VIKING WOMEN AND THE SEA SERPENT / Malibu Productions - 1957

Welcome to Friday Night Halloween Countdown Drive-In with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Tonite's feature is a film my dad took me to see in 1957! I'm pretty sure it played with CURUCU, BEAST OF THE AMAZON. Coincidently, I had a crush on Beverly Garland.

Roger Corman directs this story about a group of lonely Viking women who build a ship and set off across the sea to locate their missing menfolk. When they reach their destination they fall into the clutches of the Barbarians that also hold their men captive. They encounter the sea serpent on their journeys across the ocean...

At the time, this version may have had the longest movie title to date!

The music's by Mr. Big's favorite composer, the great Albert Glasser. Some of Al's earlier works were KLONDIKE KATE, THE MONSTER MAKER, THE CISCO KID RETURNS, LAW OF THE LASH, THE COBRA STRIKES, URUBU, I SHOT JESSE JAMES, I SHOT BILLY THE KID and OMOO-OMOO THE SHARK GOD.

Letz bring in our littlest of all Dungeon helpers and button pushers, correct, it's... Rufus The Gnat! Hi Rufus!.. Welp, the atomic clock on the wall sez itz tyme tue start der show, so... Push the big red 'GO' button located there just above the open box of Snausages, now, Rufus! Here's... VIKING WOMEN AND THE SEA SERPENT!

The Viking Women cast their votes whether to go across the ocean to look for their men, or not. Casting their votes with spears, naturally.

After they vote to go, a seemingly good luck omen appears in the sky!

Corman had to use what he had, I suppose, but, that is NOT a Viking vessel! Bottom pic looks like the girls are on an amusement ride!

During the voyage, the ship is destroyed when they're attacked by a giant Sea Serpent! They eventually wash up on the shores of Bronson Canyon...

These two shots actually look decent, way to go Roger!

There's Richard (THE UNDEAD) Devon as the Barbarian leader, Stark! Then, there's Jay (WAR OF THE SATELLITES) Sayer as Stark's son Senya, and Michael (BEAST FROM HAUNTED CAVE) Forest as Zarko! Jay was the guy in the car at the beginning of WOTS who was making out with his girlfriend.

On the other side we have Sally (FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER) Todd as Sanda, Betsy (LAST WOMAN ON EARTH) Jones-Moreland as Thyra and Jonathan (NOT OF THIS EARTH) Haze as Ottar! A few of the other women are played by Susan Cabot, Abby Dalton, June Kenney and a young uncredited Barboura Morris. I don't know who the guy in the back is.

While on a wild boar hunt, Desir saves little chicken Senya's life by tossing her spear right through the boar that had attacked him.

Then, he proceeds to tell Desir all about what its like to be the wimpy son of a sadistic tyrant!

Here's some of the stuff going on in the last part of the soundclip.

Place your bets!

Stark takes the girls to see their men.

Every cave needs a little atmosphere, looks like the sleepy skeleton is on duty in this one!

I even looked up the costume designer of this project just to see who was responsible for these horrible designs... Looks like Barbarian Bargain Basement to me, they suck!

Then I thought... Hey, maybe Corman only gave her like $75! Hell yeah, that's very possible! Poor Richard had to wear that monstrosity on the set! He looks like a weird bird.

Some old cowboy probably told Roger about this cool spot in Bronson Canyon.

The Vikings break away and head out to sea.

Stark and his gang follow in their boat, but the Sea Serpent uses them for appetizers!

The luckiest damn shot in the world!

Row, row, row your boat!.. Hey, we don't have any food!!

TELL ME WHAT YOU SEE!

When I see this card, for some strange reason I want to sing The Beatles' song, "Tell Me What You See!"

This is what the backs of these cards look like!

This is as good a time as any to throw in this 1971 John Lennon as Pan the Piper card!

ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1953)

I'm a monster Abbott and Costello fan, but in comparison to some of their other "Meets" flicks, I have to say that "Abbott And Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde" is kind of weak, but it's still probably better than 90% of the other dreck out there, and would make a great addition to any Halloween party!!

London, Wow! What a sight at night!

Surely I don't have to explain the story of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde" to you!! It's really a moot point as this is a very loose interpretation anyway, and, I know, don't call you Shirley!

