THE BOWERY BOYS MEET THE MONSTERS / Allied Artists - 1954 / Music by Marlin Skiles

Around the Dungeon, we love this gang of filmmakers! Over the years, Allied Artists has become my favorite production company. Director Ed Bernds and writer Elwood Ullman both worked with The Stooges, and, in our book, that's the very coolest!!.. So, its tonight's Sunday Classic! Marlin Skiles is a regular around here, too. A few other films you can hear his music in are 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH, THE GIANT CLAW, SPOOK CHASERS and ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU! This fairly short segment is basically a mix of background music with the boys' dialogue over it... Meetin' the Monsters!

 GREAT TITLE CARD!..

 Paul Wexler plays Grissom, the butler. Looks like he's the model for Lurch! 

 Huntz as the ultimate clown... 

 

The meter says it all, folks!!

 Grissom is asked to drink a potion, and, this is the result! 

 

This here little lady is Ellen Corby! I swear, she was one of the busiest actors ever in the history of Hollywood, totally incredible resume!! She's watering some weird looking plant, like a deformed tree!

 Okay, I have to be honest with everyone, this is Tabonga's older cousin, Flora!.. He went into hiding tonight because I'm posting this movie and he's totally embarrassed that they're related, and, that she's!.. HOMELY AS HELL!!

 No 'spending the night' scene is complete without ear muffs, stripes, a tie or headgear! 

 

In the lab, the robot's always knocking it's head off when the guys aren't paying attention! That's an uncredited Norman Bishop playing Gorog, the robot! 

 

Recognize this ape from a Stooges short?!.. I do! That's an uncredited Steve Calvert playing Cosmos, the ape! 

 

CLASSIC!!

 Flora has a strange way of showing affection!!.. How does a tree have sex, anyway?! We'll have to ask Tabonga! 

 

I think it was Moe that wore those stretch arms!! I'd bet that some of that stuff came from cartoons! 

 

Huntz drinks some of that potion and finally gets some revenge on Leo!!

SHE FREAK - Billy Allen aka William Allen Castleman - "Carny Life" (1967)

Wasn't quite sure if I was gonna make it tonight, but here I is, so Let's Rock!! It's a "She Freak" Saturday night, so Let's go!!! "She Freak" is in a category all by itself, period! Probably one of The best movies ever put on film, this movie looks to be shot 97 1/3% at the Kern County Fair Grounds in Bakersfield, California circa 1967, at what I'm sure was probably after the two week stint the carny spent at the fair! Obviously, the people who made this movie should be running this country, because they know what a budget is!!! 

 

It's a real life tale about Claire Brennen as Jade Cochran and a carny life of suspense and greed! Claire reminds me an awful lot of Janine Reynaud for some reason! 

 

Jade's Boss is a prick!! 

 

Life is hard, working in a greasy spoon for minimum wage, and tips don't amount to squat, when you got it going on! 

 

Grease your bearings and gears cause even the carny looks good, and the music just keeps pumpin' by Billy Allen!! 

 

Welcome to the Fair!! 

 

If this was any more exciting, I'd probably burst a balloon!!! 

 

Felix Silla as Shorty and Claire Brennen met on the set of this film, and had an affair that lasted for years and produced a son!! Really!!!! 

 

Lynn Courtney as exotic dancer "Moon Mullins" couldn't dance but looked good in her only film outing! 

 

Blackie and Pretty Boy tangle to see who is in the superior position to score with Jade! 

 

Oops!! Looks like Pretty Boy gets the short end of the straw!! 

 

Man, can you believe what they have to do, just to set up and take down the stinkin' bumper cars?? Can we get some carny love here, these guys are working overtime for bottom dollar!!! 

 

So, she marries the guy with the most money and the Cadillac, but he's not really that interesting! 

 

Blackie's the guy she really wants!! 

 

So her husband dies, she inherits the business, and turns into a greedy bitch! 

 

The freak's don't take to it so well!! 

