KAITEI DAISENO (Terror Beneath The Sea) - Shunsuke Kikuchi - "Atomic Underwater Swing" (1966)

Once again, we have a film with music by Shunsuke Kikuchi, and this mixed-up mash shows off his composing skills quite nicely I think. In this film, the master rampages all over the place from atomic lounge/chase swing to underwater scares and lab bubbles, and it's all good. The musical segments in this movie go on and on because of long underwater and creature transformation scenes, and this is only a fraction of it! 

 

Sonny Chiba is absolutely great as Ken, and Peggy Neal screams and cries continually as Jenny! 

 

If undersea monsters aren't bad enough, how about............. 

 

Monsters with guns!!!

  Mr. Smiley Big-Shot!! Oh, yeah, he'll get it all right!! 

 

Disturbing to watch transformation scene, well, at least for them! 

 

Some of the best gauge shots since "Batwoman!" 

 

Cinematographer Kazuo Shimomura's work on this film is so amaZing, and it just goes on and on, shot after shot, mixes with the music to perfection and makes this whole film look extra special! Terror Mix Go get yourself some to experience the whole thing!

MANHUNT IN SPACE - Scotty Beckett (Winky) - "The Night He Made The Starfield Rise" (1956)

This is one of those very strange, bizarre, sad, but probably not really surprising Hollywood stories. It's about Scotty Beckett, the singer of this song in the 1956 TV series movie, "Rocky Jones Space Ranger - Manhunt In Space." Scotty started out as a child actor in 1933, did his stint in the "Our Gang" comedy series, and died at 38 from a drug overdose, and that is only scratching the surface of his amazing saga.

 Here we have Scotty as "Winky," singing this lullaby and playing some kind of futuristic lectronic space dulcimer. 

 Winky's Tune

 "Winky" looks happy enough, just shows to go you how great an actor Scotty really was! This sappy song preceded "The Mushroom Song" in "The Giant Gila Monster" by three years! 

 

The perfect look of the future, ball caps and t-shirts!!! 

 

Here's some of Scotty's dialogue with Rocky from the very beginning of the film, that pretty much stinks of reality when you look at his life story in retrospect, and is it really possible to walk around with your pants pulled up that high?  

Rocky & Winky

 Scotty Beckett's story is just way to complex for me to really go into here in detail, so follow this link to read it for yourself. I personally guarantee you will not regret it, because it's Way, Way Weirdsville and almost unbelievable. We're talking stuff like, gunfights with Mexican Police just for starters!  

The Scott Beckett Bio

 

  Remember Spanky's little sidekick "Scotty?"

ANATOMY OF A PSYCHO - Ronnie Burns - "Round Round Round" (1961)

Here's a great little single from "Anatomy Of A Psycho" that I've been saving for a special occasion for you to celebrate with. The starring role in this film goes to Ronnie Burns, adopted son of George Burns, but it's a cat named Darrell Howe who steals the show as the more than demented, cruel whackjob Psycho Chet! 

 

Here's the deal! You got a beautiful pad and the place is rockin! 

 

Next thing you know, some psycho is making out with your girl, putting his cigarette out on your fine art, smashing your head into the mirror in your mother's bedroom & setting the place on fire. 

 That's about the way it felt without Reverend Frost around! Welcome back Tom!  

Round Round Round

QUEEN OF BLOOD (Planet Of Blood) - Leonard Morand - "She Certainly Was Hungry " (1966)

Everything about the film "Planet Of Blood," written and directed by Curtis Harrington, is a real enigma from start to finish! First off, it's a low-budget film that looks fantastic. By today's standards, it had an all-star cast, young and old, including Basil Rathbone, John Saxon, Dennis Hopper and the man himself, Forrest J. Ackerman! The reason the space scenes looks so incredible is because they are cut out of a much larger budget, 1960 Soviet production entitled "Nebo Zovyot" or as it was released in the U.S., "Battle Beyond The Sun," you know the movie with the world famous scary vagina monster! Even the music and sound credits are weird, with Ron Stein masking as the space age Leonard Morand, and since this isn't exactly all music, you have to give a lot of credit to the sound department of Nelson-Corso too for their contributions to the overall soundscape. A fun movie to watch, but hard to find. The sound quality here is not that great as it was taken from an old VHS tape, but you will get the idea. 

