THE SKYDIVERS - Jimmy Bryant - "HaSo - Stratosphere Boogie" (1963)

Tonight's feature is a extra special film I waited five years to see, so I hope you're as excited to hear about it as I am to write about it, written and directed by the Orson Welles of 'Z' movies, in stature if nothing else, Coleman Francis, with music by the freakin' fenomenal Jimmy Bryant, it's time to take off with those krazy people known as, "The SKYDIVERS!"

Lucky me, I got my copy of Jimmy Bryant's record at a garage sale, and didn't have to pay the full retail price for it! Can you say Hell Yeah!?

This film seeks to explore the world of a group of people known as skydivers, a culture of misfits not unlike carnies minus the carnival!!

Producer Anthony Cardoza gets a starring role as Harry Rowe, because that's the best thing Coleman can offer him for putting up the money! Besides being a skydiver, Harry has other problems........

.....Female problems! Harry Rowe's girlfriend Suzy is on the left, and his wife Beth is on the right. Beth was played by Kevin Casey in this, the only movie she was ever in! Imagine that?

IF Coleman Francis ran the government today, we wouldn't be in debt! That's how brilliant the man was, instead he wasted his time making movies!

The best film makers fill in wherever needed, and even use their family if that's what is necessary, Coleman Francis was no exception! Spend as little as you can, and hire as few as possible!

Suzy! Always causing problems! See, the guy in the top shot is Suzy's lover Harry, but the guy with 'Suzy' tattooed on his arm is Suzy's boyfriend Frankie Bonner! Frantic Frankie was played by Jerry Warren stalwart Titus (Rat Pfink a Boo Boo) Moede! Slutty Suzy was played by Marcia (IMPULSE) Knight, who was also in another Coleman Francis classic, "The Beast Of Yucca Flats!"

The action is really getting hot and heavy!

Basically "The Skydivers" is about people jumping out of planes, and ultra super sexy chicks! Where I come from, sharing some BBQ and a beer with this gal would be considered to be heaven on earth!

There's a minimum of 15 or 20 minutes of skydiving footage, so the added bonus is there's plenty of time to get up and make yourself a Margarita, and go to the bathroom, and you don't miss a thing! That's some accommodating film making! Coleman knew how to share the love!

Finally, we get to the meat of this subject, Jimmy Bryant and the Night Jumpers, with Jimmy on guitar, bass player Rue Barclay, drummer Junior Nichols, and Harold Hensley on the sax!

The multi-talented Jimmy Bryant, aka "The Fastest Guitar in the Country" worked his way up from the very bottom, and played with everybody from pedal guitar player Speedy West to The Monkees! Heavy smoker Jimmy succumbed to lung cancer at the age of 55!

Wild airport parties like this were frowned on back in the day, and then the hippies took over and they didn't need airplanes to fly anymore!

So after Jimmy Bryant you probably thought there was no place left to go, but remember, this is a Coleman Francis film, so bring on the Rollie Maiden!

I call this painting, "T-Bird In The Desert!"

If you knew Suzy like I know Suzy, Oh, Oh, Oh what a girl! Too bad Coleman and Andy Warhol never got a chance to work together!

I really do hate being redundant, but who else could get this good of a shot out of literally nothing?

The story is actually quite meaningless, because what this is, is a piece of history, a snapshot in time that Hollywood and all it's zillions of dollars could never capture so perfectly! It's "The Skydivers!"

FIRE MAIDENS OF OUTER SPACE / Criterion Films - 1956

It's jus' another Friday Night Drive-In with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Our feature is a strange little UK flick I saw on TV after school one afternoon in 1957 where a lot of the neighborhood kids met at Principal Carona's house to watch it, it was a big deal at the time. I had a crush on his daughter, Marilyn. They lived next door to my best friend at the time, Larry, who's father happened to be the local mortician! Pretty weird, huh?

I always thought that 'from' outer space was wrong, but, FIRE MAIDENS FROM OUTER SPACE is actually an alternate American title!

Eegah!! sent over a very spacey soundclip for us to check out, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there next to Mr. Hellface, NOW, Rufus The Gnat! Here's sum sound from... FIRE MAIDENS OF OUTER SPACE!

