Saturday, March 5, 2011

THE YESTERDAY MACHINE - Marker/Zimmers/Nicholas/Thomas/Pierce/Hill/Pellegrino - "Leave Me Alone Please" (1963)

I have recently come to the conclusion that THE best worst movies of the 60's musically speaking, and sometimes otherwise, by and large, came out of, not L.A., and damn sure not N.Y, but fer sure, maybe Nawlins', or just possibly the one place where they still know what to do with a possum, Texas!! "The Giant Gila Monster," "Manos: The Hand Of Fate," "Ghosts Of Hanley House," "Beyond The Time Barrier," "The Killer Shrews," and anything with Scotty McKay in it, or made by Larry Buchanan, that's what I'm talkin' about!! With all these goldurn freakin' amazing titles, one thing stands out the most, and that is, no matter what you want for nothing, Texas has got a whole lot of it! So, now it's time for tonight's special feature, straight out of the Lone Star state, and the perfect alternate title for this blog, "The Yesterday Machine!"

I read a review somewhere where a guy wrote something like "why would you expect anything good out of a movie that begins with a girl twirling a baton!" I beg to differ, because for my money, it's the direct opposite, any movie that starts with a cute Texan gal twirling a baton and dancing to some funky music makes me wonder how it could get any better..........

.........that is, of course, in this case, until she opens her mouth! This is Miss Linda Jenkins as wild child Margie De Mar, and it's almost impossible to believe, but Linda was only ever in one other film, the well regarded student film "Loose Ends" in 1976!

"Lostville!"

Margie and her boyfriend Jay Ramsey as Howie Ellison are in a lot of trouble, and unbeknownst to them, they have discovered the entrance to a time warp! Howie gets shot by some Confederate soldiers, and Margie disappears!!

Cut to the club where Margie's sister Sandy De Mar is performing nightly!

The joint is jumpin' to the killer sounds of the Nick Nicholas Band, that included members Bobby Thomas, Jack Pierce, and Richard Hill! Don Zimmers gets the credits for the musical score!

"And now ladies and gentlemen, it is my privilege to present our heavenly little headliner, a collector of two gold records, the girl with the orchid voice, Miss Sandra De Mar!"

Sandy De Mar is played by Miss Ann Pellegrino in her sole outing, and she performs "Leave Me Alone," a song written by the Producer and Director of this movie, Russ Marker. The arrangement was by Jerry Hunt!

The guy in the middle here is a Police Detective played by Larry Buchanan regular Bill Thurman in his first recorded role, and the guy on the left, also in his first ever role, Charles Young as Detective Lasky!

Here's a good shot of yet another Dungeon Legend, Tim Holt as Police Lt. Partane, doing a fine job of looking like everybody's favorite Bob of the Sub-Genius variety! Why is Tim Holt a legend? Because we love old cowboy movies too, and Tim was in a bunch of them with great titles like "Thundering Hoofs," "Guns Of Hate," "Masked Raiders," and "Pistol Harvest." Tim was such a popular cowboy character, that at one point, he played the character of Tim Holt in 10 movies! Tim was also in "The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre," and "The Monster That Challenged The World!"

James Britton has the role of Sandy De Mar's boyfriend, Jim Crandall!

While Sandy and Jim try and find out how Margie disappeared, they too stumble upon the time warp door!

Hey, WTF, how come everything looks so different?!

Jim and Sandy are then transported to the mad lab of the smarter than Einstein, Professor Ernest Von Hauser!!

At this point it's time for Jack Herman as the Nazi mad scientist Professor Ernest Von Hauser to give Jim and Sandy, and us, about a 20 minute ranting and raving diatribe on the virtues of superspectronic relativity and the minus ray, and other glorious stuff!

Professor Hauser is friendly until somebody disagrees with him, and then you see his true side! He's a Nazi!!

Sandy is lead off to visit her imprisoned sister by a Nazi guard and a woman captured from the past by the mad professor, Olga Powell as Didiyama!

Margie is tired from the whole ordeal, and after a brief reunion between the two sisters, she is taken away by the Nazi guard, because the professor needs her for another experiment!!

