MASTER OF HORROR / Jack H. Harris Enterprises - 1965

Welcome to Friday Night Drive-In with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Tonite's offering is a fairly obscure (not even 1 review on IMDb!) flick made in Argentina and produced by Jack H. Harris. Jack had already made THE BLOB, THE 4-D MAN and DINOSAURUS. I swear, there was supposed to be another Blob movie recently, I wonder what happened to that project?!

Hey, I used to have that poster! This movie was originally paired with another Harris production, MASTER OF TERROR, which is none other than a renamed version of THE 4-D MAN!! Pretty danged slick, Jack.

I know, the title card says 'The' Master Of Horror! There are no credits for the music. Obviously, it's stock music from who knows where, so, my job's like, done here...

Lettuce now bring in our littlest Dungeon helper and buddy, the one, the only, sure 'nuf, itz... Rufus The Gnat!! Yippie, yappie, yahooie!.. Rufus is all set to push the big red 'GO' button and start the show, so, push the button now, Rufus! Here's... MASTER OF HORROR!

The movie's a trilogy of the Edgar Allen Poe stories, "The Case Of Mr. Valdemar," "The Cask Of Amontillado" and "The Tell-Tale Heart." It starts with the house maid sitting down to read some stories on a stormy night, horror stories by Edgar Allan Poe, that is!..

In "The Case Of Mr. Valdemar," a noted physician tries out some of his new hypnotic experiments on a woman at a mental hospital. Dude looks like Barry Manilow, or, visa versa!

Then, he finds out Mr. Valdemar's dark secret... Valdemar looks like Dick Miller in THE TERROR!

I'm comin' to join you, Elizabeth!..

He tampered in God's domain!..

"The Cask Of Amontillado" has a timely tale to tell, all about what can happen when a stranger comes to town for the wine festival and then seduces your wife... Oh, by the way, big boobs make excellent pillows!

The plan is so simple for inn keeper hubby, invite lover boy down to your wine cellar and get him drunk, so drunk that he passes out...

And, when he wakes from his drunken stupor, he finds this...

Hubby s'plains that he was spying on them as they made love in the forest!

He shows the doomed man that now he can spend eternity with his lover! And, he will just tell the police that you both ran away together, so devilish!!!

The last story is "The Tell-Tale Heart." This grisled old shop keeper has hired his nephew to assist him there.

It is the nephew's duty to make sure all the clocks are wound daily and that they all chime exactly at the same time, he wants perfection!!.. Wow, perverted old men!

In the meantime, the nephew's only friend, a handicapped boy, has died mysteriously. Uncle seems to be thrilled for some reason.

Nephew notices imperfection with uncle's crippled hand and blind eye. That night, the nephew puts a pillow over the face of his uncle and puts a stop to his annoying, beating heart!

Officials come to ask questions about the disappearance of the shop keeper.

The nephew tries to explain but is quite insane himself!

The nephew spills the beans, so, they pull up the floor planks and find uncle resting there!

CANI ARRABBIATI - Stelvio Cipriani - "Rabid Dawgs" (1974)

Some people think I should change my name to Enema!! and become a rapper! Some people think that "Cani Arrabbiati" is another Mario Bava classic, I say if you make as many movies as Mario Bava did, like 72, there's bound to be a couple of clinkers! Let's just give Mario credit on this one just for getting it done! Well, No, that didn't happen either, so let's just give him credit for being Mario Bava, that's a big enough of an accomplishment for me!

Made in 1974, but not released until 23 years later because of legalities, "Cani Arrabbiati" came out in 1998 after Mario Bava's son Lamberto took over the directorial reins. The English title was changed consequently from "Kidnapped" to "Rabid Dogs!" Good choice since Robert Louis Stevenson it's not!!

It all starts with a robbery or as some would rather say, a heist!

The three mean mofo's who did the deed try and stage a getaway....

....but the police are immediately on their tail! Even with low or no budget, Mario Bava is able to steal some choice background shots here and there!

Trapped in an underground parking lot, the robbers kill one woman shopper, and kidnap another one in order to escape, and show that they mean business! This fantastic shot looks like it came out of a 50's men's action and adventure magazine like "Man's Story," or "Male," or some 10 cent detective pulp!

Get ready, because this is the set for about 80% of the rest of the movie!

Okay, so who are these wild and crazy killers anyway?

On the left is Luigi Montefiori, stage name, George Eastman as Trentadue or 32, a name he acquired because of the size of the third member of his manual transmission, in centimeters! For your information, 32 centimeters is approximately 12 and a half inches! George is 6'9" tall, so he probably is up there in the Milton Berle department for sure! His pal is Aldo Caponi, stage name, Don Backy, as the ruthless killer Bisturi, or in English, "Blade," or "Stilletto!"

In an effort to elude the cops, the guys have strong-armed a new car driven by a kindly older man, and in an effort to tug at your heartstrings even more, he's just trying to get his very sick and feverish son to a doctor!!

The very cool original soundtrack was composed by the very prolific Stelvio Cipriani, who we have mentioned here before for his work on another Bava film, "A Bay Of Blood" aka "Twitch Of The Death Nerve" but the list of titles Stelvio has composed for is numbered at 215, is all over the place, and reads something like this: "Luana, The Girl Tarzan," "12+1" "The Lickerish Quartet," "The Devil Has Seven Faces," and "The Three Superguys!"

The helplessly hopeless kidnap victim stuck in the middle between 32 and The Blade is Lea Lander as Maria! Lea was also in the real Bava classic, "Blood And Black Lace!" The Blade is a moody brooding killer, and 32 is a madman!!

Maurice Poli is Dottore, the boss of the gang, the guy who gets to sit in the front seat, and he's just had about enough of 32's shenanigans!

They stop to get something to drink, and ole 32 would like a Lamborghini Margarita right about now, that's just like a regular Cadillac, but instead of having it with a shot of Grand Mariner, you serve it up with a shot of Amaretto instead!

The little guy dwarfed by 32 is Riccardo Cucciolla as who else but Riccardo? Riccardo started his career in acting in 1953, and he passed away in 1999! They must be doing something right in Italy because beside Riccardo Cucciolla and Mario Bava, all the rest of the main cast of this film are still alive!

32 is all over Maria and at any given point it goes from tense and disturbing, to degrading, disgusting, and foul!

When Dottore has finally had enough, and tries to get 32 to calm down, everything just gets worse, especially since 32 and Blade have now been drinking heavily!

Don Backy was a singer and songwriter in the 1960s, and was part of a musical congregation called "Clan" along with one of Italy's most popular pop stars, Adriano Celentano!

Right out of left field, there's also a love song in the movie called "Hold On To Me" that was also written by Stelvio Cipriani, with lyrics by Myriann D'Antine, that was sung by Simona Patitucci!

Maria Fabbri as Maria Sbravati, but billed as Marisa Fabbri's car breaks down, and she's desperate enough to take a lift from this crew! It turns out to be a very poor decision!

They make a couple more stops, and before too long, and as Chubby Checker would say, "It's Twistin' Time!"