THE STRANGLERS OF BOMBAY / Hammer Film Productions - 1959

It's another Friday Fright Night with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. We gots a Hammer film starring Guy (MR. SARDONICUS) Rolfe, directed by the awesome Freddie (THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN) Francis, filmed in Megascope (no kidding!) by Arthur (FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH) Grant.

A murderous religious cult in nineteenth century British East India is killing travellers, stealing the goods and disrupting trade. A young, out of touch Captain is brought in to fix the problem, but, causes even more problems for the officer in charge of that area.

Eegah!! sent over a soundclip for our enjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button located next to the atomic gump, NOW, Rufus The Gnat! Here's a flavor of... THE STRANGLERS OF BOMBAY!

At the trial of a thug, the stranglers are referred to as thugs, recently captured, the job to eradicate the cult is given to a young green officer, Captain Smith, so, Captain Lewis, Guy Rolfe, has to assist him back to his post, where all the action is.

Here's the problem, the High Priest of Kali. Here, he pay homage to the vengeful goddess.

One thug has infiltrated the prison so he can keep an eye on the prisoners, and, if they decide to spill the beans on his pals, well, family members can easily disappear, never to be found again, if you get my meaning... Hang in peace!

Captian Lewis is caught spying at a ceremony and gets staked out in the broiling sun.

They cut his leg to attract a cobra they have just prodded from it's lair. The Captain's mongoose leaps from it's pouch and confronts the oncoming threat, killing it!

Back at the ranch, the thugs play havoc with Captain Smith and his men.

The High Priest orders a fire built for Captain Lewis, but, ironically enough, the captain grabs him and he gets tossed into the flames instead!!

All the stranglers are rounded up and recieve their punishments. Captain Lewis finally gets to rule over a peaceful area once again, with his wife and his handy lil' mongoose!

Nuf' said?..

DER SCHWEIGENDE STERN - DEFA Studios East Germany - "The Silent Star" (1960)

The Mothership has krashed, and it's starting to feel more like "Gilligan In Space" all the bloody time now! The Reverend is gone, the Professor is all but gone, and if Ginger snaps, it'll just be us and Mary Jane left drifting around in a morass of despair!

Oh, well, space goes on! Tonight's feature is kind of a bassackwards re-tread! It's the original undiluted version of "First Spaceship On Venus" Tabonga first wrote about back on November 4, 2008, a Gorgeous George of an East German film from the famed DEFA Studios titled "Der Schweigende Stern" or "The Silent Star!"

The music composed by Andrzej Markowski for "Der Schweigende Stern" is spacey to say the least, and the visuals are truly a wonder to behold, space eye candy, at it's best! I love that woman's head framed by what I think is Earth!!

As the film begins, we find the international crew enjoying themselves at the first interplanetary slumber party sleepover!

They're on there way to Venus, a planet and a Goddess that has been immortalized in more than one song by artists like Frankie Avalon, Shocking Blue and Captain Beefheart! It's also the only planet that rhymes with penis!

It's some pretty serious business, but not exactly everyone is focused on the mission at hand! Tang Hua-Ta in his only film appearance is the guilty party!

Günther (RIPE CHERRY) Simon as Deutscher Pilot Raimund Brinkmann volunteers to go down and check it out, and finds this crystal forest, then falls into a big hole where he is not exactly, but kind of attacked by a bunch of flying robotic insects!

The main ship has to land and try and find out what's going on after they lose contact!

It's precisely at this point that the players in the film, and the viewing audience come to the same conclusion! Time to step it up a notch!!!

And indeed they do with some of the most fantastic cine-magic ever recorded! From here on out, the viewer is bombarded with one fantastic scene after another, and they are all beautiful!

This is about as close as I've ever seen to somebody creating anything that looked even vaguely like one of those great surreal ACE Sci-Fi paperback covers of the 50's and 60's!!

The twin towers of Babel spew forth some "fast and bulbous" creeping terror of horror, and you can only imagine how bad it must smell! Aroma-Rama, no thanx!

Yoko (LOVE FACTORY) Tani as Dr.Sumiko finds out she needed to move that booty a little faster!

Here's yet another still that looks like an ACE or a Ballantine book cover! There were a lot of people involved on this project, so I'm not sure who gets the real credit, so I'll just say it looks like teamwork really paid off!

Strange that after references to Hiroshima etc, the Americano has the last word, and I repeat "We must make sure our Earth continues to blossom, and then we should try to discover life on other planets, Peace Out Ya'll!!"

Here's a couple of examples of the original artwork! "Der Schweigende Stern" ist eine sehr schöner Film that just happens to be available on Netflix! 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5.......what are you waiting for? Blast off!!

THE MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS / Vanwick Productions - 1959

It's another Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. What we gots is a redo of an earlier post that features a nastier version of the CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, it invades the California seaside community of Piedras Blancas and hides in a cave. Makeup artist Jack Kevan created the monster after working on such films as THE WIZARD OF OZ, ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN, IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE, CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, THE LAND UNKNOWN, MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES and MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS! Check out that great British double bill poster with THE DEAD ONE!

Eegah!! sent over a soundclip for us to hear, sooooo, you can go ahead and push the big red 'GO' button and get the old marbles rolling, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's a sample of... THE MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS!

Here's Sturges, the lighthouse keeper at Piedras Blancas, he notices a funeral procession and stops for a moment to pay his respects. The townspeople think he's a weirdo and don't like him. If you look real hard, you can see Morro Rock on the the horizon near the center, a place that holds lots of great memories for kids who grew up in the Big Valley around that time...

Sturges has a dirty lil' secret, he's feeding a prehistoric creature, hoping to keep it fed enough to not bother the local residents. A few recent mysterious murders are making him wonder if the monster is responsible.

We had the Wings Drive-In in our town, here, it's where the lovely daughter of Sturges works. Jeanne Carmen plays Lucille, girlfriend of Fred, played by Don Sullivan. We remember Don from TEENAGE ZOMBIES, CURSE OF THE UNDEAD and THE GIANT GILA MONSTER. Jeanne was known for her trick golf shots besides all the hot pin-up photos she appeared in. She was also one of Frank Sinatra's girlies on the side.

This shot is so surreal that I had to include it!

The storekeeper is the next victim, later, Sturges falls off a cliff and is nearly killed! The final straw is when a little girl gets killed by the thing. Killing kids off in movies for shock value is almost perverse.

In another run in with the monster, Constable Matson gets thumped by it. It's not being fed by the injured Sturges and has to plan it's own meals! There's Dungeon favorite Les Tremayne as the local doctor.

Fred and the doc come across this weird footprint in the sand and discover the cave the thing has been hiding in!.. And, snacking in!

Wouldn't you know it, Lucille just happens to be stripping off her clothes when dude shows up! Where I come from, that's called.. Good writing!

The thing looks plenty creepy, but, when it drools all that slime, well, check out the look on Lucille's face!

Sturges is pursued up the stairs by the creature, so, he goes up to the top floor where the lamp is and bolts the door. Cool stairwell!

The monster breaks through the door and ends up tossing Sturges off the balcony right in front of Lucille!

Payback's a bitch as Fred uses a pole to knock the thing backwards, over the railing and to it's death!

And, here's the very best way to end this post...

No wonder I used to have such a big crush on this lady!!