THE FLESH EATERS / Vulcan Productions Inc. - 1964

Welcome to Friday Frights with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Tonite's feature is one of the coolest little flicks you could ever hope for, it gots it all! Unfortunately, I thought this version had the rare Nazi experiments flashback segment, but, it doesn't... So solly! Well, at least it's widescreen.

Bombs away!..

I will now attempt to channel Eegah!! for a minute... Okay, here it comes... "The opening sequence of "The Flesh Eaters" has a boy and girl on a boat with the radio playing in the background, the voice on the radio, Jack Curtis says, “Now here's a real gasser, a hot biscuit from the old rhythm and blues oven, your old favorites, the Teen Killers singing Pete’s Beat.” Arnold Drake, the writer of "Flesh Eaters", who went on to write "Doom Patrol" & "Deadman" for DC Comics, wrote the song, whistled and sang it. "Behind this Membrane...You Will Be Driven To a Point...Midway Between Life and Death!" 'Nuf said?

Let's bring in our little Friday helper, that 6-eyed furry freek, Ralphie The Tarantula! He's here to be pushin' that big red 'GO' button over there by the toaster, and start our Eariffic Earclip for... THE FLESH EATERS!

We start our flick wif' another '3 hour tour' gone haywire... I think the seaplane's a Colonial "Skimmer."

Once on the deserted island, alcoholic movie star Laura Winters tries to get in good with the evil Professor Bartell, you know, just in case he's got some booze stashed away somewhere.

There's this great footage of the beach littered with thousands of dead, decomposed fish. How lucky was that?!

Our hero and pilot, Grant Murdoch, gets a few of the flesh eating critters on his leg. Jan takes her blouse off to make a bandage for him... Whotta girl! Jan is played by Barbara Wilkin, Barb was in THE OUTER LIMITS episode 'Expanding Human.'

I'm comin' my people!.. Omar is played by Ray Tudor. Ray had one other role 5 years later, dead last uncredited credit in THE SIDEHACKERS! Eegah!! and Tabonga have more acting credits than that!

Jan and Grant check out the professor's super solar generator. It has kind of a KRONOS thing going on...

Matt tries to bring supplies in his motorboat to the professor, but is splashed in the face with water that's full of them devilish little flesh eaters!

Professor Bartell is definitely one accommodating son of a bitch!

After Omar slugs down his pop laced with flesh eaters, well, his guts start pouring out! Then, the professor tapes the screams of pain... When I saw these stills in FM #29 in 1964, I have to say, they freaked me out a little!

Omar's screams can be heard on the tape recorder that the professor placed on the raft with him, to make it look and sound like Omar tried to leave the island on his own. The bottom photo shows you where the flesh eaters came out!

Jan discovers something stinky in the tent!

When Professor Bartell tries to strangle Grant, he's the one that gets pushed into the infested water! Martin Kosleck is great in AGENT FOR H.A.R.M. as madman Basil Malko, who was trying to get his hands on the deadly 'spore gun!'

Grant and Jan watch as a giant creature is born out of the ocean. Looks like it's having a Mr. Bubble bath.

Grant approaches it, gets a ride on the monster's claw, then injects human blood into the cyclops eyeball because that's the only way to stop it!.. Okay, who wrote this?!

Ghoulnight Everbloody!..

THE MONITORS - Fred Kaz - "Peace Brings Happiness" (1969)

Tonight's special feature is a freaky deaky affair from the year 1969 entitled "THE MONITORS!" I've been looking forward to seeing "The Monitors" for quite some time now, and I must say, I was not disappointed, and I've got one word for you, Weirdsville!!

"The Monitors" IS a comedy, I'm pretty sure, but sometimes you just can't tell, because it also has some seriously dark moments and some biting social commentary!

"The Monitors" themselves are these derby and trench coat kinda guys from another planet, and are only here to keep the human race from doing any harm to itself, and it's all fine and well as long as The Earthlings don't get in the way or out of line!

Even the Honourable Senator Everett Dirkson who was still in office when this film was made, and died before it was released, chimes in with his approval of what a great job "The Monitors" are doing!! Everett was quite an interesting guy for being a Senator, and he recorded 4 patriotic albums, including one called "Gallant Men," that won a Grammy!

This is Guy Stockwell as Harry, the Hero of the film! Guy was the older brother of actor Dean Stockwell, and had quite an amazing career that included lots of TV, like a 26 episode run as Chris in the early 60's "Adventure In Paradise," or the fact that he was in 14 episodes of the dramatic "Richard Boone Show," and he played a different character in each show!

If for nothing else, Larry Storch will always be remembered for his role in 65 episodes of "F-Troop" as Corporal Agarn, but his role in "The Monitors" as Colonel Stutz, the leader of the resistance movement is just a little bit too far over the top, almost to the point of annoying! I'm sure as a teenager, I would have found him hilarious!

Susan Oliver is the blonde two-timing agent Barbara. Susan will always be remembered as Vina from "Star Trek," but she was so much more than that, spending a great deal of her time as a pilot of some renown!

I'm upside down over the beautiful Sherry Jackson as Mona!! Sherry was the daughter Terry on 132 episodes of "The Danny Thomas Show," and has her 69th birthday coming up on the 15th of this month!

Even the fantastic bandleader Xavier Cugat shows up to make a joke about himself!!

One of those kind of guys with a face you always remember, but you can't remember his name, Shepperd Strudwick had the role of the almighty leader of "The Monitors," Tersh Jeterax!

"The Monitors" is a like a dictionary of 60's Pop Culture! The very cool music was composed by a fine gentleman named Fred Kaz! Fred is an exemplary musician, who prefers to play jazz piano, but was also the musical director for "Second City" for right about 30 years! Fred didn't do a lot of acting, but he did have a role in the 1993 movie "...And God Spoke," as Noah. That very same film had our "Offbeat" Girl Christy Taylor in it too, in the role of Eve!! For some odd reason, our public access TV show, "Offbeat" is not listed in Christy's acting credits on IMDB! She was a good sport, and never missed a show, but when she got an agent, he told her to get as far away from us as possible, which was probably good advice!!!

The other main character back there with the moustache is the face of Doritos, Avery Schreiber as Max. A very funny comedian by trade, his role here is just as irritating as Larry Storch's! This movie would have been a Helluva lot funnier if it wasn't a comedy!

The gang is on the run which leads to no good, that's for sure!!

Guy Stockwell's character gets detained for a while until "The Monitors" can decide what to do with him!

Mona kinda falls for Harry, and in turn, helps him escape!!

Now get this, when she was a little girl, Sherry Jackson had the role of Susie Kettle in 4 Ma and Pa Kettle movies! Sherry Jackson was Mignonne McCurdy on "The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis," and has also been on all these now cult TV shows, "Twilight Zone," "Lost In Space," "Batman," and "Star Trek!" Sherry was also supposedly in a 1972 flick with Adam West that nobody can seem to produce a copy of, called "Curse Of The Moon Child!"

The brilliant cinematography throughout is by Wünderkind Vilmos Zsigmond, who has worked with everybody from Al Adamson to Steven Spielberg!!

Being chased by "The Monitors," Harry and Mona find the perfect place to hide, in a fountain!!

Harry is lucky enough to get tangled up with both Barbara, and Mona!!

How's this for scathing commentary? The President of the United States of America is so useless and unnecessary that his desk has been taken over by spiders, and he spends all his time doing what's really important, crossword puzzles!!!

There's yet one more blonde in Harry's mixed up life, it's Larry Stortch again, with his best friend, a bomb!

Maybe we do need the help of "The Monitors!"