Saturday, June 25, 2016

THE CREEPER - " It STRIKES...and STRIKES again! (1948)

Tonight's feature was released in 1948, involves cats, and is called "The Creeper!

Apparently I had never seen "The Creeper" before, and I always thought that this film was a sequel or follow up to the Rondo Hatton film titled "The Brute Man" where Rondo played a character called The Creeper, but................

................Boy was I wrong! This black cat is "The Creeper," but he's really quite innocent!

Janis Wilson is Nora Cavigny, a strange young lady who sleepwalks, and goes and gets her Dad's gun in the middle of the night! Janis Wilson was only in 7 films, this being the last of them, and she had enough, and quit acting at the age of 18! Too bad I think, because she is really quite a talented actress as you will see!

Wow! Because of the long shadows this sign looks like it would have been perfectly suited for a Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon episode!

On the left we have Eduardo (The Mummy's Hand, Foreign Correspondent, Monster From Green Hell) Cianelli as the fairly evil Dr.Van Glock, and on the right is Ralph (The Monster Maker, Weird Woman, The Monster And The Ape) Morgan as scientist with a conscience, and Nora Cavigny's Father, Dr. Lester Cavigny! These two are partners, but they are having a bit of a conflict right now!

A younger Doctor Jim Bordon and olde friend of Nora's is Onslow (Them, The Monster And The Girl) Stevens! He's joined here in the lab by his fiancé Gwen as played by June Vincent, and the cat named The Creeper (They didn't give cats credits back in the 40's)! June went on to be in many, many, many, many TV shows in the 50's and 60's!

Besides sleepwalking, Nora has lots of nightmares and an unreasonable fear of cats!

And there's a bit of a mental catfight between Gwen and Nora!

Nora's Dad and Dr. Glock had done some experiments on cats in Africa that somehow terrorized Nora, and now Dr. Glock wants to bring some of the cats back to continue the experiments! Nora's Dad disagrees, and it's not long before she finds him dead! She rushes to him, gets blood on her hands, and now she is the prime suspect in the murder of her Father!

More nightmares about experiments and cats in cages!

I read on IMDB that Janis quit acting because she didn't like the way she looked on film, but in my book, she was a master of the crazy eyes!

One of the great things about olde movies is, a lot of them like this clock in at a little over an hour, and that's prefect in my book! There's not a lot of wasted time! 
So, everything goes to Hell in a hand basket in a short amount of time. Nora is being pursued by something, but when she pulls the trigger, it's her olde friend Dr. Bordon!

Dr. Van Glock shows up just in time to help! 
Right!

But for some reason, he ain't feeling so well!

Maybe Nora's fear of cats is not so unreasonable after all!

Dr. Van Glock never does a full transformation, but the creepy cat hand is good enough!

Nora says, "AAAAAGHHHHHH!!"
"The Creeper" streams in decent quality for free on YouTube!
I have no idea what you're waiting for! Go kill an hour before it kills you!!

Friday, June 24, 2016

LON CHANEY'S 1940s UNIVERSAL MOVIES!

Welcome back!.. Today we gots the major 1940s Universal movies starring Lon Chaney, they do not include the Inner Sanctum titles. Lon was a force in the forties, and, when he was not being a monster, he was a cowboy in a ton of westerns. We love Lon, here at The Dungeon...

Lon played 'Dynamo' Dan McCormick in MAN MADE MONSTER, aka THE ATOMIC MONSTER in 1941. This movie inspired THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN in 1956, starring Lon.

What put Lon at number one was THE WOLF MAN in 1941, I can hear the French horns now!

In 1942, Lon got to play Frankie in THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN. What paid off for him in this role was his 6' 2" frame, he was a monstrous force to be reckoned with.

So, later in 1942 Lon played Kharis in THE MUMMY'S TOMB. A little trivia... With THE MUMMY'S HAND taking place in 1940, this film should have been set in 1970, as the frequent mention is made of thirty years having passed. However, there is no attempt to create a futuristic setting and the film includes contemporary mentions of the ongoing Second World War!

FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN from 1943 is one of my very favorites, there's so much atmosphere, you can cut it with a spaz chop!

Lon then gets the chance to play Count Alucard in SON OF DRACULA in 1943. Not one of my favorite flicks, but, Lon does bring on the menace. Great poster!

Lon's back as Kharis in THE MUMMY'S GHOST from 1944. This time, an Egyptian priest travels to America in search of the bodies of an Egyptian princess and her living, mummified guardian. This is my favorite poster of the bunch.