 

In the end, she is welcomed into the brood as one of their own! 

 

Get the picture????? What else could you possibly want?

THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS - David Buttolph - "Today Is X Day" (1953)

It's Friday night, and you know what that means, it's a good time for Giant Monster fun, and one surefire classic Giant Monster movie was "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms."

 

Am I the only one who thinks it's pretty creepy that these guys are in charge of setting off atomic bombs at the North Pole in 1953?? 

 

Seems like a lot of the time this Ray Harryhausen production gets left in the shadows of some of Ray's other classics, but this is a great movie! Here's one of the first sightings of the creature! 

 

Prolific composer David Buttolph shines in one of his rare horror outings, although he had done a lot of crime and detective films among other things in the 30's & 40's! Here it's music on the radio! 

 

Gee, those cliffs in the background kind of look like a New York City skyline, imagine that!! Great sketch!! 

 

I thought the random shot from off of the radio of "what was that guy smoking?" was pretty wild for 1953 until I realized that, oh, yeah, some of director Eugène Lourié's other shining moments have been steeped in drug culture with titles like "Confessions Of An Opium Eater" in 1962 and "Wild Weed" way back in 1949!! 

 

Extra, Extra, read all about it!!!! Monster Death Toll Mounts!! 

 

When that Monster starts tromping through New York, and the shoebox has to drive on the sidewalk, get the Hell out of the way! 

 

Time to bring in the S.W.A.T. Team!!!! 1953 style!!! 

 

So finally the Big Monster gets to Coney Island in New York, except it's really The Long Beach Pike in California! 

 

And when all the little babies are through sniveling, it's time to finally bring in a real man to do the job, one of the few people on earth able to put the fear into Clint Eastwood, Mr. Bad himself, Lee Van Cleef!! 

 

Too bad he wasn't within range and they have to ride the roller coaster to the top carrying a radioactive isotope and wearing the craziest hoods you've ever seen so they don't get nuclear burned, and you start to think maybe they're vulnerable after all! 

 

Based on a story by Ray Bradbury, the film adaptation leans a lot heavier on the fiction than it does the science, but don't worry, because Lee's got that sucker in his sights!!! See, here's the deal, you need to show your kids movies like this when they are really young before their little brains get jaded by modern production and they can't see the beauty of a black and white film until they are in their 20's or 30's! You see what I'm saying??? There is no present or future without the past! Go rent this movie, you'll love it, your kids's and co-workers will love it!!! You can be a hero too!!

BACK FROM THE DEAD / Regal + Emirau 1957 / Music by Raoul Kraushaar & Dave Kahn

Raoul Kraushaar work on THE UNKNOWN TERROR (Already post here) and THE 30 FOOT BRIDE OF CANDY ROCK! But, best thing is conductor for INVADERS FROM MARS!! (Already post here) So, give big listen to... "You used to like it!"

 It below Tabonga dignity to try understand such stupid flick! Here kinda what going on... What you hear is record on record player. Where you get such record in 1957 is anybloody guess!! So, Arthur playing it for his sister who come to stay with him and girlfriend, or wife, because!.. "You use to like it, remember!" What kind gurl like that?!!.. Okay, now guess what? Sister either get out of loonie bin or just get back from dead, not sure, but anyhow, she try relaxing on couch to recuperate from ordeal! But, no... Arthur want play that music for her?!!.. That only tip of iceberg why Tabonga want kick this flick's scrawny ass... 

 

Man, Tabonga look boss driving convertible '57 Dodge!

 Arthur girlfriend, or wife, get to sit in back!! 

 

Later, sis get a little more interesting!

 Cute doggie bark at sis... 

 

So, she ready to even score! 

 

SIS LOOKIN' GOOD!!

 Lady fascinated by big wood doorknocker!.. Something Tabonga know all about!.. Wood doorknocker..

 Great part this old lady have! 

 

OH!!.. NOW WHAT?!!

 "I swear on a stack of pancakes!"