THE UNDEAD - Ronald Stein & Mel Welles - "Screams From The Grave" (1957)

"The Undead" is A Classic Roger Corman film and a perfect Halloween treat for all you freaks! This is one of my favorite posters of all time and as was typical of a lot of Corman movies, the poster is one helluva lot better and more exciting than the movie!

"The Undead"

The cast of characters, and I do mean characters, reads like a virtual who's who of Corman stalwart players!! To start with you've got Richard Devon with eyebrows and a look that no one can forget as Satan in the flesh!!!

Val Dufour as Quintus Ratcliff (now that's a serious handle!) puts Pamela Duncan as lady of the night Diana Love, under!!!

You're getting very sleepy!!! She goes on a mind journey back to medieval times and finds herself in deep trouble being as she's a witch that is about to be executed!!!!!

Pamela has to hide from her tormentors, and she ends up in a coffin with a corpse played by none other than Tabonga's creator, Paul Blaisdell!!

Pretty much the first person Diana who is now known as Helene meets, is Smolkin the gravedigger, played by the fabulous Mel Welles!! Smolkin likes to sing as he works and a vast part of the music is his tortuous offkey rendering of standard tunes using his own offbeat lyrics and rhymes! It's really Great stuff!!!

Little guy Billy Barty plays "The Imp!"

The strikingly attractive Allison Hayes plays Livia, who is also a witch. When the camera catches Allison just right, she is as beautiful as any woman on earth!!! Here she is, looking stunning as she is about to enter the local pub, "Gabriel's Horn!"

Allison and all-time good sport and massive member of the Corman players, Bruno VeSota as Scroop the innkeeper!!

What a pair!!!! Allison walks around the whole movie with that one strap down!! Works for me!!!

As they disappear, Allison & Billy poof into a couple of bats left over from "It Conqured The World" and created by the master Paul Blaisdell!! Roger the Great Re-cycler!

Allison needs a head for the big upcoming spell and show, Bruno doesn't exactly volunteer, but does eventually give in!

Allison was feeling pretty proud of herself after lopping off Bruno's head with an axe!!!

Meanwhile, Mel as the real star of this movie, Smolkin, waxes poetic!! I just read his interview with Tom Weaver again, and he really enjoyed working with this fine group of folks!!

The crazy end of the music you'll hear is from this freeform modern dance of death!! Not as good as "She-Demons" or "Manos" but quite insane just the same!!

Even the pre "Bucket Of Blood" Richard Miller shows up!! This time as Leper Dick!! Unfortunately the Devil marks him for eternity, but at least his skin clears up!! I personally know a few teenagers who would sell their soul to have their skin clear up!!

Enough running around, it's time to face death and get this show over with!!!!! Give Pamela some credit too, she also had to do the 'get inside the coffin with the dead body' scene earlier in the film, and even though she's about to lose her head, she's still looking good and quite assured right here!!

What can I say? It's Roger Corman all the way including some music from none other than Ron Stein, one more time!!

TOBOR THE GREAT / Republic Pictures - 1954 / Music by Howard Jackson

Tonight we have another true classic in TOBOR THE GREAT! This little Republic gem is directed by the awesome Mr. Lee Sholem! A few things he directed were: 14 episodes of THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, episodes of CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT, PHAROAH'S CURSE, 9 episodes of WHIRLYBIRDS, 4 episodes of MEN INTO SPACE, COLT 45, SUGARFOOT, BRONCO, CHEYENNE, MAVERICK, DEATH VALLEY DAYS, CATALINA CAPER and my favorite, DOOMSDAY MACHINE!!

And, Howard Jackson does the music. Howard started back in 1929 with the total of 261 credits!!! Here's tonight's sound clip... Tobor's Theme and Trespasser Deterrent!

At the beginning of the space race, there was an argument in favor of developing and using robots to take the place of man so that no one would have to die due to untested equipment and other unknown factors that might be encountered!..

Here's Professor Nordstrom, ready to unveil a top secret project to the American press. And, that's one cool looking gizmo he's holding!

Pretty damn impressive set for 1954, to be sure!! Lew Smith plays Tobor and is very convincing. The audience is mesmerized and amazed, especially the dirty pinko Commie there that's snuck in and's taking mental notes!

