VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA - Frankie Avalon - "Theme Song" (1961)

"Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea" is an epic film of classic proportions, and just might arguably be the best of all the submarine flicks! You got your Walter Pidgeon, Regis Toomey, Peter Lorre, Michael Ansara, Frankie Avalon, Joan Fontaine, and Barbara Eden all for the price of one single admission!! The bargain of the century and another great 'Submarine Halloween' tale!!!

They say the theme song sung by Frankie Avalon was a hit, but I don't remember it, although I do remember "Venus" quite well!

It's a great song, and the later trumpet playing bit is way too much!!! The song was written by prolific musician and songwriter Russell Faith!! One of the few songs you can actually call nice, and get away with it! The rest of the soundtrack was composed by Dungeon stalwarts Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter, whose names conjure up titles like "Kronos", "Sadist", "She-Devil" and "IT!" I never did figure out exactly who is playing the trumpet!!

The Pre-Jeannie Barbara Eden makes this one fantastic voyage!!

Researching "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea" on the Internet or just on IMDB, a person can get totally lost following leads with snippets of information here and there. Stuff like this:

The star of this film, Walter Pidgeon had a career that went all the way back into the silent movies dating back as far as 1926!!!! Can you even imagine? It gets better! In 1928 Walter was in a film entitled "The Gateway Of The Moon" that was directed by one John Griffith Wray who had been directing films since 1913 until his death in 1929. That means he had a career as director way back then for 16 years!!! And what in the Heck was genius Director Irwin Allen thinking when he allowed this shot!! Cut!!!!!

Some of the men on board are getting pretty uptight about the situation, and if you don't know what the situation is, then you must have been living in the Bat-Cave for the last forty years or so, and you really need to go get yourself a copy of this film!!!

It's really fascinating how they smoke inside the sub for the whole movie, the place had to smell like a Las Vegas casino or worse!

And on top of that, The Captain smokes stogies in bed, and damn near sets the whole place on fire!!!

If you rent or buy the DVD, it has some great production stills like this, that show you a bit of what they had to go through to film this Monster!!!! Cranes, water, and Scaffold City!!!!

TARGET EARTH / Allied Artists, Herman Cohen - 1954 / Music by Paul Dunlap

Hello everbloody!!.. Tonight, Tabonga present strange lil' flick call!.. TARGET EARTH. Poster is excellent, top 10, you see robots acting all crazy and have big scary killer claw!

But, you see in silly publicity still that... 'What claw?!' Look like roach holder!!.. Oh, and weenie arm swing back and forth too!!.. Wow.

Music is awesome, theme kicks it like in INVADERS FROM MARS, which we already post here! Paul Dunlap is Dungeon top pick, other flick we already post with Paul' music: I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN, BLOOD OF DRACULA, HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER, THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE, FRANKENSTEIN 1970, INVISIBLE INVADERS, ANGRY RED PLANET, BLACK ZOO, CASTLE OF EVIL!.. Nuf' said!! Give listen to TARGET EARTH MUSIC!

For Tabonga, this always best way to start flick!

Here Kathleen and Richard meet for first time. Richard totally act like big A-Hole!

Director tell other Richard.. Act all scared!.. He do pretty good.

Okay, here is dirty little secret!.. Budget only allow for ONE robot!!! so that all they make and that all you ever see!! Poster show two robot!

Here at Dungeon, make us chuckle whenever robot fall over! What is more funnier is when they fall on face though!!.. More undignified!

Happy Halloween... MF!!

MONSTER FROM THE OCEAN FLOOR - André Brummer - "Submarine Halloween" (1954)

"Monster From The Ocean Floor" was Roger Corman's second film production, (his first was "Highway Dragnet" where he was co-producer), but it was his first solo effort as producer and his very first 'Monster Movie' for sure! It was also an outing that featured the music of Mr. Henri Price, as he was known in all his later work in Ray Dennis Steckler films, and also the man responsible for all the music that wasn't done by Arch Hall in "Eegah," my personal hero and father figure, the incredible André Brummer!!! Can we have a round of applause here, please??

If you haven't figgered it out by now, any film that has Jonathan "Little Shop Of Horrors" Haze, and, or Dick "Bucket Of Blood" Miller in it, is without a doubt worth searching out for some damn reason or another, guaranteed, as far as we are concerned! Jonathan Haze, here in his first role ever, using the name Jack Hayes, plays a character named Joe! Aren't all these fine folks like crazy perfect?

Even in his early work, Roger Corman had a thing for underwater scenes for some perverse reason.

His love is like a Red, Red Rose, Good-bye Julie! Huh? Think this song is setting us up for why it's okay for people to die here??

Now I know this might sound like something out of a "Spin & Marty" episode, but if you have ever had a chance to go out on a grunion run on a dark and eerie moonlit night, and something like this came up out of the water, even though, it was just a cheap Roger Corman movie, it would still scare the living crap out of you!!!

