Friday, March 2, 2012

THE MISTRESS OF ATLANTIS / Nero-Film AG - 1932

It's Friday Night with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Brigitte Helm stars as Antinea, the Queen of Atlantis, in our offering. Brigitte, of course, was the Robot in METROPOLIS. Alternate titles for this film are THE LOST ATLANTIS and QUEEN OF ATLANTIS, it was originally released in Germany as L'ATLANTIDE.

The story is about two French Foreign Legionnaire soldiers, they're lured through passages beneath the Sahara desert to the lost city of Atlantis, then, one is seduced by the queen, Antinea. He barely escapes with his life when he realizes that all of her lovers came to some kind of tragic end.

We have an interesting soundclip from this film, so, push the big red 'GO' button, now, Rufus The Gnat! Here's a taste of... THE MISTRESS OF ATLANTIS!

There's a radio broadcast at the beginning concerning the lost city of Atlantis, now believed buried under the sands of the Saharan desert!

These are the two French soldiers, lost amid the shifting sands of the Sahara. They come to stumble upon the entrance to a subterranean passage, and, are surprised when they discover the lost city of Atlantis at the end of their descent.

This mindless old sot is already there in Atlantis, he spends his time talking crap in stilted booze-fueled exuberance. Although, he does have a nice Daliesque stache...

There are plenty of claustrophobic adventures to be had in Atlantis...

Here's Queen Antinea posing with her pet Cheetah!

Great sets and cinematography, exterior desert scenes included.

Here, our hero chats with the tipsy old weirdo through a split-level hole in the wall.

In a flashback, the old drunk recounts a night he had at the follies, before he got trapped in Atlantis...

And, how distracting it was!

Queen Antinea, in all her glory!

With the help of a slave girl, the lieutenant luckily makes it back to the surface world.

Typical German art-deco poster from that era.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

KDO CHCE ZABÍT JESSII? - Svatopluk Havelka - "This Is Impossible" (1966)

I think we've had a month of great titles, and since we've got an extra day, nothing's going to cap it off better than this film straight outta Czechoslovakia, "Who Wants To Kill Jessie?" This film is insipidly absurd, and I liked it a lot!!

The original insane cartoon circus pizza parlour music was composed by Svatopluk Havelka, who has 63, mostly Czech credits to his name including, are you listening, "The Ear!"

60's Pop Culture gone totally mad, thrown into a blender with some vodka and almost any other ingredient you can imagine, and this is the end result! I proclaim this movie to be the Long Island Ice Tea of 60's Science Fiction! Yeah, it's that mind numbing!

"Who Wants To Kill Jessie" is a story about dreams that come to life, and Dana Medrická as Doctor Ruzenka Beránková has invented a machine that is destined for the Nobel Prize, that can see what people are dreaming. She has hooked it up to her husband, and she sees that he is dreaming about a cartoon character he recently discovered, who resides in a comic strip called "Everybody Wants To Kill Jessie!"

Dr.Beránková and her husband sleep in separate rooms and have a very scheduled and sterile lovelife on every Thursday, so this is a little too intense and graphic for her, so she wakes him up.

Jirí Sovák has the role of the husband, Doctor Jindrich Beránek, and when he awakens, he finds a hand in his bed that isn't his!

The hand belongs to Jessie, the character in the comic, and the star of the Doctor's erotic dreams, and she has suddenly materialized as a living, breathing thing!

Jessie was played by the smokin' hot Olga Schoberová! Olga was also in "Voyage To The End Of The Universe," "Kommissar X," and "The Vengeance of She!"

Truer words have probably never been translated!

So, as it turns out "Jessie" is an action comic, and she spends all of her time being pursued by a cowboy and a super hero, and they too have materialized into three dimensional beings! The Cowboy is played by Karel (Music From Mars, Hamster In A Nightshirt) Effa, and the Super Guy weirdo is Juraj Visny, who was only in one other film, "The Detour." Great title!

From there on, it's pretty much one big chase scene! In this scene, the Doctor gives Jessie a helping hand or two!

Normal stuff, after a while they catch Jessie, and the Super Dude whips her!

After all kinds of different scenarios, the cartoons are all captured, and the authorities headed by Doctor Beránková, decide that the best way to get rid of these cartoon characters is to burn them, so they send Super Guy off to a certain doom! WTF?! Are they just stupid? How do you burn a cartoon?

Only the shackles burn off, therefore, all that happens is that Super Muž is still ready to rock! By the way, the cartoons never actually talk, their speech balloons just appear prefaced by a raucous squawk something akin to industrial steam being discharged!

Since burning didn't achieve the proper result, what better way is there to dispose of a cartoon than by attempted drawing and quartering? You never do get to know why Jessie is being pursued so vociferously, or why she is treated so bad, but the good thing is that it doesn't make any difference!

What could be better? The Doctor's dream comes true.......

.....and his wife is happier than she has ever been too! Super Muž kind of gets a raw deal, but as Mick would say, "You don't always get what you want!"

Just in case you'd like to see "Kdo Chce Zabít Jessii?" for yourself, it IS available on Netflix! For everybody else, "May all your dreams come true!"

R.I.P. Davey Jones! We'll see you on the other side!

Monday, February 27, 2012

SANTO & BLUE DEMON vs DRACULA & THE WOLFMAN / Cinematográfica Calderón S.A. - 1973

It's Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Did you know there are 80 films starring Santo and Blue Demon?! I have about 30 titles in my collection, hey, only 50 more to go!!

Mexican lobby cards definitely have their own look, I ended up collecting about 150 of them a few years back from a seller in Mexico.

We have a soundclip for this flick, so, push the big red 'GO' button there next to the whip cream machine, now, Ralphie The Tarantula!.. Here's some audiolicious sounds from... SANTO & BLUE DEMON vs DRACULA & THE WOLFMAN!

El Santo puts the last nail in this look-alike's coffin!

Check out this lip lock (get it?) he puts on his girl friend!

Back at the ranch, Dracula's minion, Eric, prepares to bring his master back to the land of the undead.

Eric's kind of a hack, but, he gets the job done.

The blood of the victim drips into the eye sockets of Dracula's skeleton, and, his putrid flesh and sharp duds start materializing onto his demonic bones.

Italian born Aldo Monti is Dracula, he also played Drac in SANTO AND THE TREASURE OF DRACULA four years earlier. Agustín Martínez Solares is the Wolfman, love it... Rufus Rex!

Here's a nice double portrait of our mighty hero!

Even these tough guys with guns are no match for Santo and Blue Demon!

Then, our guys kill some time by playing a game of chess...

Daaamn, those are the ugh-liest vampire girls I've ever seen!

...Makeup!!!

Erik gasses Santo, then, cannot go through with killing him. He ends up stabbing the dagger into his own heart, in order to get rid of the curse he has on him.

One of Santo and Blue Demon's friends that has been turned into a Lobo is forced to walk the plank of death. Rufus Rex causes the poor guy to fall into the pit of spikes.

But, our heroes always come through in the end!

So, Drac and Rufus get to sample a bit of their own Hell!

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??