~ 13 OF TABONGA'S FAVORITE SIXTIES MONSTER FLICKS ~

It's another Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. We have a special request from our pal, Paul, all the way from Sydney, Australia, for 13 of Tabonga's favorite Sixties Monster Movies. So, here we go, Eegah!! and I saw a number of these in the theater when they came out, way back when, movies are listed in alphabetical order.

13 GHOSTS - 1960 / Eegah!! and I loved William Castle's 13 GHOSTS, especially Ghost #13! We still had our 3-D glasses from the show until a few years ago when we sold them on Ebay, also had the Punishment Poll cards from MR. SARDONICUS.

ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE - 1963 / After seeing this freaky little Toho flick on TV in the mid-sixties, it became a real favorite of mine, what a roller coaster of a horror show!

THE BRAINIAC - 1962 / I have a real fetish for Sixties Mexican Monsters, there's nothing like them! Yeah, they're schlocky, but, that's what makes them so damn cool! I dig his suckered, two-fingered hands and that crazy, 18" forked tongue!

THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE - 1962 / At the time, this flick was on the 25 worst movie list in our original DWRAYGER DUNGEON Magazine from 1964, I even wrote a letter to the editor of FAMOUS MONSTERS panning it that they published in issue #22!.. Love it, now!!

THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS - 1963 / We saw this one in 1963, I think we had both read the paperback novel before the movie came out, we were really into horror and science-fiction! Back then, my favorite book was SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES by Ray Bradbury.

FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH - 1967 / The original English title is QUATERMASS AND THE PIT, where, Martian insects were buried in their spaceship and dug up during the construction of a tunnel. This movie and QUATERMASS 2 aka ENEMY FROM SPACE were both first done as a four hour mini series on British TV, and, proudly have those on DVD, too!

THE FLESH EATERS - 1964 / Wow, what a freak show, this movie is whack in so many ways!! Look at all that happens before you even get to see the freakin' weirdsville, tentacled, cyclops monster at the end! I also have clips of the censored Nazi nude swimming pool experiments, which are extra creepy, plus, the beautiful Barbara (INVASION OF THE ANIMAL PEOPLE) Wilson has a topless scene at the beginning!

THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH - 1964 / Then, there's this thing, schlock horror at it's very best! Music was by the non-existant band, The Del-Aires, and, check out that publicity photo, looks like it was shot before the completion of the actual monster suits!

THE HORRORS OF SPIDER ISLAND - 1962 / This was a lost movie for years and the best print is lousy, but, those sexy Euro chicks and freak spider make it one wild 'n' weird flick to love!

ISLAND OF TERROR - 1966 / I saw this one when it came out, a real terrorific flick! My mom and younger sister saw it together and it freaked them out but good!! Directed by Terrence (ISLAND OF THE BURNING DAMNED) Fisher.

THE MASK - 1961 / Eegah!! and I also saw this one at the theater, a real shocker! It was unique with its dream sequences and was in 3-D with free glasses! The Mask itself was just creepy to look at!

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD - 1968 / It's hard to forget this one the first time you saw it!! The one part that really got me was when the little girl turned on her mom, jeez!!!

THE TIME MACHINE - 1960 / Another great flick Eegah!! and I got to see at the time, Rod Taylor was perfect as time traveler, H. George Wells. Those Morlocks were simply, teriffic!

Next Monday I will be posting ~ 13 MORE OF TABONGA'S FAVORITE FIFTIES MONSTER FLICKS ~ then ~ 13 MORE OF TABONGA'S FAVORITE SIXTIES MONSTER FLICKS ~ the following Monday, tune in for those!!

THE UNINVITED - "You're Not Welcome" (1944)

It's another Saturday Night Special down in The Dungeon, and tonight's feature is a strange little film that's hard to find for some dang reason!

Made in the year of 1944, it's called "The Uninvited" so I guess that about explains the whole thing, nobody was welcome including me and you! The overly dramatic music by Victor Hugo is not that exciting, so Here's a taste of Ray Milland's opening narrative instead!

A pair of London dwellers happen upon a magnificent but abandoned olde home while out in the country on holiday!

What a great studio! Ray Milland's character is a songwriter so this room is really enticing to him!

