Saturday, December 11, 2010

MISTERIOS DE ULTRATUMBA - Gustavo César Carrión - "Mysteries from Beyond the Grave" (1959)

"Ultratumba," What a great word, and what a great movie! Also known as "The Black Pit Of Dr. M," this film moves along at a good pace, looks fantastic, and throws you a bunch of curve balls while in the process!

Yep! You got that straight!! On the right we have Dr. M, who is Rafael Bertrand as a certain Dr. Mazali, a man Hell-bent on immortality, who has made a pact with his pal, Dr. Aldama, that whichever one of them dies first, and they figure out how to get back from the other side, they will let the other one know how it works, and here, he explains the whole concept to his assistant, Luis Aragón as Dr. Gonzalez, after the death of Dr. Aldama!

Pretty super cool club for 1959! Very surreal to the point that you don't know whether it's a dream sequence or not!

It's not a coincidence that those four glass objects are placed in the shot so perfectly, giving new meaning to the words shot glass!

Dr. M is in the crazy people business, and runs his own sanitarium out in the country! Carolina Barret is La Gitana, an extremely violent gypsy woman, who is nuttier than the X-Mas fruitcake your Aunt Alice gave you!!

I'm sure that the subtle and soothing lighting by cinematographer Víctor Herrera, makes the patients feel that much more relaxed and comfortable!!

I admit I don't know everything, but this is the first Mexican guy I have ever heard of called Elmer!! Angel Jose Chuy Francisco Ramón Javier Rafael Juan yes, Elmer, No!

Dr. M gets the bright idea to bring La Gitana out of her cell by using the comforting sounds of a music box, but you know what Jim Morrison said about "When the music's over..."

The music for "Misterios De Ultratumba" was composed by the esteemed Gustavo César Carrión, who we have featured here many times before, because his tremendous body of work of 321 films, includes such classics as "Las Vampiras," "El Mundo De Las Vampiros," "El Baron Del Terror" and "El Ataúd Del Vampiro" just to name a couple!

La Gitana goes completely nutzoid, it was a short journey for her, and not only destroys the Doc's office, but ends up throwing acid in Elmer's face, which horribly disfigures him! Dr. Gonzalez can only watch on in horror and disbelief!

Hey, let me out Doc, I'm just as normal as her!

Maybe you should just put it back where you found it!

Strolling through the agave, Dr. M explains to Dr. Aldama's daughter how things work in the real world! Mapita Cortés has the role of Patricia Aldama. Mapita was of Puerto Rican descent and passed away at the age of 66 in 2006!

Forget immortality, check out that fine ass! I've got this thing about graveyards on the side of hills, I don't want to visit them when it's raining!

In his spare time, Dr. M likes to fiddle around on the violin!

Is this not just a great shot? Simple but effective, just like the courtyard outside Dr. M's pad that is used here so brilliantly!

Que Paso?

These two killer shots of La Gitana and the newly disfigured Elmer look every bit as good as some classic Universal films!

Elmer, the disorderly orderly has got his own story, and was played by Carlos Ancira. Carlos was in "Santo And The Vengeance Of The Mummy," "Santo And Blue Demon Against The Monsters," "The Hell Of Frankenstein" and "The Living Coffin" just to name a few of the 66 appearances he made before checking out at age 57!

See, now it's all starting to make sense!!

Here's a shot that looks like it's straight out of a René Magritte painting! Give some credit for the look of this film to director Fernando Méndez, who besides directing both "Los Hermanos Diablo" and "Los Diablos Del Terror," also directed "La Locura Del Rock And Roll" in 1957, a movie that featured the amazing esoteric composer and musician Juan García Esquivel in a very rare appearance, in a movie almost impossible to find!

Yes, it is confusing, but, you'll see, that in the end, just like in real life, nothing works out right, so don't go looking for any free rides!

"Misterios De Ultraumba" is, without a doubt, a twisted little tale that deserves to be seen, and might just be one of the most interesting movies I've seen this year!!

Friday, December 10, 2010

BLUE SUNSHINE / Ellanby Films - 1976

Welcome everbloody, welcome to Friday Frights, here at The Dungeon! Tonight we gots a really weird one, I guess to try to scare anyone who took the classic LSD tab, Blue Sunshine, way back in 1966, because it's side effects are becoming clear only now, a decade later! As a production company, this is the only one Ellanby Films ever made. Even The Dungeon Gang produced 3-1/2 movies!!

As proof of Blue Sunshine's lingering effects, just take a look at this dude, stone hippie turned hateful disco king!

