ULTRAMAN / "The Forbidden World" - 1967

In today's Ultraman episode, Hayata (Ultraman), Fuji and a kid are trapped by the malevolent invader Mafilas. He turns Fuji into a giant, building destroying creature before resurrecting three of Ultraman's previous monster enemies. This is one crazy adventure!! 

It all starts when two Science Patrol members and a kid are at an air show. The Japanese version of The Thunderbirds are doing aerial tricks when a giant freighter comes floating by, only to have it explode over the crowd!

Two members of the Science Patrol go into space following a signal from an unknown source only to find a spaceship graveyard. They report in and then head back to Earth.

In the meantime, Fuji shows up as a giant and seems to be hypnotized.

Then the kid ends up captured in a strange place.

It turns out that he's in the spaceship of Mefilas, now operating on Earth. The monster explains to the kid that his race wants to take over Earth and find an alternative planet for earthlings to move to! He says that they are a peaceful race, but, they intend on getting their way!!

I'll tell you, the Mefilas creature doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but after Japan has just about made every conceivable creation, well, you gotta come up with something!

The kid is left hanging after he refuses to agree with the invader on his plan.

So, the monster commands giant Fuji to start tearing the crap out of  the city...

Fuji disappears and is replaced by three monsters that Ultraman fought in previous episodes, their names are the Baltan Alien, the Kemurian and the Zarab Alien. That second guy gave me some ideas for new monster sculpture heads!

Then, the military locates the flying saucer of Mefilas and hit it with everything they gots. I like the bottom photo with the explosions going off behind the trees.

The invader fights back with rays shooting from that weapon on top. It hits one of The Science Patrol's plane right on its nose!

In the meantime, no one can locate Hayata until they find him in the saucer. He's been frozen by Mefilas and cannot be moved, so, they grab Fuji and the kid and get out of the ship.

In a freak event, Hayata, who's holding his transformer in his hand, falls down face first and that activates his transformation into Ultraman! That's freaking lucky!

Our hero clashes with Mefilas (now a giant) and they are very evenly matched, their attempts to harm one another results in mutual nullification!

Even after taking to the sky, no one can dominate the other...

So, believe it or not, they declare a draw. And as one alien to another, Mafilas says... You get your way this time, but in the future, I will get my way!! And he disappears into the nowhere, just like this post.

DEAD MAN'S EYES - "An Inner Sanctum Mystery" (1944)

 

Like Jay and the Techniques said back in 1966, 'We gotta keep the ball rollin" and also just like "The Hokey Pokey," that's what this Saturday Night Special is all about!

 

Tonight's feature is the third of six "Inner Sanctum" mysteries that were made between 1943 to 1945. "Inner Sanctum" was a radio show that aired from January 7, 1941 to October 5, 1952, and this series of movies happened after Universal bought the rights in 1943.

 

 

Each of these "Inner Sanctum" films except the last one, "Pillow Of Death" opened with the disembodied head of David Hoffman as "The Spirit Of The Inner Sanctum" giving a brief warning to the viewing audience.

 

As you can see, it was probably quite painful for Mr. Hoffman, whose last role was that of the messenger in William Castle's "13 Ghosts."

Lon Chaney Jr. was the star of all six of the ""Inner Sanctum" films.

 

 In this one, Lon is Dave Stuart, a good artist with a promising career. In this shot, he's working on his current project, a portrait of a woman named Tanya as played by the awesome actress Acquanetta. I've often wondered if she ever got paid for the use of her name by the makers of Acqua Net hair spray!

When his eyes get tired, Dave puts boric acid on them to make them feel better, but it would have probably been better for him if he didn't store acetic acid on the same shelf!

It's nice to see Lon in a role where he's a suave and debonair gentleman instead of some kind of monster! Dave and his fiance Heather are getting ready to get hitched, and life is good. Heather is played by Jean Parker, whose many roles have included women with names like Mazie, Timka, Toni, Betty, Sally, Molly, Kitty, Necia, Della, Dixie, Madge, Frances, Doris, Shirley, Hatti, Dolly, and Clara, and that's only about half of them!

Dave thinks his pal, a psychiatrist named Alan and his model Tanya, would make a swell couple, but secretly Tanya is in love with Dave instead. Alan was played by Paul Kelly, who in 1915 starred in a series of 18 comedy shorts about a guy named Willie Jarr.

Tanya accidentally got the bottles out of order, and Dave gets acetic instead of boric acid in his already sore eyes!

Dave is permanently blinded, which for a painter of fine arts, is just not cool.

Dave believes and agrees that it was just a mistake, and isn't vindictive toward Tanya at all.

Heather's Dad is very rich, and he likes Dave a lot, enough so that he tells Dave that he will make out a will that says when he dies, they can remove his corneas for an operation that might possibly restore Dave's vision. Edward Fielding had the role of Stanley Hayden. In his first role in 1916, Edward played Dr. Watson in a movie called "Sherlock Holmes."

 

I honestly believe this is the weirdest fireplace I have ever seen, just like an open fire in the room. I'm assuming there's some kind of vent above it there in the wall

Dave is understandably on a bummer, and he doesn't even want to get married any more.