The uncredited stock music was literally created by composers from A to B, starting with Daniele Amfitheatrof and going all the way to Eric Zeisl, with Joseph Dubin, Johnny Green, Henry Mancini, Hans J. Salter, Walter Scharf, Walter Schumann, Frank Skinner, Herman Stein, and Leith Stevens in between! What an amazing array of talent!!

For some stupid reason, women want to be able to vote!! It's not like the men are making any reasonable decisions anyway!! Welcome to the Universal version of Suffragette City!

So they've got to do whatever they can to get through to this group of dunderheads! Looks like drinkin' on the streets was legal back then just like Las Vegas today!!

So how do you get a bunch of drunk guy's attention?? Show 'em some leg!!

A small riot breaks out, and the ladies really show everybody why they deserve the right to vote!

Boris Karloff looks fantastic in the role of Dr. Jekyll!

The transformation to Mr. Hyde mask (Eddie Parker, not Boris) was created by the genius of Milicent Patrick, the woman who was also responsible for the actual creation of the "Creature From The Black Lagoon" mask! Her boss was one of the busiest guys in Hollywood, with 533 titles to his credit, Mr. Bud Westmore! There's not too many people you can tie in with a group of above and beyond classic characters like "Monster On The Campus," "Creature From The Black Lagoon," "The Mole People," and "The Munsters," but the name Bud Westmore brings them all together in a big way, and Oh, did I forget "This Island Earth," "Tarantula," and "The Leech Woman" etc. etc. etc???

All the action is down at the Jubilee Music Hall, where the same gal who was leading the charge in the Suffrage Movement was also the star of the show as Vicky Edwards and the Jubilee Dancing Girls! Vicky, of course, is also the ward of the kindly gentleman Dr. Jekyll!!

Vicky was played by the mesmerizing Helen Westcott, whose first movie was at the age of 6, and when she was about 20, she was in a movie called "13 Lead Soldiers," then after quite a few westerns etc, she went on to be in classics "The Invisible Avenger," and "Monster On The Campus," and she was Lillian Pope in the 1964 "Twilight Zone" episode "You Drive!"

Vicky and the dancers weren't the only act on the bill, there's sure no way to forget about Carmen De Lavallade as the Javanese Actress! Carmen was still working up til about two years ago!

Another monster super genius, not always credited, and working more in the background most of the time, Jack Kevan had a whole lot to do with creating the look of many of them monsters, sometimes even more than Bud Westmore himself! It's just that Bud Westmore was the top guy, so he always got credit!!

Introducing our heroes, detectives Slim and Tubby, aka Abbott and Costello!

They know there are monstrous murders going on, so Tubby accidently gets the bejeezus scared out of him by the masked Henry Corden as the male Javanese actor! Henry went on to do a buttload of cartoon voices in shows like "Johnny Quest," "Atom Ant," and "Josie and the Pussycats," and after the original voice of Fred Flintstone, Alan Reed died in 1977, Henry did Fred Flintstone's voice in all the cartoons and specials that came after, all the way until 2000!

Quite an impressive mask!!

The Wax Museum scenes are pretty cool!

It's the old cat in the hat trick, but in this case, it's a cat in a wax head!!

After a long chase, Tubby finally traps Mr. Hyde in this cell right as he is converting back to Dr. Jekyll!

Of course Slim can't believe that his partner would accuse the kindly doctor of such devious behaviour, and Tubby is beside himself in disbelief!!

6'6" John Dierkes is Batley, Dr. Jekyll's assistant! Besides tons of westerns and TV, spooky looking John had a nice run in the mid-60's in "Premature Burial, "The Raven," "The Haunted Palace," and "X:The Man With The X-Ray Eyes!"

Tubby gets a shot of serum and turns into a giant mouse!!

Nobody seems to notice except these two drunks at the bar!!

Classic shot of Tubby and Mr. Hyde!!

Tubby gets it in The End!!

And before the serum wears off, Tubby bites four more police officers and turns them all into Hyde Monsters!

- 3 SCENES FROM X-VILLE -

Here are 3 cool paintings by Tabonga from the nineties. They're all from a little world he created called... X-VILLE!

Mr. Zombie Head gives a political speech in the sand pits.

The Martian Mummy pays a visit to a small rural area in South America.

Here's the Bat Family's place, dad thought he heard someone creeping around on their property.