Top still shows Tobor as he prepares for space, meteors come at him so fast that he flips out! Then, the pinkos try to get into the Professor's house, but, are met with a soundtrack from WWII! They take off running! Pretty clever.

There are other ways to kidnap the Professor and his grandson, Gadge. They simply send out fake invitations for a show at the observatory! Pretty clever.

With the help of another gizmo the Professor has, Tobor picks up the trail and breaks through the guard post!

He can even drive a Jeep! And, he delivers one hell of a knock out punch!!.. Goo'night, sweet Prince!

ROSTRO INFERNAL - Enrico Cabiati - "The Incredible Face of Dr. B" (1963)

Tonight's Halloween Countdown 2008 feature is an Extra Special affair!! "Rostro Infernal" has a decent opening theme, but that's not why we're here!!

The theme is followed directly by this song "Corazonada" by Lola Casanova, it's all right, but that's really not why we're here tonight either!!

I really wanted to post this one on Halloween night, because it is, in my humble opinion, simply one of the most haunting songs we'll ever present, but if I wait til Halloween, you won't have it in time for your Halloween party, and we wouldn't want that to happen! I guess these are the geniuses that made it all happen!! Ladies and gentlemen, playing the music of the Maestro Enrico Cabiati, the Band!

So, Feliz El Dia De Los Muertos!!! Enrico's music sounds like 1940's spooky cartoon music redone in a hip 60's Latin style!! That's it! It's that simple, but it is one of my faves!!! The sax solo is so beautifully simple and airy, it'll give you flashbacks to 1960 and Rosie and The Originals "Angel Baby!" It's that fantastic!!!! The music becomes more frantic, then it sounds like Gene Krupa came into the room for a quick solo, before breaking into a rockin' tweaked out version of something like "Tequila," which reminds me....I think I hear Don Eduardo calling my name again!! So, turn it up and dance!!!! I'll be back!!

Feliz La Noche De Brujas!!!

Oh, but it's not all fun and games! Well, the one guy seems to be having fun anyway! How bout we put the helmet on you buddy, and see if you're still having so much fun!!

When all else fails, send in the short wrassler zombies!!

That didn't even work, turn the lights on the little buggers, and they just start fighting amongst themselves!!! What a great film, but what a fantastic soundtrack!!

COME RUBARE LA CORONA D'LNGHILTERRA (Fantastic Argoman) - Piero Umiliani - "The Fantastic Superman" (1967)

Happy 2008 Halloweenie Countdown to ya'll! Damn this is fun!! Last Friday we featured "Atragon" and this Friday it's "Argoman!" Try drinking 3 Cadillac Margaritas and saying "Atragon," "Argoman," 3 times or more real fast! I can't even think it!

"Argoman The Fantastic Superman" is a fairly exciting 1967 Italian film that works out to be a weird hybrid cross between a Matt Helm movie and some Marvel super hero with obsessive mind powers, kind of like Dr. X. In the opening sequence, he uses mind control to turn a bunch of soldier's guns against themselves!!

Sword and Sandal guy Roger Browne steps out as Argoman, and this cat is not only suave and cool, he has superpowers too, but really, drinking martinis and sex are much more important to him.

The bad news is that if he has sex, his powers disappear for, I forgot how long, I think 6 hours, so he has to be very careful during that time, because he is so vulnerable!! Nice twist!! And speaking of twists, the music of genius Piero Uniliani twists and swings like some of Sergio Mendes' best!

Argoman senses there is a woman nearby!!! The Dude is on!!

And as fate would have it, here she comes!!! Nice ride!!!

You gotta dig the fact that Argoman's nemesis played by the beautiful Dominique Boschero is "The Queen Of The World", but she is still basically a woman who is regarded as not concerned about conventional standards of domestic cleanliness, if you get my meaning, if you catch my drift!

Now that's some swingin' bachelor pad!! Holy Toldeo, those Italians knew how to do it right!!

Here's where the effects of having sex were detrimental to Argoman as he's really getting his ass whupped bigtime in the back of this van!

Fortunately, the time period ends, and Argoman once again proves his superiority and kicks major butt all over those same guys!! Pretty cool since he looks like a freakin' dweeb!!!

"The Queen Of The World" was a woman with a lot of different looks, the last one was the look of DEATH!!! This is one of the better films you can find on Netflix! Go for it!!!