 

This is the coolest picture of rockets!!! 

 

You can thank "Nebo Zovyot" for this fantastic shot!! 

 

Check it out! Their helmets are mini versions of............. 

 

This super-nifty extraordinary spaceship!! 

 

Dennis, send her back where she came from, you won't regret it!! 

 

John really is not wanting to have anything to do with this whole deal! 

 

Just another stunning shot!! 

 

Of course, Forry, grinning like Lewis Carroll's Cheshire Cat gets in the last dig, thus setting up for a sequel that will never happen, but still, that's one hip cat!! 

 

John Cline did the art work for the opening credits, and each piece is magnificent! Beep Whir Ping Blip Zam!!

CONQUEST OF SPACE - Rosemary Clooney - "In The Desert Sand" (1955)

1955, Extra Cool Big Screen TV in space, and finally a correct vision of the future, with a super Pre-MTV video featuring none other than the utterly fascinating Rosemary Clooney in some absolutely mind-blowing stock footage from the classic film "Conquest Of Space." 

 

Rosie was an amazing person, and sure, we all know about nephew George, but also her son Miguel Ferrer besides being an extremely talented actor collaborated with Billy Mumy (We're talking "Lost In Space" & "Fish Heads" here!!!!) on Marvel Comics title "Comet Man." In the late 80's we shared a card table with Miguel & Billy at the San Diego ComCon, super cool & down to earth people! For a real treat, by all means, please check out Billy Mumy's Site. Dude's a genius!! Meanwhile, back lost in the conquest of space again... 

 

Rosemary In Space

 

THE BLOODY BROOD - Harry Freedman - "Studs & The Weasel" (1959)

Nico! You know you're a spineless jerk when you have to rat out your own good boys, Studs & The Weasel to the Boss. Yeah, your time's gonna come little man. 

 

Studs played by Bill Bryden went on to be in crazy fave "The Mask." Weasel played by Michael Zenon has been working as assistant director in the movies since the 70's & just completed a film in 2008 entitled "Hank And Mike." 

 

Studs and The Weasel after Nico ratted them out!!! 

 

Here's a Bloody Collage starting with the questioning of Carol Starkman, the ultra cool blonde neighbor with the great lines, and degenerating into the hip apartment club scene! What happened to Carol? She was too good!! 

 

It's all those pseudo-hip criminal element squares like Nico, taking advantage of the swinger's love of art and their good natured temper, who murdered the whole scene! It happened again 10 years later to the Hippies, and then again about 10 years later to the Punks! For centuries people have just wanted to get high, listen to music, and enjoy the arts, and then, Bam! It's all about money, politics, & commercial greed! Where'd the love go, man?? 

 

Murder as an art form is a pretty damn ugly concept, but the music composed by Harry Freedman is incredible! Later films by this Polish composer included "The Hooker Cult Murders" from 1973 and "Kavik The Wolf Dog" in 1980.

THE TELL-TALE HEART - Crombie & LeSage - "19th Century Bar Scene" (1960)

To my uneducated ears this sounds like some kind of off kilter "My Favorite Things" deviation, but it is most likely some variation on some other Olde English traditional tune. Nonetheless, the composers both come from jazz and big band backgrounds, so it's not hard to imagine that their take on 19th century music might be a little warped or different! Tony Crombie was a drummer, pianist & bandleader, & Bill LeSage was a pianist for The Johnny Dankworth Seven & a bandleader himself. Not much horror in their credits but they did compose music for a few cool titles like "Pussycat Paradise", "Striptease Murder" & "The Spider's Web." 

 

In this scene from Poe's famous story, "The Tell-Tale Heart", Edgar Marsh seems to have a bit of an inferiority complex, among other apparent problems, including not being able to deal with the opposite sex! 

 

But let's give Edgar a little credit here, it's just not really that hard to imagine why he wouldn't want to Buy Her Another Drink! 

 

Edgar's a vicious killer and a jealous librarian, I think we have a problem! 

 

This is the guy with the haunting heart! 

 

Wow, what a hangover, good thing I didn't drink anything!!!