DIABOLIK - Ennio Morricone - "Let's Go Deep Deep Down" (1968)

John Phillip Law is "Diabolik", or, as it was released in America,"Danger: Diabolik," and what a diabolical character he can be!!

Coming off like kind of a cross between a 1968 Robin Hood and Batman, with a touch of Jesse James and Al Capone, except the only people he's watching out for are himself and his beautiful girlfriend Eva, who is portrayed by Marisa Mell.

Instead of stealing 10 million dollars and giving it to the poor, Diabolik scatters it all over his fortress of solitude and Eva and him make love in it!! Speaking of fortress of solitude, what a great pad this cat has got, and unlike a Superman or Batman, he's not dumb enough to go there alone!

Diabolik's got a great sense of humour, but sometimes also murders innocent people like guards, if he needs to, so he's really not that nice of a guy, but in this scene, he and Eva pose as reporters, as special guest star Terry Thomas as the Minister Of Finance, delivers a speech. Diabolik uses his 'exhilirating' gas to make the whole room, including the stoic minister and the cops start cracking up!!

Diabolik is so bad, and so elusive, the police have to use gangsters to try and find him!! Enter and exit Adolfo Celi as crime boss Ralph Valmont! Ralph has quite a sense of style and flare in his choice of clothes, or maybe he was colourblind, but most likely, he only dresses like that because this is a Mario Bava film!!

The action is smokin' at Valmont's club!! The music throughout this movie is by the prolific Maestro Ennio Morricone, who everybody knows about because of the "Good, Bad, and The Ugly" movies, and who we've written about here before, for his work on "Nightmare Castle! The female vocalist singing the theme was some gal named Christy!!

Some guys will do anything to get their girlfrend those jewels she wants so bad!!

Diabolik does go on a rampage during one part of the film, blowing up all the tax offices in whatever imaginary country they are supposed to be in, and No, we don't condone this type of behaviour, and this is only a movie, but it sure makes for quite a strong statement by Director Mario Bava 41 years ago that still reverberates around the globe to this very day! This was the one part where he was helping somebody besides himself, because all the tax records were destroyed!! It wouldn't work today because of computer technology!

For a real treat, head on over to YouTube and listen and watch probably the most talented man on the planet today, Mike Patton, do his knock you down and out amazing version of "Deep Deep Down!!" And after you do that stay there and watch the whole concert. One of the most interesting sets I've heard in ages!! Goosebump city!!! You will not be disappointed!!!! Go Mike!!!

Big Thanx to A Fistful Of Soundtracks blog for the Mike Patton lead!!!

INVASION USA / American Pictures - 1952 / Music by Albert Glasser

No, not Chuck Norris!.. Gerald (ANGRY RED PLANET, TERROR IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE) Mohr, Peggy (BEGINNING OF THE END, BACK FROM THE DEAD) Castle, Phyllis (ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN, THE INCREDIBLE PETRIFIED WORLD) Coates, Noel (ATOM MAN vs SUPERMAN, ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN) Neill and Edward G. Robinson Jr. who was in SOME LIKE IT HOT and VISIT TO A SMALL PLANET!

Okay, 1952, before Albert Glasser start with awesome sounds for MR. BIG! Seem like INVASION producer want 'big' American pride shove down ear of viewer!

Tabonga not just blowing hot gas, listen for self!! Oh, pet Ralphie an' Piff back from vacation but get bad sunburn, so they both in refrigerator, which mean Tabonga be pressin' big ol' red 'go' button again tonight...

SOUNDCLIP NOT AVAILABLE

What is weird is dude talk just like political idealist today!!

20 minute of flick is stock footage! Smart!! Anyway, here is big deal back then... Russian Mig jet!! Why?.. Swept back wing!

El Presidente declare all out war!

Gerald just logically try to make sense of it...

Politician always politician!.. Get a mint!!

Bad guy take over city and use machine-gun to do talking!

Peggy can't take no more! Goo'bye everbloody, see you in Hell!! Suicide is sin, no?

Wait, something seem fishy here!!.. Why tiny gurl swim in dude' drink?..

