GODZILLA vs MEGALON / Toho - 1973

Hello everbloody an' welcome to Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon! Tonite's flick is one monsterous event, featuring Godzilla, Jet Jaguar, Megalon and Gigan!! Nuf' said?..

The story goes like this... Because of atomic tests, the underground kingdom of Seatopia sends out Megalon and Gigan to destroy Earth's surface dwellers. To stop them, Godzilla and super robot, Jet Jaguar, join together to battle the two big bugs!

Great tagline... Titan against Titan! Giant against Giant, in the most spectacular battle yet!!

The music was composed by Riichiro Manabe, who also worked on KILL THE KILLER!, THE SMELL OF POISON, EXILED TO HELL, FEAR OF THE GHOSTHOUSE: BLOODSUCKING DOLL, GODZILLA vs THE SMOG MONSTER, EVIL OF DRACULA and HELL...

So then, let's bring in our little Dungeon helper and 'GO' button pusher, yessir, the one and only... Rufus The Gnat! Rufus is here to get the party started, so, without further adieu, here's our Eariffic Earclip for... GODZILLA vs MEGALON!

...Where's all the fun gone?!

As little Roku-chan is barely rescued by a rope during an earthquake, the lake drains into a big hole!

Seatopian leaders monitor the detrimental results to their power grid due to the surface dwellers' love affair with atomic testing...

When things go wrong, there's only one thing to do... That's right, get girls in cool costumes to dance around! Makes sense to me...

This is Robert Dunham as Emperor Antonio of Seatopia. We remember Robert as Mark Jackson in DAGORA, THE SPACE MONSTER and Captain Martin in GREEN SLIME. Robert was also a stuntman and auto racer and played the "Unit 1" Seatopian Agent on the motorcycle in the chase scene!

The Emperor summons their secret weapon, Megalon, a giant bug, to leave Seatopia and go up to the Earth's surface and pay a little visit to the ones responsible for screwing everything up.

There are some really great chases going on, down stairways, down steep mountains, all at breakneck speeds...

This part, where Roku-chan and Inventor Goro are trapped in this container, ready to fall 200 feet to their death, is kinda hard for me to watch since it reminds me of one of the worst nightmares I ever had!! The container actually falls off the truck and they survive!!!!!!!! Gimme a break!

Looks like this militaty footage is from THE MYSTERIANS!

Megalon fights back! Nice portrait of the BEM...

F-86's are brought in to try and inflict some damage on the invaders.

Megalon has a powerful electrical ray that shoots from the glowing prong on the top of his head, a ray similar to Ghidrah's.

It's two on one as Megalon and Gigan get the upper hand with Jet Jaguar.

But, our hero Godzilla shows up and now it's a level playing field!

Godzilla gets a running start and slides along on his tail for about a half mile, a move that has to be seen to be fully appreciated! In other words, it's about time you pull this title out and watch it again!

Then, as Jet holds Megalon firmly in place, Godzilla plants his 2 big old foots right in his chest!! Yep, sweet move, just like in Big Time Wrassling!

Jet and Big G shake hands at the end for jobs well done, thus creating a bond between monster and machine!!

Ghoulnight Everbloody!!..

FORBIDDEN ZONE - Danny Elfman - "Everything Is Different But Nothing Has Changed" (1982)

I guess we've gone too far to turn back now! You are now entering "The Forbidden Zone," a place somewhere between genius and madness known as Dimension Six!

The Director of "The Forbidden Zone" is Percussionist Richard Elfman, who was the founding member of the band "The Mystic Nights Of The Oingo Boingo," and is the brother of wiz kid wacko composer Danny Elfman, who gets the musical credits for the movie! Danny of course went on to score some of the best mainstream films ever made like "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure," and "The Nightmare Before Christmas," and don't forget that Danny also wrote the timeless theme to "The Simpsons!"

