THE ANGRY RED PLANET / AIP - 1959

Welcome to Monster Monday Halloween Countdown with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Tonite's feature is a classic that Eegah!! and I saw together back in 1959, we gave it a thumbs up... We were very analytical little kedsos when it came to our favorite subject, monster movies!!

The title card belongs at the end, but, I like it here!

The great music is by one of our favorite composers, Mr. Paul Dunlap. Paul contributed his talents to other films like I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF, I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN, BLOOD OF DRACULA, HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER, FRANKENSTEIN 1970, INVISIBLE INVADERS, THE THREE STOOGES IN ORBIT, BLACK ZOO and more! Paul just passed away this last March at age 90.

Lettuce bring in our fuzziest little Dungeon helper and button pusher, sure 'nuf, Ralphie The Tarantula!.. Ralphie's here to start our Eariffic Soundclip for everbloody's listening pleasure, so, push the big red 'GO' button there in front of your nose, now, Ralphie! Here's the ending credits music for... THE ANGRY RED PLANET!

Did ya hear about this?!..

Naura Hayden plays Dr. Iris Ryan, her and Colonel O'Bannion are the only persons to make it back from their journey to Mars. She can't remember what exactly happened, so, she's given a dose of sodium pentothal to help out. She starts her tale at the beginning...

Gerald (TERROR IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE) Mohr plays Col. O'Bannion, then, there's Les (WAR OF THE WORLDS/THE SLIME PEOPLE) Tremayne as Professor Gettell and Jack (THE BELLBOY) Kruschen as CWO Sam Jacobs.

Sam reads about monsters on Mars from this doctored up Fantastic pulp magazine, story to be continued next issue!

Ahh, the fifties... Things were so simple!

After a safe landing, they go expolring the strange looking place. Kick in the Cinemagic!..

Iris screams like a little girl when she gets all tangled up in this wicked carnivorous monstrosity! It's Sam to the rescue with his freeze gun.

I love this shot with the Atlas rocket.

I'm pretty sure that a version of Sam's freeze gun ended up as the sonic gun in INVISIBLE INVADERS, or, visa versa.

On their second outing, they encounter the dreaded Bat Rat Spider nightmare! Sam tries the freeze gun, but it has no effect on the thing...

The Colonel tells him to aim for it's eyes!

The blinded creature runs off aimlessly into the landscape.

This is a drawing I did in high school, I loved that monster a lot.

When they go out on a raft to investigate a city in the oily sea, this giant amoeba surfaces and begins to go after them!

The producers almost fainted when they discovered (on the day of filming) that the prop department had taken it upon themselves to give the amoeba monster a rotating eyeball! In a few moments, the thing will absorb poor Sam!

Another ultra classic fifties creature, the Martian!

Only when they electrify the ship's outer hull does the blob remove itself from around the rocket. Now, they can finally blast off and leave the deadly planet.

All the excitement causes professor Gettell to have a heart attack, and, he dies!

The Colonel got some of the ameoba on his arm while trying to help Sam and is immobilized for the trip back to Earth. Iris is the only one in charge now!..

The warning from the Martian on the tape seems pretty clear... EARTHLINGS, DO NOT RETURN TO MARS!!

Let's end the show with this weird Euro poster, it shows a land rover falling into a crevasse!.. What the Hell!!

I WANNA HOLD YOUR HAND!

Here's "Insult Postcard" #29 - A Much better cover of "I Wanna Hold Yer Hand" than The Standells did! If you like postcards and paper crap, be sure to check out one of my other blogs - "Ephemeral Indulgences"!!

THE MUNSTERS - Jack Marshall - The Standells -Yvonne De Carlo - "Far Out Munsters" (1965)

Welcome to the first day of the complete month of October and our version of the daily countdown homage to All Saints Day! Hit the Vinnie link on the right, and get a full list of all the other vampires, monsters and ghouls participating! There's no reason to be bored this time of the year!

"Rosin on the bow, and here we go....!" Let's get this Horror Shindig fired up with the rockin' "Munsters" episode that first aired on March 18, 1965 titled "Far Out Munsters"!!!!

The basic premise is the Munster family has rented out their house to a rock band for a week, and they in turn went to a Hotel, but it's all too bright and clean, so they decide to return home!

When the family returns home, it's like "Splish, Splash," and there's a huge party going on! They are greeted at the door by two party-goers, a bearded Zalman King and Sue Winton as The Girl!

The band that rented The Munster house was one of L.A.'s best rock bands of the 60's, and Eddie Munster's new favourite group, those garage rockers, The Standells! It's said that The Standells' name was derived from standing around booking agents offices looking for work!!

The Standells members in this incarnation were vocalist/keyboardist Larry Tamblyn, guitarist Tony Valentino, drummer Dick Dodd, and bassist Gary Lane! For some unknown reason, after having great hits like "Dirty Water," and "Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White," the band chose to do a tune called "Do The Ringo," and a Horrible Beatles' cover of "I Want To Hold Your Hand" on the show! Trying to cash in on that British Invasion I spose!

Tabonga likes to tell the story of how in the 90's, his band was playing at Valentino's Dirty Water cafe and their music was so unappreciated by the owner, that they were asked to leave and never come back!

At first the Munster family is put off by the whole affair, but then they start getting into it!

You just have to love the way hipsters were portrayed on TV back in the 60's! Rock and roll was coming on strong, but hipster ties were still with the 50's beat era! Too bad Maynard couldn't make the scene!

Kelton Garwood as "The Hermit" does some inspiring free form poetry! Kelton was in an episode of "The Twilight Zone" titled "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" as "The Tramp." Tired of being typecast as a bum, Kelton learned to ride a horse, and ended up on a lot of western TV series like "Gunsmoke" and "Rawhide" as colourful characters with handles like Percy Crump and Blackpowder Charley!

Now it's Herman's turn to do some hilarious free verse!

All the crazy cats and kittens think Herman is the most furthest out! What a group! The blonde with the one-sided sunglasses is simply the best!

"Life is real, life is earnest, if you're cold, turn up the furnace!"

"Man, that cat is deep!"

As the party winds down, the multi-talented and glamorous Yvonne DeCarlo as Lily, sings a song and plays the harp. This episode was the only time Yvonne performed any music during the whole series!

Herman is so touched by Lily's performance that he is brought to tears!

Eddie ends up getting an autographed photo of the band, and Herman can now get a good night's sleep "knowing that the future of America is the hands of boys like these!"

As a special bonus, here are a couple of pictures you're not going to see anywhere else, loaned to us by one of our pals, writer guy Douglas McEwan, and taken during the taping of the 1966 Munsters TV Special "Marineland Carnival." The kid in the lower photo with Lily is Doug's boyhood buddy Richard! When he sent me these photos, Douglas lamented that there were originally three photos, but the one of Fred Gwynne and him, with Fred in FULL make-up, but NOT the costume, wearing a robe and with his right hand on Doug's shoulder, with a cigarette blazing away in it, has been lost to the ever shifting sands of time forever along with the whole special, but you can still see a commercial for it right HERE!