After landing on the 13th moon of Jupiter, this crew of astronauts from Earth discover a forested area containing the last remnant of lost Atlantis! Here's some interesting trivia - the 13th moon of Jupiter was only discovered in 1974! Also, at this time, Jupiter officially has 50 moons and 14 smaller 'provisional' moons!

They come across the beautiful scantily clad nymph greeting babe, Hestia!

Then they have to meet an' greet the supreme (pizza) ruler of Atlantis, this old weirdo, Prasus! We seem to suffer from the same affliction.

And, don't ever forget about the bevy o' bodacious babes, all looking for... Husbands!!

There's plenty of sexy dancin' goin' on, too!

Here, things are in reverse, women drug the men with 'Venus Fly Trap!'

Prasus tells the space adventurers this about the monster... "The beast with the head of a man, it must be destroyed.. Yet, it is indestructible!"

WTF!!.. Just shoot at it and it runs away, yowling like a little baby!

It's sacrifice night at the girls' club.

This little lady turns the heat up even higher!

If you don't believe me, just ask this guy!

Holy crap!! It's the beast with the head of a man!! Actually, it looks like a man with the head of a beast!

The guys finally get wise and toss a grenade at him, knocking him into the eternal fire pit, he's kaput now!

All the girls wave goodbye to the brave men from Earth as they depart Moon 13 and head back home in their rocket!

Wait til you see whut Eegah!! has planned for tomorrow's post!!

MYSTERIOUS ISLAND - Bernard Herrmann - "Deep Regrets" (1961)

Wow! How's that for a trilogy of heavyweight champions? Well, that's the amazing array of talent that this 1961 version of "Mysterious Island" brings to the table, so you know there's going to be a great story, grandiose music, and killer special effects!

The balloon prison escape that starts the film will well make you wonder if anybody got hurt during the filming, it's that wild!

These paintings might look fake as Hell to the discerning eye, but no matter what, they sure are visually stunning! Whenever I see a scene like this, I'm always expecting a very large monkey to show up sometime soon!

You've got five guys stranded on a deserted island, so what could be better than having a couple of good lookin' women wash up on the beach, and one's a seamstress!! Joan Greenwood and Beth Rogan are Lady Mary and Elena Fairchild!

All the Harryhausen creations are awesome as always, but "The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad" will always remain my favourite Harryhausen film!

I'm pretty sure this was the most exciting film that Joan or Beth ever appeared in, although Beth did make one more small appearance in "Salt and Pepper!"

The best thing about having to deal with extra large species of animals, is that after you kill them, there's a bountiful harvest of food to go around! Too bad they didn't have a freezer, because that looks like a bunch of cooked crab that's going to go to waste!

What a great way to get all five guys in one shot! Left to right, here's Percy (Enemy From Space) Herbert as Sergeant Pencroft, Dan (Exorcism At Midnight) Jackson as Corporal Neb Nugent, Gary (Destination Inner Space) Merrill as Gideon Spilitt (what a handle), Michael (13 West Street) Callan as Herbert Brown, and last but not least, Michael (Elephant Gun) Craig as Captain Cyrus Harding! What a crew!

It's pretty obvious I had problems picking out pictures on this film, there was just so much eye candy to choose from!

Herbert (Phantom Of The Opera) Lom as the extraordinary Captain Nemo, shows off his best side on more than one of the sets!

Break out the wine, and everything starts getting kinky, and this is supposed to be 1865, shouldn't Elena have some bloomers on?

The soundtrack was written and conducted by Bernard Herrmann, and performed by the London Symphonic Orchestra, and like everything else in this film, is bigger than life itself! Here's just a taste to whet your appetites, and make you thirsty for what's left to come!

This version of "Mysterious Island" has some of the best underwater footage I've ever seen, and as you can well see, is truly fantastic!

This reminds me of a shot from our "Silver Angel" movie, only underwater, maybe it's because I worked about a week to create a few seconds of ray gun flash!

There's something you don't see much any more, all seven of the cast members made it, but I will bet they all felt pretty silly getting into costume for this final shot!