed in the village, there is little doubt that the monster is responsible!

In 1940, Boris and Bela return in BLACK FRIDAY, hey, that's today! When his friend, Prof. George Kingsley, is at deaths door, brain surgeon Dr. Sovac (Karloff) saves his life by means of an illegal operation that transplants part of injured gangster Red Cannon's brain, who was in a gun fight with another gangster, Eric Marnay (Lugosi). Unfortunately, the operation has a disastrous Jeckll and Hyde side effect! Sovac soon learns of the duel personality and of half a million dollars the gangster has hidden away. He attempts to find the money, an attempt that brings Kingsley closer to madness as he alternates between a meek professor of English and a brutal gangster out for murderous revenge! This is the movie that Bela was hypnotized in order to achieve a realistic portrayal of his horror!

Also in 1940, Peter Lorre joins in on the fun in YOU'LL FIND OUT, a musical horror comedy with band leader Kay Kyser. In this one, Kay and his orchestra are hired to entertain at the birthday party of a young heiress at a creepy old mansion, where they uncover a plot against her life. So, who's the villain?.. The sinister judge? The phony medium? The skeptical psychologist?.. Well, you'll freakin' find out!!

Our last film is THE BODY SNATCHER from 1945. In Edinburgh in 1831, Dr. MacFarlane runs a medical school where Donald Fettes is a student. Fettes is interested in helping a young girl who has lost the use of her legs, and, is certain that MacFarlane's surgical skills could be put to great use. But, Dr. MacFarlane has a dirty little secret, he has hired his cabby, John Gray (Boris) and his assistant Joseph (Bela) to supply him with dead bodies for anatomical research. Gray constantly harasses MacFarlane and clearly has a hold over him, dating back to a famous trial where Gray refused to identify the man for whom he was robbing graves.

We'll have more for you tomorrow, check in if you can... Later, dudeskis!

DRACULA - "Horror Of Dracula" (1958)

Just like this poster, tonight's Saturday Night Special is a classic! The original title was "Dracula" but most people know it as U. S. title, "Horror Of Dracula!" Sometimes, I don't think "Horror Of Dracula" gets the respect it deserves, because it's a remake, or essentially a cover tune! There were earlier vampire movies, but Bela Lugosi was the first "Dracula" back in 1931. Sure, there were other vampire and Dracula movies after that, and before this, but "Horror Of Dracula" was the first real reincarnation of the character in a completely different sense!

So what in the Hell am I talking about? This Dracula some 27 years after Bela's classic portrayal besides being evil, is really mean-spirited! He's younger and sexier, he's a loner that no longer needs a little buddy like Igor who eats bugs, and changing into a bat is beneath him!

This Dracula is just pissed off all the time!

In 1957, Hammer released "The Curse Of Frankenstein" starring Christopher Lee as the Frankenstein monster, and in 1958, Christopher Lee was starring in "Horror Of Dracula" as Dracula! Somehow Chris had literally taken away the crown worn for a couple of decades by both Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff in the course of just two years, and there was no turning back after that!

Pop Culture of the past 60 years or so has taken quite a hit in the movie and music industries the last couple of years! The world has lost people of an ilk that most likely will never repeat itself, but we've become so numb, and lost, that the talents of people like Christopher Lee, David Bowie, Prince, Leon Russell, Glenn Frey, Paul Kantner and Signe Anderson, Maurice White, Dan Hicks, George Kennedy, George Martin, Frank Sinatra Jr., Patty Duke, Gato Barbieri, Merle Haggard, Lonnie Mack, Muhammad Ali, etc. etc., who we have just lost in the last year alone, will be nothing more than just names in some stupid trivia game in the not too distant future!!

Nice matte painting!

What you want to do, is not go down there!

So, who cleans up after Dracula, and why is this place so clean? It's disturbing!

Not too ominous, drinks are on the house!

And then this guy shows up!

As Reverend Tom Frost would say.........
"I'm gonna gitcha, gitcha, gitcha....."

"Aw Shee..it! This is exactly what I was trying to avoid!!"

And then Dracula gives out a little smirk.........!

The "Gilroy Garlic Festival" happens between July 28th and the 30th, and has been going on for some 38 years now! There have never been any known vampire sightings in the town of Gilroy, California for some reason!

Time for Peter Cushing as Dr. Van Helsing to step in and take control of things! I'm counting five movies that Peter played Val Helsing in, and another 11 TV shows and movies where they used his footage in some archival form! It's gotta get kind of frustrating after you kill Dracula three or four times, and somehow that evil bastard always seems to make it back!

"Horror Of Dracula" has a great cast that includes Melissa (Crucible Of Terror) Stribling and the always intriguing Michael Gough! It looks like this was Michael's first role in a horror movie, but after this, he put it in high gear making dark films like "Horrors Of The Black Museum," "Konga," "Black Zoo," "Dr. Terror's House Of Horrors," "The Skull," "Berserk," etc., etc. Speaking of dark, some 20+ years later Michael would be in four Dark Knight movies as Alfred Pennyworth! What an amazing career!

"Okay, I'll admit I'm a vampire, now would you quit using my forehead as a Crucifix Grill?"

There are some things that never change!

There is only one tried and true way to dispose of vampires, and that's the good olde fashioned wooden stake through the heart!

"You messed up my hair, and now you must die!!"
This is what Jerry Lee Lewis would have looked like if he was a vampire!

"Oh, God Damn, that really hurts!"

The music in "Horror Of Dracula" was written by Hammer workhorse James Bernard, and is just as Gothic and ominous as you would expect, and is the antithesis of why I started doing this blog in the first place, just like all the great Universal horror films, that's the reason it's taken me so long to get around to this fantastic film, but have no fear, because there will be lots more classic blasts from the past as long as there is a future!!

All these Amazing posters are just some of the images you can find at the spectacular Wrong Side Of The Art website! It's a great museum to hang out at if you've got some time to kill!