Wednesday, June 8, 2011

DAS GASTHAUS AN DER THEMSE - Martin Böttcher - "Mekka Twist" (1962)

Anybody who has read this blog at all knows I dig a good mystery, but one thing that's not a mystery is that Edgar Wallace is, in my humble opinion, consistently about the best at it, and tonight's installment, "Das Gasthaus An Der Themse" and/or "The Inn On The River" is no exception!!

This shot and the Martin Böttcher theme song pretty much sets the tone for the whole film! Reminds me of Spike Jones, and what's up with that squiggley little trumpet? Wild!!

Whiskey runners and harpoons don't mix!

Released on my birthday in 1962, the sleepy innocuous title "The Inn On The River" should have really been dubbed "The Sleazy Bar And House Of Ill Rupute On The River" and you would have a better idea of what kind of place this really is! It's called "Mekka" and the owner, Nelly Oaks is kind enough to do the entertaining herself! Nelly is singing a little ditty entitled "...Besonders In der Nacht."

Talk about rockin'!

Edgar Wallace regular Elisabeth Flickenschildt has the part of Nelly, and this is the only time she sang in all of her 100 marvelous performances!

Joachim Fuchsberger as Detective Wade is the master of the Cheshire grin, and once again the man responsible for getting to the bottom of this new string of murders committed by a person known only as "The Shark!" Da Dum!!!

Do you recognize this unscrupulous and scroungy looking character? It's Klaus Kinski as whiskey smuggler Gregor Gubanow!! Dungeon icon Klaus is looking particularly dapper in this role!

Big Willy takes over for the musical interlude, and I swear Nelly is flipping Detective Wade off as she exits the room!

Detective Wade is also kind of sweet on Nelly's stepdaughter, Brigitte Grothum as Leila Smith, and a has an incessant need to question her, even down in the cellar, and if he has to go down a coal chute to get there!! Brigitte has worked steadily in Germany, up to and including last year!

I know you've seen big eye shots before in your life, but this is one of the better ones!

Just try and imagine Klaus Kinski spying on you! Pretty creepy!

I was actually looking at this still, and I couldn't remember what I found intriguing about it, but then I spotted it! Every Edgar Wallace movie I've seen so far, has got an eyeball peeping out from somewhere, I think it's kind of a trademark like the cuckoo clock and the howling wolf during the soundtrack!

Siegfried Schürenberg always has to make an appearance as Sir John, it's mandatory!!

I aren't kidding, Eddie Arent as Barnaby, the guy perched up on the bookshelf telling his story, went on to play Sir John himself in 5 Edgar Wallace German TV movies made in 2002! Among other odd roles, Eddie was a doctor in a 1969 film called "Das Go-Go-Girl Vom Blow Up" that I found streaming on some site, but after jumping through numerous hoops I disappointedly never got it to play!

Detective Wade is just that kind of guy, that while smoking a cigarette, and asking questions, he'd still help a young lady hang her undergarments on the clothesline!

It's the old finger in the back trick, hand over your gun, I've got you covered!!

The composer for the music used in "The Inn On The River" is one of our favourites, Martin Böttcher!! We've featured Martin here many times for his superlative work on such titles as "Das Phantom Von Soho," "Das Ungeheuer Von London City," "Creature With The Blue Hand," and "College Girl Murders" among his 113 composing credits! Martin is still around, and has spent the last 20 years composing music for two German TV shows, "Forsthaus Falkenau," and "Pfarrer Braun."

Here's a decent shot of Rudolf Fenner as Big Willy, the bouncer and accordion player, that you can attribute to the keen eyes of Director Alfred Vohrer, and Cinematographer Karl "Frontal" Löb!!

"Let's twist again like we did last summer!" - Chubby Checker

Dropping by to question Big Willy's old lady the wigmaker, makes for a surreal scene!

"The Shark" has been very busy! After he turns his victims into human shish kabobs, he exits the scene via the underground London sewer system!

Edgar Wallace tales have a tendency to go all kinds of different directions tossing the blame towards every character, and then ending up somewhere completely different!

Finally, "The Shark" is caught robbing a safe!

Oops! Imagine that, they got the wrong guy, now who would have figured that out?

No, although a lot of suspicious fingers were pointing at Klaus, he's not "The Shark" either!

Can I get away with the 'pull my finger' gag one more time? Stay tuned and find out!

Monday, June 6, 2011

GODZILLA vs MEGALON / Toho - 1973

Hello everbloody an' welcome to Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon! Tonite's flick is one monsterous event, featuring Godzilla, Jet Jaguar, Megalon and Gigan!! Nuf' said?..

The story goes like this... Because of atomic tests, the underground kingdom of Seatopia sends out Megalon and Gigan to destroy Earth's surface dwellers. To stop them, Godzilla and super robot, Jet Jaguar, join together to battle the two big bugs!

Great tagline... Titan against Titan! Giant against Giant, in the most spectacular battle yet!!

The music was composed by Riichiro Manabe, who also worked on KILL THE KILLER!, THE SMELL OF POISON, EXILED TO HELL, FEAR OF THE GHOSTHOUSE: BLOODSUCKING DOLL, GODZILLA vs THE SMOG MONSTER, EVIL OF DRACULA and HELL...

So then, let's bring in our little Dungeon helper and 'GO' button pusher, yessir, the one and only... Rufus The Gnat! Rufus is here to get the party started, so, without further adieu, here's our Eariffic Earclip for... GODZILLA vs MEGALON!

...Where's all the fun gone?!

As little Roku-chan is barely rescued by a rope during an earthquake, the lake drains into a big hole!

Seatopian leaders monitor the detrimental results to their power grid due to the surface dwellers' love affair with atomic testing...

When things go wrong, there's only one thing to do... That's right, get girls in cool costumes to dance around! Makes sense to me...

This is Robert Dunham as Emperor Antonio of Seatopia. We remember Robert as Mark Jackson in DAGORA, THE SPACE MONSTER and Captain Martin in GREEN SLIME. Robert was also a stuntman and auto racer and played the "Unit 1" Seatopian Agent on the motorcycle in the chase scene!

The Emperor summons their secret weapon, Megalon, a giant bug, to leave Seatopia and go up to the Earth's surface and pay a little visit to the ones responsible for screwing everything up.

There are some really great chases going on, down stairways, down steep mountains, all at breakneck speeds...

This part, where Roku-chan and Inventor Goro are trapped in this container, ready to fall 200 feet to their death, is kinda hard for me to watch since it reminds me of one of the worst nightmares I ever had!! The container actually falls off the truck and they survive!!!!!!!! Gimme a break!

Looks like this militaty footage is from THE MYSTERIANS!

Megalon fights back! Nice portrait of the BEM...

F-86's are brought in to try and inflict some damage on the invaders.

Megalon has a powerful electrical ray that shoots from the glowing prong on the top of his head, a ray similar to Ghidrah's.

It's two on one as Megalon and Gigan get the upper hand with Jet Jaguar.

But, our hero Godzilla shows up and now it's a level playing field!

Godzilla gets a running start and slides along on his tail for about a half mile, a move that has to be seen to be fully appreciated! In other words, it's about time you pull this title out and watch it again!

Then, as Jet holds Megalon firmly in place, Godzilla plants his 2 big old foots right in his chest!! Yep, sweet move, just like in Big Time Wrassling!

Jet and Big G shake hands at the end for jobs well done, thus creating a bond between monster and machine!!

Ghoulnight Everbloody!!..

Monster Music

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