Now Dave is just spending all his time drinking. The good news is that he gets to wear cool dark glasses!

One night Heather comes home to find her Father dead on the floor. Dave is there for no understandable reason, and worse than that, his hands are covered with blood!

Heather freaks!

 

The newspapers are all over this story, because even though Dave is the suspected murderer, he is still in the will as the recipient of the dead man's eyes.

He gets the surgery, and it seems like after all that, it was still a failure.

 

Somebody murders Tanya, and the portly Captain Drury who has been on the case the whole time, does everything he can come up with to prove that the operation was a success, and that Dave can actually now see, and is perfectly capable of murder. Thomas Gomez as Captain Drury is another one of those special people that was in more than one episode of "The Twilight Zone." Those two shows were "Escape Clause," an "Dust." Oddly enough, Thomas's first role in 1942 was also a Sherlock Holmes film titled "Sherlock Holmes And The Voice Of Terror."

  Dave really didn't kill Tanya or Heather's Dad, and his vision really was restored. There's a happy ending, and Heather gets to wear that crazy looking hat, and look good doing it some how.

THE WOLF MAN / MAN TURNED BEAST... - 1941

Us guys here at The Dungeon are on a binge to find all the great stuff from the thirties and forties that we haven't reviewed yet, like today's post, THE WOLF MAN, so hold on to your hats! Our story goes like this... Larry Talbot returns to his ancestral home in Wales after his brother (who looked exactly like Larry) dies. One night, him, Gwen Conliffe and Jenny Williams are out for a walk in the woods where Jenny's  picking some Wolf's Bane flowers. They end up at a local carnival where they meet a mysterious gypsy fortune teller named Bela...

This classic horror tale stars Lon (SON OF DRACULA) Chaney, Claude (THE INVISIBLE MAN) Rains, Warren (THE CASE OF THE VELVET CLAWS) Williams, Ralph (THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN) Bellamy, Patric (FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN) Knowles, Bela (THE INVISIBLR RAY) Lugosi, Maria (TARZAN AND THE AMAZONS) Ouspenskaya and Evelyn (THE FROZEN GHOST) Ankers.

So, Larry has come home after his bro dies, he settles in and helps his father repair his telescope. The one thing about this movie that really bugs me is that no way is Claude Rains Larry's father, they look nothing alike and are about a foot difference in height. That includes his dead brother who looks exactly like Larry!! They must have had a wild looking mom!

Larry looks through the telescope and sees a heavenly image, and goes to her shop to meet her. It's also weird that Gwen doesn't recognize Larry when his brother had lived there for years!! Anyway, Larry buys a cane with a wolf's head handle and she tells him some of the history behind the wolf's head, and it involves werewolves!

The night Larry, Gwen and Jenny go to the carnival, Jenny wants her fortune told so Bela invites her into his tent for a reading. Bela asks to hold her hands, and he sees the pentagram on her palm. He then tells her that she needs to run away from the area and get to somewhere safe.

Well, Jenny is attacked and killed by a wolf and the animal then attacks Larry when he comes to help. Larry ends up killing the wolf with his cane after being bitten on the chest...

At the murder scene, the authorities confirms that Jenny was killed by a wolf, but there's no wolf! Instead, they find Bela face down, dead. They also notice that he isn't wearing any shoes. Another weird thing, Jenny and Larry were both clearly attacked by a wolf, not a monster wearing clothes!

And guess what, they found Larry's cane at the murder scene! Clearly, Larry killed Bela with his cane by mistake in the heat of the battle with the wolf.

Larry finds Maleva and needs to know the answers to his questions. Unfortunately, she only has bad news for him...

And it isn't long before Larry's out looking for more victims. He finds a grounds keeper at the graveyard and deep-sixes him!.. Ironic!

By now Larry's convinced that he's a werewolf so dad brings in Dr. Lloyd to talk with his son. But, the doctor and friends there all say that it just has to be Larry's imagination.

Well, it's definitely NOT his imagination! This part kills me, poor Larry has stepped into a large trap set out for him by the authorities and it's clinging to his ankle as he writhes in agony. He passes out and turns back to his human form. He awakens and hobbles back to his house, even past the authorities because he was Larry Talbot, and not a werewolf!

Larry does not know what to do! He wants to see Gwen but as he's talking with her, he sees a pentagram on her palm, he freaks out and runs into the night.

He goes home and has his father tie him to a chair and lock the doors and windows, to assure that he will be restrained and can't do any harm, if he does so happen to change into the dreaded wolf man!

While the authorities keep up the search for the werewolf, Maleva rides by in her cart. Larry's dad stops her and wants to know why she's filling his son's head with all those crazy ideas. But the wise old lady has a few things to say herself.

Of course, Gwen is next!

So, dad ends up killing his own son, finally realizing that Larry was right all along... Don't worry, Gwen is okay, but it's not a happy ending.

We'll end with this very cool Mexican poster! Check in tomorrow, here at The Dungeon!