Lon is the Wolf Man again in HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN in 1944, it's time to bring in all the Universal monsters in one exciting, over the top movie. Glenn Strange is Frankie.

Lon plays Kharis one last time for the final Universal mummy movie in THE MUMMY'S CURSE in 1944, a very busy year for him.

1945 finds Lon in HOUSE OF DRACULA, another Universal monster fest of horror and mayhem.

We'll end on a humorous note with ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN from 1948 (btw.. a great year!). With the world quickly descending further into Hell, we could use a laff or two...

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

THE X-FILES - "Arcadia" (1999)

FBI, CIA, IRS, or HOA, one thing that these alphabet groups all have in common, don't cross the line or get on their bad side, unless you really enjoy a life of doom and gloom....
And that brings us to tonight's tale, Episode 15 from Season 6 of "The X-Files" titled "Arcadia!"

........and that is the truth!

Rules are cool until they become overbearing!

The plus of living in a gated community is that you should possibly have a better chance once the zombie holocaust begins!

So very happy to be home!

What more could you want from life? They even have fresh sod in their front yard!

But then, they do have those darn rules and regulations, and people that don't cooperate completely are getting murdered one by one!

Nifty little 'through the mailbox' shot of nosy neighbor Win Schroeder as played by Tom Gallop!

So Scully and Mulder are moving into their new home under the guise of being a happily married couple named Rob and Laura Petrie! Sound familiar? That's because those were the names of Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore in the 60's TV sitcom, "The Dick Van Dyke Show!"

I'm pretty sure this a statement about self-imprisonment!!

Peter White is Gene Gogolak, the mean spirited head of the HOA board!

Gene Gogolak has his own mystical way of dealing with people who don't obey the rules!

Sculley and Mulder make a perfect couple! While he's actually digging it.........

............She's put off by the whole act, which just turns Mulder on more!

To see if they can draw a little more attention to themselves, Mulder starts purposely breaking the rules by sticking a totally illegal pink flamingo in the front yard!

And then he waits to see what will happen!

Nothing happens, but he does get a cryptic threatening letter!

Neighbor Big Mike as played by Abraham (Robot Chicken) Benrubi was killed by the murderous Gogolak creature, but manages to come back with a warning for Sculley and Mulder!

The creature is pretty creepy, but you never get a real good look at him!
Okay, that's it, I've got rules to break! Thanx to Lord Litter for turning me on to this episode of  "The X-Files," it's a good one, and both Netflix and Amazon stream it, so there's no reason not to watch it!

Monday, June 20, 2016

THE BEING / Bill Osco Productions - 1983

Here's a flick that seems to be a mix of ALIEN and THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN! After these and STAR WARS came out, Hollywood didn't have a brain of their own any more, original thoughts were just crammed into a black hole somewhere and stealing ideas became the norm. This story's about toxic waste being dumped near a small Idaho town that turns a young boy into a slimy mutant monster. The police chief and a government scientist team up to stop the monster, which is quickly killing off the town's citizenry.

^^This film was made in 1980 as EASTER SUNDAY, but, sat on the shelf for three years before finally received a brief theatrical release as THE BEING!

I have a sound clip for your approval, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button located there by our mutant bean, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula!.. Here's a sample from... THE BEING!

Have you ever been to a drive-in movie?.. There aren't many left, they were a real trip. Here, there's a horror flick playing and all the teens are there, it features nudity!!

Anyway, it looks scarier than Hell...

These hick dudes are getting high on weed... Far out, man! When the driver is dragged off by the monster, that's the look on the stoned out hippie's face!

Here's Martin (SPACE: 1999) Landau giving an interview to the TV reporter, there's also a parade going on in Pottsville, Idaho, today.

We love Ruth Buzzi, here's a nice shot of her as social busy body, Virginia Lane.

Martin is thrown to the monster for a sympathy kill (Oh, no... not Martin!). Killing off a hero is an old gimmick for audience sympathy, like in THE BRAIN EATERS, THE FLAME BARRIER and THEM!

Bill Osco is Martin's helper, things don't look that great for him either!

Beat the Hell up, Bill grabs some bottles of sulfuric acid and break them on the monster's head, slowing the thing down a few notches.

Bill finishes the job by using his trusty ax to chop it to pieces, bringing the movie and this post to an end! Now, we can only imagine what Eegah!! has for us on Wednesday...

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??