It turns out that Didiyama is not that happy living in a Texas future, and she turns on one of the guards and stabs him in the back, which gives Sandy just enough time to escape!!

C'Mon, this is as close as you're going to get to seeing a pre-code comic on film! Time Machines, Nazis, Majorettes and more, and "The Yesterday Machine" has got it all!

And what's one of the best things about living in 2011, you can watch or download "The Yesterday Machine" for free at the Internet Archive! Life IS Good! Enjoy yerself!!!

Friday, March 4, 2011

DIARY OF A MADMAN / Admiral Pictures - 1963

Welcome everbloody to Friday Frights with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. In keeping with the 'mad' theme I have going this week, here's a real creepy flick that doesn't seem to get the credit it deserves. And, it stars our favorite madman, Mr. Vincent Price!

Richard LaSalle composed the excellent music for tonite's offering, he also worked on SPEED CRAZY, WILD YOUTH, HANDS OF A STRANGER, MERMAIDS OF TIBURON, THE DAY MARS INVADED EARTH, TWICE-TOLD TALES, THE TIME TRAVELERS, PIRANHA, DAUGHTERS OF SATAN, SUPERBEAST and THE THIRSTY DEAD!

Awrat, then!... Here's our lil' fuzzy Dungeon fiend and 'GO' button pushing maniac... Ralphie The Tarantula! He's here for one reason, to start our Eariffic Earclip, so, hit the button, Ralphie!.. DIARY OF A MADMAN!

It's always good to start a horror tale at the old graveyard!

Vinnie plays Simon Cordier, a well-respected magistrate. He visits a condemned prisoner just before his execution, where, the man pleads for mercy. He insists he has been taken over by an evil spirit and that it forces him to commit crimes.

Cordier doesn't believe the story, it's fantastic! The man's eyes get a mysterious glow and he attacks the magistrate, then dies suddenly while trying to strangle him. Soon after the weird occurrence happens, he starts hearing an eerie voice and begins to wonder if he's losing his sanity.

His doctor recommends that he take up sculpting, which he once had an interest in, to get his mind off of all the strange things that seem to be happening. By chance, he develops a friendly relationship with Odette Mallotte, a gold digger married to a struggling artist played by Chris Warfield.

Nancy Kovack plays Odetta, she was a student at the University of Michigan at 15, a radio deejay at 16, a college grad at 19, and the holder of eight beauty titles by the age of 20!! She can also be seen in JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, TARZAN AND THE VALLEY OF GOLD, THE SILENCERS and MAROONED, plus these great TV series... VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, I DREAM OF JEANNIE, BATMAN (played Queenie), THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., I SPY, THE INVADERS, STAR TREK, GET SMART, BEWITCHED, HAWAII FIVE-O, LOVE, AMERICAN STYLE, MANNIX, THE INVISIBLE MAN and CANNON!

As he admires his work in clay, it gets a big frown on it's face. A great, freaky hallucinogenic scene!

Then, naturally, he gets an unwelcomed visit from the evil, invisible intruder!

Here are two great shots of Vinnie, see in the lower one how he can convincingly look like a shell of himself!

The headline sez it all... 'Nuf said?

Pretty good stuff for 1963!

The thing tells him to take the head out and place it in a hole it has prepared. Cordier watches as the invisible monster covers the head over with soil!

He can't take much more of this crap! Earlier, it made him kill his canary!

Before he knows it, though, he's on his next assignment, kill that snoopy Jeanne D'Arville!

As he pulls the knife, he sees in a store window some religious items including a cross. He temporarily breaks the spell and runs to the church, where, he devises a plan to get rid of the monster, once and for all!

The magistrate's able to lock the spirit in the library and starts a fire, the only way to completely destroy the menace. So, the angry, unseen thing tosses a chair at him.

The spirit gets it's evil ass toasted, but, unfortunately, our dear Vinnie has to die too, since he actually carried out the gruesome murders...

Ghoulnight Everbloody!!..

Monster Music

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