The music is by Charles Gross, and looking over his 75 composing credits, it looks like the only other horror project he ever worked on was the TV movie, THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE, in 1986.

Let's get the show rollin' wif' dat lil' Dungeon helper, and 6-eyed freek, Ralphie The Tarantula! He's here for one reason only, right, to push the big red 'GO' button over there in the corner, an' start our Eariffic Earclip of... BLUE SUNSHINE!

The evening with friends started off great, lots of laffs with Rodan and all...

But, things took a wrong turn somewhere and everything turned into... a big bummer. Something to do with peanut butter and chocolate, I believe.

The movie's littered with characters you only see once, including the detective questioning Deborah Winters here. Alice Ghostley even has her one scene.

Our hero, Jerry, breaks into the home of his friend (the dude with the parrot) to check out the murder scene where he killed his family.

What gets tedious is, the director wants you to never know who's gonna go off the deep end next, including Jerry, mainly through misleading facial expressions, and it's irritating as freakin' HELL!!

Here's Robert Walden as another doctor, this time specializing in karate chop surgery! Will Robert be the next weirdo to freak out?!

This Disco DJ's purdy fly, he gots a dawg whistle! That's at least a notch cooler than the dude that don't!

Just groove out to the music... Hey look, there's Anne and Ralphie!

Here's Babs and Old Blue Eyes performing at a political rally!

Excedrin Headache #...

...666!!!

Ray Young plays this balding psycho, he can't take loud noises, so, Deb turn up the volume on the disco music to 11...

Hey, Jerry, let's me and you... wraaaassle!!

Okay, c'mon, c'mon, quit shaking... focus, focus...

Awright, bullseye, right in the neck!.. The big guy goes down and stays down, for good!!

Ghoulnight Everbloody!!

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

BEES IN PARADISE - Guest/Sherwin/Busby - "Buzzin" (1944)

In Issue #20 of "SCREEM Magazine", there was an interesting article about matriarchal societies written by David Wilt called "Women Rule, Men Drool," and it featured some of our favorite films like "Cat-Women Of The Moon," "Queen Of Outer Space," and "Missile To The Moon," and among the other films mentioned was one I wasn't really familiar with, but was found to be readily available via Netflix, the 1944 UK musical comedy production "Bees In Paradise." It's a fantasy film about a society governed by women and yet, it stars a guy, go figure!!

"Bees In Paradise" was written and directed by Mr. Valmond Guest, who directed the major classic films "The Quatermass Xperiment" in 1955, and "Quatermass II: Enemy from Space" in 1957! He also co-wrote the music for "Bees In Paradise!" It's no wonder he also wrote a movie in 1960, called "Life Is A Circus!" I guess so!! Val lived to be 94 years old!!!

There are lots of songs, and the music and lyrics were written by Manning Sherwin & Val Guest, with help from Musical Director Louis Levy, and Special Orchestrations by Bob Busby to flesh out the whole thing! None of them are slackers!

Tote that barge, lift that bale, there's still lots of hard work to be done in this woman run world, they just get to dress sexier!! The singing Queen Bee was Anne Shelton as Rouana! Anne was good enough to have her own TV show from 1958 to 1959!

That's a whole lot of estrogen in one room!!

The Bee girls have got some terrific costumes, and all of the song and dance numbers will keep your interest if you have any buzz left at all!

The girls are on the lookout, just in case anybody comes near their island paradise!

There's a plane flying by, and they are having problems, so these fellows are going to have to jump!!

WhooHoo, the girls spotted them, and send out the signal on the old tribal drum! MEN!!!! It's MEN!!!

Yessireebob, one of them dudes in that plane was none other than that suave heart throbber, Arthur Askey, as Arthur Tucker! Arthur started his professional career as, what else would you expect, a music hall musician in 1924, and was only 5 foot and 2 inches tall!

Well, I'll be damned, I was just searching around gathering up some info on this film, and what do I just discover right now, even though I've been there a 100 times before, "Bees In Paradise" streams for free over at The Internet Archive so now there's no excuse for not watching this flick? What a world!! Amazing!!

Just to give you some idea of the rules, watch out if she sends you a chair!!

Arthur has an encounter with The Crocodile Charmer played by the oh so mysterious Koringa in her only film role!

The three main song and dance numbers are "I'm A Wolf On My Mother's Side," "Don't Ever Leave Me," and "Keep A Sunbeam In Your Pocket!"

Of course Arthur has to do some good natured cross dressing!

Arthur has to spend some time in the pokey! If for no other reason, the Bee sets, like this jail, are worth taking the time to watch this film!

At least Arthur and his cohorts are able to escape from the island with their dignity intact!!

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??