It's Mittwoch, and there's no monsters hanging around, so Let's Rock!! Tonight's flick is one of Ted V.Mikels pre "Astro-Zombies" features and it's called "Girl In Gold Boots," and for some reason, it's available at Netflix, and is one of the few movies that I would ever suggest that you watch the version with the Director's comments first! Ted's dialogue doesn't ever get in the way, and it's a ton of fun to listen to him describe what's going on! He gets a big kick out of it, and so will you!
"Girl In Gold Boots" is a simple tale at best! Leslie McRay is Michele Casey, deadend country girl waitress with higher aspirations in life, and Tom Pace is the loser Buz Nichols who stumbles into her life, and offers her a chance to be a big-time Go-Go dancer like his sister in Hollywood! Leslie was in some awesome cult-o-holic classics like "Hell's Bloody Devils," "Guess What Happened To Count Dracula?," Al Adamson's "The Female Bunch," "Blood Orgy Of The She-Devils," "Coffy," "Willie Dynamite," and "Death Race 2000!" She has also tackled being a director, a writer, and a producer! After being crowned Miss Fullerton, lovely Leslie went on to be Miss Hawaii and competed in the Miss World and the Miss Universe competitions! Tom Pace was also in Ted's "The Astro-Zombies," and "Blood Orgy Of The She-Devils!"
This would be bad-ass bikers Duke Graham and Jerry Ambler's only film appearances! They piss Buz off, and he pours beer on their bikes, but when it comes down to the standoff, Buz is the one with the handgun!
Here's proof that you don't need to spend a gazillion dollars to get a good shot, all you need is a good eye!!
In the commentary, Ted will tell you that they rented this six-wheeler for a day, and used the footage just to take up some time. Everybody in the cast and crew had to get a chance to fart around and drive the thing!
Bars Leaks and Blue Chip Stamps, Buz robs a gas station! I would honestly like to know how many of you actually know what Blue Chip Stamps are!!!
It just so happens that Buz's sister is the lead Go-Go dancer at the hottest spot in town, a real club that was called The Haunted House!"
Of all the clubs in town including the Whiskey A Go-Go, the one I regret the most that I never got to go to would be The Haunted House, with it's creatures, vampires, and King Kong stage! Talk about something that needs to be brought back from the dead!!
Here's Mark (8 1/2) Herron as the big bad Boss Leo McCabe, and, William (She-Freak, HEAD) Bagdad as his main stooge Marty, along with Buz enjoying his Sister's act! In the commentary, Ted relates how the 'raising one eyebrow' trick was William Bagdad's number one schtick!!
Here's Buz's sister, the swingingest act in town, Bara Byrnes as Go-Go queen Joanie Nichols! Try and find one thing in this shot that doesn't scream 1968! Good luck! In 1959, Bara was in both "The Beat Generation" and "Girls Town!"
To be perfectly honest, these two white girls, don't hardly have a lick of rhythm between the two of them, but I guess that doesn't really matter!
Here's a great shot of the girls and the stage!
"Girl In Gold Boots" is essentially a Ted V. Mikels' musical, and Ted will tell you that's there's like 17 original songs in the movie, and you know what, most of them are pretty cool! You can see where the title comes from, all the second string dancers are only good enough to wear silver boots! I think this is the scene where you see a waitress in the club, and Ted says, "That's my secretary!"
The Boss of the club is having a big party at his pad, and the entertainment is none other than Mr. Bongo Rock himself, Preston Epps! "Bongo Rock" was a bongo-driven tune that reached #14 on the Billboard Charts in 1959! Later less successful releases like "Bongo Rocket" and "Bongo In The Congo" would lead to things like being in this movie! Probably only Ted V. Mikels knows who the conga player was!
In the commentary, Ted tells you that the people at the party were mostly his neighbors, and people that included the Deputy D.A. and his wife! That concept so much reminds me of our meager attempt at filmmaking!!!
The basic soundtrack for the movie was composed by Nicholas Carras, but additional songs are provided by Chris Howard, George Eddy, Larry Cartell, co-star Jody Daniels, Jay Schlessinger, Nick Busillo, Bobby Batson, and Dave Silverstein! Whew!!!! Personally, I love the small tidbit I've given you!
Jody Daniels had the co-starring role of Finley 'Critter' Jones, the good guy!! Jody was also in Larry Buchanan's "The Eye Creatures" and his last role was in 1974's "Policewoman!" Jody not only wrote, but also performed the song, "You Gotta Come Down!" When writing about a single film, this is the first time I've ever been able to use the names Ted V. Mikels, Al Adamson, and Larry Buchanan in one review. That shows you how powerful "Girl In Gold Boots" really is!
Joanie's got a drug problem, so Michele is launched into the spotlight!
Critter cleans house on The Boss and Marty, and saves the day!!
Back to the beach and the happiest ending of all time!
This awesome lobby card shows Michele and the rest of the dancers after she becomes the brightest star in the universe! Who knew that Go-Go dancing would be so close to God!
To finish off, here's a record cover from the co-stars of the Arch Hall film "Nasty Rabbit," Pat and Lolly Vegas, performing on the world famous King Kong stage of the Haunted House themselves!
And just to prove that it's impossible to get too much of a good thing, here's a modern version by The Mermen that was suggested by an anonymous commenteer!
Itz Friday Night Drive-In wif' Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. What we gots here is one AIP flick that's almost impossible to like in any way! Even with a $750,000 budget and really big stars, it lacks any feel of authenticity, in other words... Pure garbage! The only reason for it's creation was obviously to try and capitalize on the success of JAWS. But, by far, the most pungent thing for me is that it's believed that they actually killed an octopus for the final scene. This one gets my middle finger up, Eegah!! hated it too!! 
Here's pretty much the most boring soundclip Eegah!! has ever put together! Rufus The Gnat even refuses to push the big red 'GO' button, so, listen to 'dis!.. TENTACLES!
Okay here we go... The very first scene has the giant pus grab a baby in it's stroller from the edge of the shore!! That's what you lead with?!.. Douche!! 
Then, this guy gets his face shredded by the thing's suckers! Are we having fun yet? One of the taglines sez "It's Turning the Beach ... Into a Buffet!" 
These adventurous dudes use their small diving bell to do a little underwater exploration, to disasterous results natcherly... 
I found this shot interesting enough to include. 
Claude Akins plays the local Sheriff Robards. Claude had 226 acting credits, usually cast as some type of copper! 
Heavyweight John Houston plays concerned local good guy, Ned Turner. He's just trying to figure out what's going on! 
Heavyweight Henry Fonda plays distasteful businessman, Mr. Whitehead, owner of Trojan, Inc. 
Heavyweight Shelly Winters plays busybody, Tillie Turner. What a name! Another weird thing, this movie has an all-Italian crew, and, they seem to make very odd, non-American visual and clothing choices at times! 
Numbnuts here is about to lose a death match with our nemesis. That one stupid tentacle is what you see most of the time! 
Hey, Italian brainiac director!.. This is NOT how people die at sea in the United States!! 
It doesn't take much for the monster to destroy that little boat, good luck to the girl! Here's a bit of trivia, this is a Giant Octopus, but, the difference between a Giant Squid and a Colossal Squid is that the Giant Squid has suckers, the Colossal Squid replaces the suckers with long barbs that rotate 360 degrees! Craa-zy!!.. 
Some nighttime action! 
Solana Beach is north of San Diego, in case you want to catch the Annual Junior Yacht Race in August... Looks like the little guy's taking a poop in the water! 
Oopsie!
