THE BLACK SLEEP - Les Baxter - "Dr. Cadman's Secret" (1956)

First off, how can a movie 'formerly' be something? It's still the same movie, they just changed the title!! I don't care what they say, this movie will always be "The Black Sleep"!!!! Kudos once again to composing Dungeon champion, Les Baxter!!

First class all the way, not a Biscayne, but a Bel-Air Production!! Impressive!!

Just look at that line-up, and they didn't even have room for Tor's name!!

Basil Rathbone gets a big hand from the lovely Patricia Blair(Blake) and Mr. Herbert Rudley!!

Lon Chaney Jr. doing what he did best, showing up and acting weird!!

This movie scared the living crap outta me when I was a little kid, and that thorny pyracantha plant scratching on my bedroom window screen in the middle of the night wasn't much help either, but after many nightmares, I learned how to deal with some of those inner demons, but I still don't like this movie!! Just to start, the name is "Black Sleep" and I don't see many ways to interpret that except death! Then there's the whole concept of keeping creepy freaky people penned up underground in vaults, chambers and cells just doesn't sit right with me. No wonder a lot of people stayed high on the likes of Doris Day and Lawrence Welk, who the Hell in their right mind would want to go this direction?? This is madness, what was that drug he was talking about again??

This is where it really starts to get uncomfortable, and you start fidgeting around in your seat!

So, what do you say, let's meet the rest of the gang!! Here's John Carradine, the life of the party, and a man capable of reciting perfect Shakespeare, even in a drunken stupor!!

The pirate with the cranium that looks like a badly repaired cracked egg is George Sawaya, a man with an incredible TV career! Out of all these characters, George bugs me the most!!

Damn it Herbert, I told you not to give him any peanuts!

Tor Johnson! That's it! Tor Johnson!! That says it all!!

Finally, they run into Sally Yarnell, the first normal person in the whole dungeon!

Oh, Yecchh, she's got the mange or something!! Have a nice nightmare! Yuck!!

THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN / AIP - 1957 / Music by Albert Glasser

Welp, here's tonight's 'amazing colossal' posting... a classic sci-fi movie from MR. BIG and crew in 1957. And, look at this excellent poster, WOW!!

This is probably Albert Glasser's weakest theme for any Gordon title he worked on, which is, a lot! But, it gets the job done. Search our archives for Albert's other entries!

So, let's get the party started... Here's the SOUNDCLIP NO LONGER AVAILABLE

This is cool!.. Glenn is playing Glenn!! But, alas, he gets a little too close to a delayed plutonium bomb blast. Well, that's what he gets for trying to be a hero!

Glenn 'amazingly' recovers from the blast, but starts growing, then he quips after looking at the tiny newspaper headlines... "You call this living?!"

He wreaks a mountain of havoc in his 'little' visit to Las Vegas!

SON... OF... A... BITCH!!!!!

Why, you little!!..

Luckily, Glenn didn't try and pull a 'King Kong' on her!! Look how phony this shot looks!

And, a 'little' bonus!

DIE TODESSTRAHLEN DES DR. MABUSE - Carlos Diernhammer & Oskar Sala - " The Death Ray Mirror of Dr. Mabuse" (1964)

"The Death Ray Mirror of Dr. Mabuse" is just one more in a massive string of excellent films made in Germany in the 60's. The score for this film was composed by a fellow we have not written about before, Carlos Diernhammer, and he only has a handful of other credits, but just like Peter Sandloff and Peter Thomas, and some others, he swings with the best of them!!
Any interesting electronic bits are the work of the master, Oskar Scala!!

I love these German Dr. Mabuse and Edgar Wallace flicks, but our buddy in Berlin, the king of trash and roll, Lord Litter, tells us, that we really need to find some Jerry Cotton films, so we're really lookin' forward to those, but it's been a pretty elusive search so far! Hey Netflix, we love you, man, but how about the whole Edgar Wallace/Jerry Cotton catalogue??? Let's see if that works!!!

First we must extract the information from Professor Pohland via shock treatment! "It wasn't I, it was Mabuse, he made me lie!"

Checkin' in with The Boss, 1967 style!!

Mr. Peter van Eyck plays the part of Major Bob Anders, an interesting character to be sure. Not the best looking, smartest or toughest guy in the world, but he gets the job done, and always makes an interesting story out of it!

Major Bob brings along his friend Judy, the distraction of perfection, played by Cretian beauty Queen Rika Dialina, in an attempt to make himself look more normal. Judy just came along to have fun, and can't figure out what's going on at all, but always brings up something insightful that points to some important clue!!

Yo, Ho, Ho, Ship #13 as seen through binoculars!! Where we come from, it just doesn't get any better than that! That's class!!

Speaking of class, how about this shot? What could possibly be next?

Yoko Tani as the cunning little cat, and our hero, before and after the bedroom!

Here it is!! The one, the only, the amazing "Death Ray Mirror!" Death rays bounce off the moon and come back and kill you, and this is just a private enterprise!!

Turns out The Boss is not only the boss, but he's also Dr. Mabuse! Whoa! Major conflict here!

"It wasn't I, it was Mabuse, he made me lie!"

EQUINOX - Jaime Mendoza-Nava - "The Beast" (1970)

Welcome to the new Funky Friday Night Out Of Control Freak-Out! Just pay attention and nobody will get hurt! Just for kicks, we're going to venture off into the 70's for a few weeks on Fridays, and let's get it going with yet another Jack H. Harris Überclassic, from the year 1970, "Equinox"!!!!

Kudos to Bolivian composer Jaime Mendoza-Nava for an outstanding soundtrack! The music playing on the radio in the car is beyond classic sleaze! This film was also released under the title "The Beast" and used the voices of our hero, Forrest J. Ackerman, Chuck Niles of "Teenage Zombies" fame, and also had 8 time Hugo award winning Science Fiction writer Fritz Leiber Jr. in it. What other movie can make those claims?

This young man is David Fielding played by Edward Connell in his first acting role!

Sound man Jack Woods has his only acting job ever here as Asmodeus, or as he is also known, "The Boss!" Did I mention that Jack Woods also wrote and directed this film?

Then Cinematographer Mike Hoover starts throwing this stuff at you!

I'm sure all you TV freaks out there recognised the voice of Herb Tarlek, that crazy plaid pants salesman in 89 episodes of "WKRP In Cincinnati" from 1978-1982 played by the fabulous Frank Bonner here in his first credited film role!

When you first see "Equinox" all you can think is how bad it looks compared to something like Harryhausen's "The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad," but in retrospect, this movie really isn't half bad!!!

The Boss comes back to finish up some business!

I can't figure out why David keeps calling out for some guy named Mike Ross! I don't see any other reference to a Mike Ross anywhere else in the film or in the credits! Very Freakish!

Now you can see why this was also Edward Connell's only and last film role!!

I've got two words for you, it's that simple! "Equinox" Rocks, and that's why we're here! Raise your freak flag high!