Oh, that's right, mystic dude in bar (booze) make everything seem too real! But, all big pipe (booze) dream!.. WHAT HELL!!!

"Welcome to the third grade!"

THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU - Bruce Montgomery - "13 Slaves" (1966)

Down time! Hard to face it when there doesn't seem to be a whole Helluva lot going on; still recovering from The Kev-Dog's grilled Easter "Bacon Explosion" backed up with that three litre batch of my own signature "Acai Margaritas" which will have me stupefied for who knows how long, but somehow it still all adds up to the same conclusion film-wise, and that is "The Brides Of Fu Manchu"!!!!!

Sure, absolutely, and without a doubt, Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu is a classic character, and it's not within me, or without me, to say anything bad about Christopher Lee in any role, but a Fu Manchu movie that's not directed by Jesus Franco, and that doesn't have a fiery character like Sancho Lopez in it, does not even stand a chance of being as good as one that does! Okay, Here you go, this is what I figgered out the other night! Think of any, yes ANY movie you have ever seen in your entire life, a really good one you liked a lot, or the worst piece of crap you ever wasted two seconds of your life on! Now, close your eyes, and envision the same movie directed by Jesus Franco! Potentially a night and day situation, if you get my meaning!

So, You want Brides?? Okay, Here come the Brides!!! There were no individual credits, only as a group credited as "The Brides Of Fu Manchu!"

What do you expect me to do with her, you've got her upside down!!

The Brides, aka Sex Slaves, did try to escape, but never made it out of the building!!

Don't worry about them, somehow they do finally manage to escape in The End!!! Imagine that!!!

Director Don Sharp ain't no chump himself, having directed more than a few excellent titles we've written about here like "Psychomania", "Witchcraft", & "Kiss Of The Vampire" just to name a few, but try comparing Don Sharp to Jess Franco, and it's like trying to compare Picasso and Dali, although they've both got amazing skills, Dali, like Jess Franco, had a more surreal vision, and knows how to convey it to you!!! Part of that vision is the use of music, and it sounds like to me that composer Bruce Montgomery was a little bit more focused on writing mystery and Sc-Fi books that he was on writng the music for this movie, his last film score!!

UNKNOWN WORLD / Lippert Pictures - 1951 / Music by Ernest Gold

As promised, here's another 'World' we're featuring here at the Dungeon!.. I was raised on this movie, I mean, we got our 1st TV in 1953, and, I swear, this thing played about every 2 months, and, I loved it! Also, the numerous 'Caves' Viewmaster disks were my absolute favorites, I could really get lost in those! And, the Cyclotram knocked me out too, because, I was very into car design... Wasn't everyone?

Ernest Gold does the honors tonight here at the Dungeon... He composed the music for UFO and THE SCREAMING SKULL, but here's a short list of other TV and movie composing accomplishments: GERALD McBOING! BOING!, MAGOO SLEPT HERE, THE DEFIANT ONES, ON THE BEACH, INHERIT THE WIND, EXODUS, JUDGEMENT AT NUREMBERG, IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD!! 'Nuf said!

He does a nice job with sci-fi elements, remember, its 1951! So, get ready to enter THE UNKNOWN WORLD!

This was actually a fairly intelligent movie, really questioning the reality of what was happening in the world at that time. Dr. Morley has an plan to see if living under the Earth would be possible in case of nuclear disaster topside.

You get some investors together (plus a hot chick) and show them the plans for the Cyclotram, an awesome machine that can drill through rock whenever necessary, on it's way to the center of the Earth!

Once the Cyclotram is built and finally delivered to Alaska, we can begin the journey!..

Sucker can climb!!

Of course, there's adventure after adventure!

And, finally, they find their UNKNOWN WORLD!

But, it turns on them in a display of devastation!

The giant cavern floods and they are driven to the bottom of unknown depths!

Slowly, but, surely, they begin to head in an upward direction.

After desperate hours, the Cyclotram surfaces.

That reminds me, it even bothered me as a kid, the crappy look of that depth guage printing!! Yow!

Man, some unbelievable luck!!