Wednesday, August 22, 2012

DIARY OF A MAD HOUSEWIFE - Alice Cooper - (What's The Consequence To Be Free?) (1970)

"Diary Of A Madman" with Vincent Price came out in 1963, and was a pretty scary movie, so when "Diary Of A Mad Housewife" came out in 1970, I had high hopes for a similar viewing experience! Boy, was I wrong! Not that it's a bad movie, and even though some of these characters really deserve it, nobody gets killed or even modestly threatened, because "Diary Of A Mad Housewife" is not a horror movie, unless you count the horrors of a modern society! So why is this film on this site?

Here's the happy couple! Richard (WESTWORLD, CATCH-22) Benjamin as stick up his ass attorney Jonathan Balser, and Carrie (THE FURY, TRICK OR TREATS) Snodgress as his misunderstood wife Tina Balser!

The prefect family with the prefect spoiled and brattiest kids on the face of the planet, but there's something weird going on here, between the two of them, Frannie Michel as Liz Balser, and Lorraine Cullen as Sylvie Balser, they only have a total of 6 more acting credits! This film might have had that kind of effect!

So off the Balsers go to party with the innest of the in crowd, and it's pretty obvious who needs to smooze, and who would rather just go back home!

At the arty farty coolest of the cool party they couldn't get The Velvet Underground, so the next band of choice was none other than ALICE COOPER!!

Tina Balser is totally turned off by the sexual arrogance of Frank (DRACULA) Langella as hip author George Prager!

Alice Cooper "Pretties For You" one more time!! That pillow over there turns into one monstrous pillow fight!! The Alice Cooper band was fleshed out by Michael Bruce on guitar, Glen Buxton on guitar, Dennis Dunaway on bass, and drummer Neal Smith!

You'd have to be John Holmes to be a bigger dick that Richard Benjamin in this flick!

At the next "Be there of Be square" party they go to, Tina Balser runs in to George Prager again, and he starts really coming on strong to her! Her stupid husband is just so proud of the fact that she can hang with somebody so intellectually superior, nothing else matters!

This is what it looks like when rich dicks are sick!

I once knew a really nice older man named Richard Peters! One of the last times I saw him, he was wearing a Cox cable hat! He had no idea!

In 1970, if you were exceptionally cool, you had one of these power shoe shiners!

You know you've made it when a Nobel Prize winner steals your shit! Jonathan throws a big party to try and impress the top of the heap, but as luck would have it, everything he pays big bucks for is already passé, and the omelets by the best chef who didn't show up, are already last year's model! Who the Hell serves omelets at a party anyway? Unless they had caviar and lobster in them, I make a better one here every Sunday morning for about nine thousand dollars less!

Very simple but effective shot from Director Frank Perry and Cinematographer Gerald Hirschfeld!

Tina finally cuts loose, and lets her husband know how she really feels about all his bullshit!!

The seductively sweet and stunning Carrie Snodgress (For years I thought it was Snotgrass), undresses and gets dressed again at least 4 or 5 times in this film, and that's not such a bad thing! Carrie was rocker Neil Young's girlfriend for four years, and was the Mother of their son Zeke! She passed away in 2004 at an age of 59, which I consider very young!

The last word is that if Tina was really such a mad housewife, she would have pulled out a giant butcher knife and done away with both her annoying husband, and her eloquent and embarrassing assholish lover, and got away with it, but instead she ends up in therapy with Peter (THE DREAM TEAM, THE MONITORS) Boyle! I doubt it's a coincidence that this film is almost impossible to find!

Monday, August 20, 2012

SILVER ANGEL vs THE DEATH ZOMBIES / Wray Film Productions - 2003

It's Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. What we gots is the second movie the Dungeon Gang produced for our 13 O'Clock Theater series, the first being a b/w horror comedy, THE CREEP, in 2001.

We're reviewing it in an effort to create some interest in our movies offered there on the sidebar, both our DVD features for $10 with free shipping! Check it out! This poster was a 1-sheet printed by Budweiser for our local premiere. NEUTRON vs THE DEATH ROBOTS was pretty much the model for our script, I dig vintage Mexican monster movies the most!

We used royalty free sound files to create the music for our soundtrack, which is the way to go for quality and convenience when on a shoestring budget. But, you still have to compose all the pieces, I really like the theme, has a latino feel! Sooooo, push the big red 'GO' button there in front of your mandible, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's our soundclip for... SILVER ANGEL vs THE DEATH ZOMBIES!

This alley urchin (our pal, Donicio) is the first victim of the punching pink robot! We wanted the color burgandy, but, you can't dye tyvek, it will only tint! We kept them, concluding that pink was actually pretty cool considering our budget restraints.

Here are our heroes... Crime fighter Silver Angel and his gadget toting sidekick, Professor Valdez. World champion kickboxer Allen Tackett plays Silver Angel and Joey Garza plays the Professor. Joey was the first pick to star in CHICO AND THE MAN, but, turned it down! Allen got to meet Bruce Lee. The silver mask is a Santo knockoff from Mexico.

These are the bad guys... Dr. Mercury and his twisted little bald helper, Pluto! Robert Hernandez plays the mad doctor, who has visions of taking over the world with the use of his zombies, some of which are robots. Rodney Lee plays Pluto, Rodney was also The Creep!

We like to film at night, and, there are some exciting chase scenes that'll get your adrenaline flowing! Angel's Camero (owned by his friend) ran on jet fuel and I had to pay a staggering amount to run it!!

