HALF HUMAN / Toho Company - 1958

Welcome to Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Tonite we have another excellent Toho production that a lot of people tend to forget about. It features inserts and narration by John Carradine and pals as they explain in English what's going on for the audience.

Here's a rare double bill poster I recently sold to a gentleman in the UK.

It has a Toho stock musical score with no credits, irregardless, leave it up to Eegah!! to give us a Teriffic-Eariffic Soundclip.

Letz bring in our fuzzy little Monster Monday helper and button pusher, fer sure, Ralphie The Tarantula!.. Okay then, the old melted atomic clock on the wall sez it'z tyme tu start de show! Push de big red 'GO' button located near our glowing grease pit, now, Ralphie! Here's... HALF HUMAN!

It starts with John talking to two of his scientifical buddies about the strange case of the existance of Abominable Snowmen... But first, we need to light up! Hey, it's a fifties movie!

The story starts in the mountains of Japan during a snow blizzard...

Later, they discover these foot prints leading away from the cabin!

Wait, wait, hold on!.. Let me light up too, this is starting to sound good!

Okay, back to the story... Well, that night at camp they got a visit from the legendary Yeti!

In one scene, the creature saves this guy's life by pulling him to safety after he was left for the buzzards!

In another segment, John and his pals visit Dr. Jordan, played by the amazing Morris Ankrum! They are shown a small dead creature that had been recovered by a recent expedition. The doctor tells them the story as he puffs away on another cigarette!

Yeah, you better pay attention, sucker!!

The men capture the monster's offspring and plan to take it back to captivity in their caged truck.

The little Yeti grabs the driver by the neck and the truck careens off a cliff!

The poor dad locates it's lifeless child and takes it back to the burial ground inside the cave.

Amazing sets!!.. Toho!

Filled with rage over the death of it's child, the thing goes into the village and destroys it within minutes. Beautiful shots of mayhem!!

There's time for one last smoke break at the end... Smoke 'em if you got 'em!!

For me, HALF HUMAN had a better looking creature than Hammer's THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN did. Oh yeah, let's not forget to mention the weird looking things in Jerry Warren's MAN BEAST and the big guy that looked like a goofy stuffed toy, THE SNOW CREATURE!

The misunderstood beast gets shot in the back a few times and then falls into the steaming pit, never to be retrieved...

THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN - Arlon Ober - "There's No Such Thing As Frankenstein" (1977)

Now that October is come and gone, I'm going to get some spy, surf, and rock & roll out of my system to round out the year, but before that all happens, here's one more seriously freakin' ugly monster for ya, "The Incredible Melting Man"!!!!!!!!! YESSIR!!!

This shit is art, a REAL monster movie!

The guy in the middle is Alex Rebar as Steve West, Astro-Nut turned Melting Man!

So, one minute Steve's in space enjoying the wonderful view, and the next minute, he's in a hospital as a horribly scarred burn victim, like whatever's beyond first degree!

"His eyes can see, His ears can hear, His lips speak, All the time the needles flick and rock, No machine can give the kind of stimulation, Needed to remove his inner block. Go to the mirror boy!" - The WHO

The nurse is the first to go, and from there on out, "The Incredible Melting Man" goes on a rampage from Hell! The Nurse was played by Bonnie Inch! Bonnie's only other role was a 1974 flick called "There is No 13!" I guess we proved them wrong!!

The scary music is provided by composer Arlon "Robotech," "Eating Raoul" Ober! Arlon was very busy in the music department of the 80's on films like "DeepStar Six," Brainwaves," "Nightbeast," "Q" and "Galaxina!"

Hi-Tech stuff!! "And you see, if you just tweak this little knob over here, you can get AM and shortwave both at the same time!!"

Julie Dranzen as Carol bears a fair resemblance to my granddaughter! Julie had enough here to last her a lifetime, and was never in another film!

The creator of the Melting Man look was Rick Baker, a gentleman who holds the record for the most Academy Award wins and nominations for a makeup artiste! Besides modern classics like the 2010 "Wolfman", "Men In Black," and "An American Werewolf in London," Rick had some real zingers in the early part of his career like "It's Alive," "Track Of The Moonbeast," and "Squirm!" He did some acting too, like being The Gorilla in "The Thing With Two Heads," and the Zombie in Michael Jackson's "Thriller!"

And Now It's Time Out For A Word From Our Sponsor!

Don Walters and Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith set the scene as dirty photographer and modest model! Don Walters was the perfect slimy sleazebag in this, his only acting role! He really was a porn producer who worked as Howard A. Howard pumping out 50 titles like "Inside Seka," "The Sperminator," and "Princess Of Penetration!"

Uh Oh, looks like trouble!!

You probably remember Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith for some of her memorable roles like 'the girl buying a ticket at the rodeo' in "Evel Knievel," or the 'Twinkle Twat' Girl in "Video Vixens," or Heather in "Revenge Of The Cheerleaders," or the 'naked hippie girl on a motorcycle' in "Boogievision" etc. Rainbeaux was a talented drummer and played with The Runaways and Joan Jett for a little while. Too much talent, and too many drugs led to jailtime, and an early death from complications of hepititis in 2002 at the age of 47.

"Here he comes, walkin' down the street, he gets the funniest looks from, everyone he meets, Hey, Hey, he's a Monster!" - The Monkees (kind of)

Alex Rebar was quite a guy! He started his career with "Microscopic Liquid Subway To Oblivion" and ended it with "Sex, Pain and Murder, Episode Two: Castration Elation," with "The Incredible Melting Man" sandwiched in the middle somewhere, I'd say it looks like Alex's whole career melted down!

Melting and killing, killing and melting, and so it goes, until eventually......

....The sun goes down on the streets of L.A!

As Steve West continues to melt, at The End, there's nothing left but a big gooey, goopy mess for the janitor to clean up!