Nobody hears you when you scream underwater!!!!

Nothing quite says Halloween like SUBMARINES, and that's why I'll be doing features on them all week long, so, grab your grog and let's go!!! This is one of the smaller subs used, and maybe the first submarine to be used in a 'Monster Movie,' unless you want to count "Zombies Of The Stratosphere" in 1952!(But we don't count that!!) Sorry I couldn't get a good screen capture of the sub doing a direct bullseye on that monster!!

Very cheap Roger, but very effectively scary!!

Everything's really great!! Don't you agree? The world is just so freakin' prefect and wonderful then, and still to this day!!! But wait a minute, that was only one of the Monsters in the world!!!! Oh, No!!!! Help Mr. Wizard!!!

THE COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK / Paramount Pictures - 1958 / Music by Van Cleave

So, welcome back, tonight we have a really great movie!.. THE COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK!! Directed by Dungeon favorite Eugène Lourié of THE GIANT BEHEMOTH and GORGO fame, both already posted here! Give them a search...

Van Cleave does the music, and, boy, does this theme stand out in a crowd!! Also, its not every day that we post a Paramount title. Them and Columbia both have the problem of being too 'middle of the road' for us when it comes to monster movie music.

But, this theme is totally awesome and really says... THE COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK!

SOUNDCLIP NOT AVAILABLE

The movie starts off with a bang as Ross Martin, playing Jeremy Spensser, and, who has just won the Nobel Peace Prize, gets run over by a truck barrelling through an alley.

In it's defense, the truck did say 'dodge!'

Here's the problem!.. Jeremy was the world's authority in developing a food product that will save the Earth from famine due to overpopulation, a common theme in the '50's, like in TARANTULA.

Jeremy's father and brother, both doctors, figure out a way to get Jeremy back and reclaim his legacy. So, they make him into a giant hulk with a bad attitude!.. Wow, genius!!

Here's another problem, he has a son and hot wife!.. And, guess what?!.. Jeremy's brother is trying to hit on the wifey, and, Jeremy... err... The Colossus, knows about it!!!..

The Colossus walks under water to get to brother Henry, who's headed for the hills, but, Henry gets a big surprise instead. You see, Colossus has developed awesome new powers, like frying your sorry ass with heat vision!!!.. Goodbye, dear brother!! The still with a bridge in the background is a common element in Eugène Lourié films!

Ed Wolff plays The Colossus. Here's a great still as he breaks through some glass at the UN. He then starts randomly toasting people in the crowd!!

Somedays, it jes' don't pay to be a cop!

Check it out, we could use The Colossus in Washington!!

The Colossus gets turned off by his son, then he falls to the floor!.. Anyway, Jeremy went from wanting to save the Earth to wanting to kill everyone!!.. Hey, just like in real life!!

And, since its the month of Halloween, here's an added bonus. Back in 1988 the garage band, Hermanos Guzanos, was having this tune played on WMFU radio in NJ by none other than Kaz (writer on Sponge Bob) on his excellent late night show, 'Midnight Lounge!'

Here's Hermanos Guzanos doing COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK from their X-13 album!

Gojira Tai Hedorâ - Riichiro Manabe - Gara Takatori - Honey Knights and the Moon Drops - "Godzilla Vs. The Smog Monster" (1972)

Hell, we just couldn't wait any longer!!!

If this doesn't look like Halloween, I'll eat Hedorah's shorts!

We've got a whole new slew of ever so obscure titles in the can for you, and this Halloween Countdown 2008 provides us a with a great opportunity to post something about one of our most favorite movies, even tho it's from the 70's!!

So, without further delay, let's just kick off this next round a day early, with some music to whet the tastes of even the most hardcore monster aficionados!!!

"Gojira Tai Hedorâ" has got it all! It's a classic romp, and an opus adventure that has some of the furthest-out rockin' music you'll ever hear, a message, and monsters!!!

So before the end of the world, or at least until All Saint's Day gets here, you've still got time to find yourself a copy of this film, ingest some forbidden substance, break out your old fish head mask, and prepare yourself to party!!

Here is what we like to call the ultimate "Godzilla Vs. Hedorah Jam!"

I could go on forever and a day about this film, and there's about 1000 screen captures I'd like to show you, but I've still got some partying to do myself.

Tomorrow night Rodan gets us started again, and will take us back to the 50's where we belong, with the Eugène Lourié classic "The Colossus of New York!" Stay tuned!!


Click Here to follow a link to a list of all the "Halloween Countdown 2008" participants!!

Oct 03 2008 - "The 4-D Witch"

Oct 02 2008 - The Di-Vinyls - "Science Fiction"

Oct 01 2008 - Iron Butterfly - "Filled With Fear"