This is Monster Monday with Tabonga... Tonite's little 'lost' movie is a personal favorite of mine, it features a unique monster played by Dungeon fave, John Agar. This was John's next gig after doing JOURNEY TO THE SEVENTH PLANET. Then, the next monster movies he would do are Larry Buchanan's ZONTAR: THE THING FROM VENUS and CURSE OF THE SWAMP CREATURE in 1966. This is a redo of a post we did back in 2008.
A decent looking poster, but, white backgrounds just don't make it for monster flicks!
The cool music (especially the atomic 'gear shifting' theme) is by Sonny Burke, Sonny has 25 soundtrack credits and wrote "He's a Tramp," "The Siamese Cat Song" and "Bella Notte This Is the Night" for LADY AND THE TRAMP!
Letz bring in our fuzzy little Dungeon helper and button pusher, what else,
Ralphie The Tarantula!.. Good old Ralphie is here to start the show, so, push the big red 'GO' button located directly behind you,
now, Ralphie! Here's our Eariffic Soundclip for...
HAND OF DEATH!
It's about an experimental nerve gas being developed for a top-secret government project. John plays obsessed workaholic scientist, Alex Marsh. Working on weird chemical formulas when you're tired can lead to very dangerous situations!
Alex accidently gets some of the substance on his hand and it's quickly absorbed into his skin, causing a real nightmare!!
Alex's skin has darkened, and, when he touches his colleague, Carlos...
Carlos ends up dead on the floor with a big burn mark on his arm where Alex grabbed him. Alex panics and starts the place on fire to make it look like an accidental lab explosion!
Alex has to stop for gas, where, Joe Besser delivers some strange sounding lines, as heard in the soundclip. But, you have to understand, in 1962, if you were a gas station attendant, there was nothing worse than feeling unappreciated!
Once he's at Dr. Ramsey's house, the one who's trying to help him, his girlfriend shows up unannounced and almost touches him when she comes in his room!
Then, before long, Alex mutates into this hideous, puffed up, life-sucking hulk!..
The doctor accidently grabs Alex out of shock and also ends up on the floor. Again, excellent make-up work! Roy Gordon plays the doc, we remember Roy from WAR OF THE SATELLITES, ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN, WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST and THE WASP WOMAN.
Paula (BLOOD OF DRACULA'S CASTLE) Raymond plays girlfriend, Carol. Here, she gets a double dose of horror, the doc with an Alex chaser!
Damn, he looks a lot like Ben Grimm with that hat!
I love the expression on that lady's face!!
Al Jolson takes a nap on the sidewalk after a few too many Kamikazes at lunch.
After stealing a cab, Alex has to ditch it on Pacific Coast Highway. The police seem to be stopping any Plymouth taxi they see, they're obviously looking for him.
Here's lil' Butch Patrick in his 3rd role as Davey, the kid on the beach that nearly touches Alex out of curiosity before going to his mom, who's calling him. Butch is currently in a flick in post production, ZOMBIE DREAM.
Alex kinda freaks Carol out!
One last look at this teriffic creation by master make-up artist, Bob Mark! Bob had 455 make-up department credits which includes movies like THE PURPLE MONSTER STRIKES, VALLEY OF THE ZOMBIES, KING OF THE ROCKET MEN, THE INVISIBLE MONSTER, SATAN'S SATELLITES, A BUCKET OF BLOOD, HOUSE OF THE DAMNED and THE HUMAN DUPLICATORS.
Coming in at just 58 minutes, it's time to end this flick, so, the cops quickly move in and fill Alex full of lead. We get to watch his dead body slosh around in the waves.
I used to have a complete mint set of HAND OF DEATH lobby cards.
To tell the actual truth for once, the only reason I watched "The Hellfire Club" was because it was a second billing on a double feature with "Blood Of The Vampire," and even though it's not really technically a horror film, it sure as Hell is a movie about death, decadence and debauchery, or 3D of a completely different caliber, and you gotta admit,"The Hellfire Club" is a cool title!
I could quit right here, because this statement says it all! Things really haven't changed that much, now have they??
Time to set the stage!!!
There's some evil crap going on around here!
And it's not something young children should be allowed to witness! Evil Personified!
Oh, Hell Fire, turns out it was just a cheap act to stir up all the high roller's collective libidos! Let the orgy begin, or as Marvin would say, "Let's Get It On!"
Suddenly out of nowhere, this fuzzy braineater attacks this poor defenseless maiden!
The time machine brings us to the wagon train camp of the Dutch circus gypsies!
For being 1961, "The Hellfire Club" is filled with flesh, albeit from the perspective of a figure drawing class, and Yes, playing that prank, is one of those boys, only all growed up now!
This is the beautiful fairway on the par 4, number 5 hole on the front nine of the iconoclastic Hellfire Course! FORE!
The President and owner of the Hellfire Club is one of those boy's cousins, Peter(Atomic Man, Black Torment)Arne as Thomas, who is joined by his fair lady Adrienne(A Clockwork Orange, Vampire Circus)Corri as Isobel! My Mom always told me, never trust a woman who rides sidesaddle!
Following Shirley Thompson is another great Aussie actor, the cousin in question, Keith Michell as Jason!
Here's how these Hellfire people work, in order to reward Jason for saving a damsel in distress, they invite him over for some drinks and dinner, and the next thing he knows is they're introducing some wrassler goon buddy of theirs!
Tag your own Washington representative, and caption this picture yourself!
Thanx for joining us for dinner, just for kicks, let me rearrange your face!
The trees on the right side of the fairway really come into play on the immaculate 17th hole!
Isobel has one of those moorish Hound of the Baskerville's tans!
That's one really cool painted backdrop!
Like most people, if you have a never-ending desire to see every single picture that Peter Cushing was ever in, then "The Hellfire Club" is a must! His role here is as Merryweather, the dirty scoundrel bastard of a lawyer!
After Jason is persecuted, prosecuted, imprisoned, and escaped, he returns to pay his cousin another little visit, this time disguised as a French Marquis. Look at him, would not Leonardo DeCaprio have been perfect for this role?
Here's more skin as we sink back to the lowest levels of lust and depravity again!
It has been said that the authentic Hellfire Club was a bunch of 18th century aristocratic perverts dedicated to deflowering local virgins!
One last swashbuckling scene lands this guy right into the lap of this trio!
The music in "The Hellfire Club" was composed by the brilliant Clifton "The man who never disappoints" Parker! Among Clifton's 84 credits are "Curse Of The Demon" and "Sink The Bismarck!" As earlier stated, as a double bill on Netflix with "Blood Of The Vampire," "The Hellfire Club" is damn hard to resist!!