One thing though, it seems like some of the neighboring locals might be toting around some extra mental baggage! This wonderful brother and sister team are Dungeon Super Hero Ray Milland as Roderick Fitzgerald, and his sister Pamela played by Ruth Hussey. In an unrelated "un" fact, Ruth was also in an episode of Science Fiction Theatre called "The Unguided Missile!"

Is this a perfect shot or what? That's not really a question, it's a statement!

So the Fitzgerald's buy the joint, and move right in. The neighbor lady's Dad was willing to sell the place for a very cheap price for some reason! This is Stella (By Starlight) Meredith as played by Gail Russell in her first major role! Roderick Fitzgerald is quite smitten with the young lady!

 The house is obviously haunted, and Stella has been banned by her Father from going there, but we all know how that goes! Joined by Alan (Cat People, Isle Of The Dead, House Of Horrors, Unconquered, The Strange Door, etc) Napier as Doctor Scott, the group breaks out the Ouija Board in an attempt to get to the bottom of things!

After the Ouija seance, Stella starts talking in Spanish, and bolts out of the house towards the bluffs overlooking the ocean!

That little stunt lands Stella in the nuthouse named after her Mother!!

The person in charge of "The Mary Meredith Retreat" is an odd gal known as Miss Holloway, an olde acquaintance of Stella's Mom! Miss Holloway has an air about her that says, this is not a nice person! Miss Holloway was played by Cornelia Otis Skinner! Cornelia only has 11 acting credits to her name, but she kept quite busy writing novels!

This lovely portrait of Mary Meredith hangs in Miss Holloway's office!

All I could think about when I saw this shot was this other favorite shot of mine from Mario Bava's "Schock" 33 years later!

"The Uninvited" is not super scary, but it has some pretty cool ghost effects in it!

Whenever something freaks out Stella, she heads off toward the cliffs again!

Literally living life on the edge, Stella is almost done for when the edge caves in underneath her. Lucky for her, Roderick was able to save her!

The ending is a convoluted affair that I'm not even going to try to explain, but I will go so far as to say that the ghost is indeed Stella's Mother, but Stella's Mother is not who you think she is!

I like this shot of Ray Milland pursuing the ghost, and the action stops to perfectly frame the candlestick holder he's carrying!

Gail Russell's real life didn't turn out with anything near the happy ending that this film has. It seems that Gail wasn't really comfortable in front of the camera, so she started drinking to steel her nerves, and she sadly, but literally drank herself to death by the age of 36!! Ray Milland of course went on to do "Panic In Year Zero!," "X: The Man With X-Ray Eyes," "Frogs," and "The Thing With Two Heads," just to mention a few of his many masterful roles!

While this French poster is great to look at, it is less exciting than it's American counterpart, but portrays a more accurate look at what "The Uninvited" is really all about!

I VAMPIRI aka THE DEVIL'S COMMANDMENT / Titanus Studios - 1956

It's Freaky Vampire Friday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. We gots a tale from Italy all about a mad scientist in France who captures young women and drains them of their blood, in order to keep an ancient, evil duchess alive. Also, this was the first Italian made horror film of the sound era! Original title is LUST OF THE VAMPIRE.

Eegah!! sent over a great lil' soundclip of the club scene from the movie for our earjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there by the atomic juke box, NOW, Rufus The Gnat! Here's a taste of... THE DEVIL'S COMMANDMENT!

I remember back in the fifties when you could leave all your doors unlocked at night... Fortunately, we didn't have any mad scientists in our little town! I also remember when Richard Ramirez, The Night Stalker, was loose in California and all doors and windows were triple locked, bolted and barricaded!

Oops, this dizzy French dame makes the same mistake, so, Pierre La Salle, whoever he is, gets involved in the mystery!

There are tons of beautiful noir shots, because, the photography director was none other than the awesome Mario (CALTIKI, THE UNDYING MONSTER) Bava!!!

Here's a nice shot of the doctor's mad lab!

And, here's the club scene where the hip music's playing in the soundclip.

The doctor's a sick, warped bastard who enjoys his work, and, role model for Dick Cheney.

A local drug addict is finally linked to the 'vampire' case and cracks under interrogation by the police detectives.

The police rush to the the mansion of the duchess just in time to watch her die and revert back to her actual, ancient age!

Then, the police find where the female victim is being kept, in a freakin' tomb!!