The robots are out collecting people for their brains so that Dr. Mercury can create more zombies. Eegah!! is piloting the main robot there, you can barely see him through his glass shield. I'm bringing up the rear, I just beat up a guy in the house.

Dr. Mercury's lab is pretty cool with it's lead walls and all, that way, it can't be located by radiation detectors!

The police find brainless 'Frank' laying in the woods after Pluto and the robots dumped him there!

Pluto asks Dr. Mercury if he would put his brain in a robot if he crashes the van and gets killed!

Eegah!! was given the task to learn some special effects software for this scene where Dr. Mercury blasts Silver Angel and Professor Valdez with this electric raygun, you can hear it electrocuting them in the soundclip.

What a great promo shot of Robert as Dr. Mercury!

Pluto collects the 'meatheads' from more of the doctor's victims!

There are even scenic nighttime shots of the city.

Great fight scenes with some of Allen's monster buddies, they weren't afraid to make the action look real. A friend of mine commented recently after seeing this for the first time, hey, the fights look real! Allen even kicked me real good a couple of times! Then, I tore my arm up when I fell back into a pomegranate tree. Mars was at it's closest point to Earth back when we were filming, and, my apartment building nearly burned down and I had to move, and, came close to losing everything! I ended up on the TV news holding one of my paintings, WTF!!

The professor shoots Pluto in the side and Dr. Mercury gets some revenge for Pluto screwing up another assignment by giving him an experimental booster shot, this is one hilarious scene! By the way, we don't do parody.

The zombies are back for more mayhem but are foiled with some quick thinking by Professor Valdez...

Even though Dr. Mercury and Pluto made their escape, Silver Angel is ready to strike back against any and all crimes that may come his way!.. Remember to check out our ad for our cool movies, Forry Ackerman hosts THE CREEP!

Saturday, August 18, 2012

EINER FRISST DEN ANDEREN - Ines Taddio - "Dog Eat Dog" (1964)

"Dog Eat Dog" is a strange cross between 1960's American Pop Culture, and WTF!? German film making, or in other words, the prefect motion picture for an audience like all you folks way out there! The title "Dog Eat Dog" has become very popular in the last decade, and has been used at least eleven more times since 2001! Woof Woof!!

Ivor Salter as Dolph Kostis/Mr. Smithopolis is a maniac to the fourth degree! Although not that well known in the U.S., Ivor was quite busy in the U.K. with movie and TV titles like "The Men from Room 13," "Bootsie and Snudge," and "Here Come The Double Deckers!" He was also Dragger in the 1961 TV show "You Can't Win!"

In this publicity still, Ivor pays off his partner, the ever present Cameron Mitchell as Lylle Corbett, for a job well done in the bank robbery they just pulled off, with a kick to the head!

In the beginning of the film as the credits are rolling and the music is jumping, Jayne Mansfield as Darlene/Mrs. Smithopolis, is tossing around 1000 dollar bills, and cranking the sounds on the radio courtesy of Carlo (CRYPT OF THE VAMPIRE, SPACE MEN) Savina!

There's a knock on the door, and when Jayne opens it, she is confronted by Pinkas (THE HUNCHBACK OF SOHO, THE ZOMBIE WALKS) Braun, the sleazey Hotel Americano manager, Livio Morelli, who tells her to turn the music down, but also notices that something isn't right when he finds a thousand dollar bill just laying on the floor!

When Jayne's husband shows back up, it's the dirty scumbag meets a rotten sleazeball showdown!

Livio Morelli concludes that the happy couple are the bank robbers, and sends his bad little sister Sandra to go put some explosives on their boat, figuring he'll just go out and gather the money up off the water when they're gone! Sandra was played by Dodie Heath. Dodie was also Susanna Kittridge in the "Twilight Zone" episode "Long Live Walter Jameson." Unfortunately for Sandra, Cam didn't die when Ivor kicked him off that cliff, and now he's very pissed!!

Meanwhile, back at the club, the joint is jumpin' to the swingin' sounds of Ines Taddio and her band!

Ines Taddio was an Italian born singer who won the coveted Miss Carnia beauty contest in 1945, and then went on to take second place in the Miss Friuli-Venezia Giulia contest! She sang fluently in Italian, English and German!

As everybody tries to escape and/or outfox each other, all the participants end up on this supposedly deserted island, but as fate would have it, a one Lady Xenia has come back to her old homestead on the island to die! She is joined by her butler Jannis! Elisabeth (DAS PHANTOM VON SOHO, THE TERRIBLE PEOPLE) Flickenschildt as Xenia and Werner (DR. MABUSE VS. SCOTLAND YARD, THE CARPET OF HORROR) Peters as the butler will be very familiar faces to any fans of 60's German Edgar Wallace flicks!

Cam and Jayne stay pretty beat up looking for most of the movie, and if you think this film is a joke or a comedy, you would be completely wrong!

Okay, let's just say Mr. Morelli has got himself into quite a pickle!

Cam can't stand Werner's piano playing, and slams the keyboard cover down on his hands to make him stop, and it works quite successfully!

The money is hidden somewhere, the police have started searching for them, and one by one, they start getting picked off. Dolph gets his throat slit, Jannis is stabbed, and Morelli is set on fire and tossed off a cliff!

By the time the money is located, Cam has almost lost his mind! Cameron Mitchell had an amazing 236 acting credits to his name, and probably would have had many more if he wasn't such a heavy smoker! Cam died of lung cancer back in 1994!

"Dog Eat Dog" is another verrückt film that you can find on Netflix, and if you've got nothing better to do, I'd recommend it!

Monster Music

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