Post #1000!! / IT CONQUERED THE WORLD / AIP - 1956

Welcome everbloody to Friday Night Drive-In!! Come join Tabonga and Ralphie as they present the Dungeon's awesome 1000th posting!! Yep, that's right! Amazing, ain't it?!!

Tonight's show is a special blast from the past, that Corman/Blaisdell classic, IT CONQUERED THE WORLD, featuring Beulah, the Venusian Vegetable!! Oh yeah, 'IT' stars Peter Graves, Bererly Garland and Lee Van Cleef, with Sally Fraser, Jonathan Haze and Dick Miller!! Not too effin' bad!!

Above is a great British poster... Cert. X! The tagline screams... SEE. THE HIDEOUS "FLYING FINGERS" OF THE MONSTER!

Dungeon Giant Ronald Stein composed the music including the extra creepy theme! Just a reminder, a few other titles Ron composed for are THE PHANTOM FROM 10,000 LEAGUES, DAY THE WORLD ENDED, THE SHE-CREATURE, NOT OF THIS EARTH, ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS, THE UNDEAD, INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN, ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN, GHOST OF DRAGSTRIP HOLLOW, LAST WOMAN ON EARTH, THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, DINOSAURUS, PREMATURE BURIAL, JOURNEY TO THE 7TH PLANET, THE TERROR, THE HAUNTED PALACE, DEMENTIA 13, BLOOD BATH and all the Larry Buchanan flicks which used, of course, his uncredited stock music. All hail Ron!!

Li'l Ralphie, Tabonga's hunchback tarantula assistant, sez he's honored to be the critter that gets to push the big red 'GO' button on such a special occassion!! So, here's!.. IT CONQUERED THE WORLD!

The scientists have lost their satellite after it darted out into space all on it's own! Man, that spacescape on the wall is overkill, no wonder the nerd seems confused!

Face it, Peter was a good looking guy!! Here he plays Dr. Paul Nelson. Of course, Peter was in two other sci-fi classics, KILLERS FROM SPACE and BEGINNING OF THE END!

Lee Van Cleef plays Dr. Tom Anderson, he's talking on a space radio in his home. He's a disgruntled scientist because no one believes his wild scientific theories, but he's actually in communication with a life form from Venus that has hitched a ride on the lost satellite, and is now headed to Earth!! Lee was the dude that killed THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS with his nuclear powered rifle...

I don't think that's transcontinental flight 17!.. The saucer there looks like the one from either KRONOS or STARMAN!

I used Photoshop to restore this lobby card to it's original form. Wow, this is the best damn poster, ever!! Again, leave it up to the Mexicanos to put that nice 'loco spin' on the coloring!! IT... aka 'Beulah' was actually painted a pinkish-red because it photographed the best in black + white, especially in the low-light cave scenes!

IT lands and all the world's machinery stops functioning, including Peter's new Buick!

IT releases a few hideous 'flying fingers' to bite people on the neck in order to take control of their minds!

Lots of comedy relief as Jonathan Haze (Pvt. Ortiz) and Dick Miller (Sgt. Neil) do their routine. Interestingly, the scientist in the middle is writer Charles B. Griffith, and besides writing this movie, he also wrote NOT OF THIS EARTH, ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS, THE UNDEAD, ROCK ALL NIGHT, TEENAGE DOLL, A BUCKET OF BLOOD, BEAST FROM HAUNTED CAVE, THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA, THE WILD ANGELS and DEATH RACE 2000!!!

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

Yeah, yeah... Funny lookin' bird!

Sally Fraser play's Peter's wife. Sally also appeared in GIANT FROM THE UNKNOWN, WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST, EARTH vs THE SPIDER and NORTH BY NORTHWEST!

It's amazing, Peter's aim in spearing this little pest... Dead-Eye!!

This is a really funny part, Dick turns to talk to Jonathan and the barrell of the rifle he's cleaning is right on Dick's nose! Dick quickly jumps back when he realizes what could possibly go wrong with that scenario. Check out that bazooka leaning against the tree!

Mrs. Anderson vows to kill the unwelcomed intruder from Venus!

Great box art for the SUPER 8 film!

Beverly can't avoid IT's wiliness and becomes a martyr! Tabonga had the biggest crush on Beverly, no kidding!

Classic 1950's fright!

Not sure what's going on here, but I hope it's not what it looks like!

This naughty boy's getting a spanking! I said, no playing Army in the cave!!!

Just like in INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN, the monster loses a bloody eyeball!!

Peter gives his moralistic speech at the end about what can go wrong if things get... too far out!!

Before Paul Blaisdell was a monster maker in Hollywood, he did cover and interior art for pulp magazines, Forry Ackerman was his agent! Here's one of his cover pieces...

Check back tomorrow for awesome post #1001...

GOODBYE GEMINI - Christopher Gunning/The Peddlers - "Twinsanity" (1970)

Tonight's WTF!? Feature is brought to you courtesy of Greg Goodsell, who recently turned me on to this flick. So, let's see, Greg Goodsell/Goodbye Gemini and it's #999, ....Uummm? Without a doubt a Triple F Flick! Stay tuned...I think you'll know what I mean!