Looks like from all outside appearances to be a pretty normal place, just your every day family sitting around the kitchen table discussing the day's affairs! It's the Hercules family, and from the right first off is Phil Gordon as Flash Hercules, to his right is Hyman Diamond as Gramps Hercules, then at the head of the table is Ugh-Fudge Bwana as Pa Hercules, then Virginia Rose as Ma Hercules, and finally on the far left is Marie-Pascale Elfman as Susan B. "Frenchy" Hercules! Marie-Pascale also designed the sets!

Time for Frenchy to strut her stuff! She was Richard Elfman's wife at the time, and helped produce the movie!

So, Guess What? There are no rules in the "Forbidden Zone!" Political correctness is tossed out with the dish water, and as it should be in any artistic presentation, nothing is safe! Sometimes during the course of a movie, you don't have time to explain everything, so "Forbidden Zone" was not originally released to a very enthusiastic public, but now grows in popularity every day!

The kids all have to go off to school!!

But when they stop to look and see what smells so bad in the garbage can, they find Toshiro Boloney as one of the Henderson twins inside!

With characters like this, if "The Forbidden Zone" was a straight out horror film, it would be disturbing and extremely creepy!

Hervé Villechaize and Susan Tyrrell are King Fausto and Queen Doris of the 6th Dimension, which is quite a bit further out than the 5th Dimension!

Meanwhile, back at school, the teacher Miss Feldman, as played by Kedric Wolfe has everything under control! In 1965 Kedric was Jocko in Ray Dennis Steckler's film, "Lemon Grove Kids Meet The Monsters!"

Must be graduation week, the kids don't seem to be paying much attention!

Frenchy joins in on the chorus of "The Alphabet Song!"

"The Forbidden Zone" is something akin to a musical live action version of some lost demented Fleischer cartoon! The songs and music are all brilliant, it's just the bonding holding the whole thing together gets a little weak and trying at times, but some of the imagery will embed in your cranium forever, and then some!

Susan Tyrell puts in an insane performance as the Cruella Deville meets The Queen of Hearts in a post Armageddon Las Vegas character! 10 years earlier in only her 4th film, Susan was nominated for an Academy Award for her work in John Huston's "Fat City!" She has been in numerous 'cult' films like Andy Warhol's "Bad," and John Waters' "Cry-Baby," and will also be in the upcoming feature "Forbidden Zone 2: The Forbidden Galaxy!"

Be forewarned, just because it looks like a cartoon, "The Forbidden Zone" is not really a movie for kids, unless they're nursing! Gisele Lindley as The Princess has a lot of on screen time, and never has anything more on than a pair or panties, high heels and gloves! Gisele was only ever in one other film, Blake Edwards' "S.O.B." and has seemingly vanished from the face of the earth!

Now is this a tender moment or what? How sweet!

This shot makes me think of "The Unknown Comic" who used to regularly appear on the Chuck Barris produced "Gong Show" in the 70's! Did you know that The Mystic Knights Of The Oingo Boingo performed on the "Gong Show" in 1976? If not, then do yourself a favor and check This out!! It explains a lot! Where have all the good times gone?

Frenchy and The Queen have a slight disagreement!

You know what they say about things happening in threes, well, here's two fine examples!!

I have no freakin' clue, but is this a great shot or what?

In the late 70's The Mystic Knights Of The Oingo Boingo divided, and Richard Elfman left the band as they morphed from a cabaret act into a full blown rock band! "Forbidden World" is his attempt at capturing the spirit of the original act!

Besides the Elfmans, the rest of the members of Oingo Boingo in no particular order are Leon Schneiderman on sax, lead guitarist Steve Bartek, drummer John "Vatos" Hernandez, Kerry Hatch on the bass, Sam "Sluggo" Phipps on sax and flute, Dale Turner on trumpet, and keyboard player Richard Gibbs. They also all play various other instruments and percussion!

"Forbidden Zone" has been re-mastered and re-released in glorious colour as it was originally envisioned by it's creator, and you can get a taste and a link to a place to buy it right over HERE!! It looks better than ever! If nothing else at least go out and get yourself a CD of the soundtrack, you'll love it, you have my word!