So here they are, Martin Potter as Julian, and Judy Geeson as Jacki, twin brother and sister, happy team extraordinaire! Pretty easy to picture Martin in some of his later roles as Paolo Orsini, Robin Hood, or Gaius Calpernius Piso, and Judy Judy as Caroline Penvenen Enysm, Becky Royce, or Pookie!

Where do we start? Such happy go lucky unidentical brother and sister moving to the city! Life is just freakin' fantastic! The instrumental music for this film was composed by Christopher Gunning in his first outing. Christopher is still working today, and has composed the music for a host of Brit TV shows like "Intimate Strangers," "Day Of The Triffids," "Knights Of God" and "Rosemary & Thyme" just to name a few. Roy Phillips, Tab Martin, and Trevor Morais better know as The Peddlers perform the raw and extra funky "Tell The World We're Not In" in their only film music appearance, which is really astounding when you realize that their first incarnation as a band was called, what else, The Soundtracks!!!

For me personally, it gets real freaky real fast, not that I didn't have any stuffed animals as a kid, but when an adult cannot detatch themselves from their toy bear, there is bound to be some psychological trauma involved, combined with the fact this film is 1970 UK, can you spell C R E E P Y?

In no time at all the Happy kids are up to their keisters in swingin' London, and hanging out in places plum full of sexual ambiguities, and.......

....meeting weird blokes like the late Alexis Kanner as Clive Landseer, a bisexual dude with the worst John Lennon wannabee freakin' sideburns in the world. Somebody please tell me why they think this is a cool look cause I have never got it!! Not nearly as bad as full blown lambchops, but in reality, a style only Lemmy can embrace successfully!

The kids are best friends, but Julian is having difficulty, I mean, okay, he wants to do his sister! Another new meaning for the term family values!!

I have not read it yet, but there is a review of this film in SCREEM #20, one of the only few real monster magazines that still exist in print! Go grab yerself a copy, if for no other reason, there's an amazing article written by the aforementioned Greg Goodsell about the wonderful actress Mary Woronov, amongst a hoarde of other killer info!!

Okay, where was I, what's on TV anyway?? That's the arm of Michael Redgrave as James Harrington-Smith, who gets third billing in this movie, but I'm not going to tell you why!

Now I'm no teetotaler, but there is no way I could keep up with this group, they would drink me under the table, where I wouldn't mind meeting Judy, but that's another story!

I'm pretty sure "that's what it said, the letter that Johnny Walker Red!! After the bear, there are more shots of whiskey than anything else!!

Once again Julian's love is spurned by Jacki!!

Back in the good old days, they called it intermission!

After the pot and even more whiskey, Clive takes Julian to a sleazy Hotel to have a threesome with a couple of super hot chicks!!

Well, if he can't have his sister, the booze tells him that this looks like a pretty good deal!

Whoops! More trouble in paradise!! This gal needs a shave!!

Shit! Clive! Whiskey! Pushin' too hard, pushin' his luck!!

It took the whole movie, but fed up with Clive's crapola, Julian and Jacki have moved to the dark side!

It's another happy ending as the kids escape off into the sunset to fulfill their love for each other! NOT!!!

There was a lot of whiskey drinking, but in the end, the bears win the psycho contest by a landslide!! Twinsanity indeed!!!

VAMPYR / French-German / 1932

Welcome to Moldie Oldie Monday here at the Dungeon... Today's feature is a surreal Euro look at vampirism from way back in 19 and 32! Alternate titles are NOT AGAINST THE FLESH, VAMPYR- DER TRAUM DES ALLAN GREY, CASTLE OF DOOM and THE VAMPIRE.

Julian West starred in and produced this title, his only venture into film! Weird!!.. I was able to get this decent restored print of the film off TCM. Originally filmed with no sound, dialogue was added later!

Original music is by the prolific Wolfgang Zeller, who had 87 composing credits from 1926-59 with titles like BRIDE 68, QUEEN OF ATLANTIS, THE LOST ATLANTIS, PAN, GOAL IN THE CLOUDS, MORITURI and MY 16 SONS (take that, Fred MacMurray)!

Okay, here's little Dungeon helper, Rufus the Gnat, and he's all excited to push the big red 'GO' button and send our Eariffic Earclip directly to yer awaiting eardrum! So, hit it, Rufus!.. VAMPYR!

Actor/producer Julian West is said to have been as spacey in real life as he was playing the character, Allan Grey!

Allan takes a vacation to a country village outside of Paris, there's a strange feeling in the air...

I thought this guy was pretty damn creepy! Excellent makeup, or, is it?!

The washed out and spotty look of the print was actually done deliberately. Cinematographer Rudolph Matté had accidently opened a can of exposed film, when director Dreyer saw the result he was delighted with the effect. Today, it would be referred to as a 'happy accident!'

Love those two pics!!

One of the infected sisters needs a blood transfusion.

Death is always lingering somewhere in the background!

In this unnerving nightmare sequence, Allan can only watch through a window in the coffin lid as he's taken to his own gravesite for burial!

Even more mysteries are revealed as this grave is exhumed.

Allan and Gisele are caught in an impressionist painting!

And, the old man gets buried with flour at the old flour mill...

BE BACK WEDNESDAY FOR MORE WTF?!..