IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE / Universal International Pictures - 1953

It's Monster Redo Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Time to update this title since we did it years ago, hit the refresh button, NOW! One thing about Universal Studios, they always took their horror and sci-fi very seriously, this was their first monster feature in the fifties with a huge budget of $800,000. The story's about an alien spaceship that makes an emergency landing in the Arizona desert, it crash lands near the home of writer and an amateur stargazer, John Putnam. John and his girlfriend witness the event, so, John decides to investigate...

Eegah!! sent over a great lil' soundclip for our enjoyment, sooooo, push the big red 'GO' button there by the neon ventilator, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's our monsterous audio offering for... IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE!

This is stargazer John Putnam and his girl Ellen Fields, a local schoolteacher, they watch as an alien craft zooms across the horizon and crashes into a nearby cavern. Richard (THE MAGNETIC MONSTER) Carlson plays John, Barbara (WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE) Rush plays Ellen. For me, Richard Carlson was the perfect fifties sci-fi guy!

The viewer gets a sneak peek of the inside of the spacecraft and then the unique Xenomorph creature, which was created by the awesome Milicent Patrick. Milicent also designed the monster mask in ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, the Creature in CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON and the Mutant for THIS ISLAND EARTH, move over Paul Blaisdell!

Sexy Milicent Patrick with some of her pals...

John finds the spaceship in the cavern just before a landslide covers it entirely. The locals have trouble believing that John actually saw a ship from another world.

Electricians Frank and George are the first ones to be taken over by the aliens.

Frank's wife and George's girlfriend notice big changes in their personalities!

Hey, my last post had a space cadet in it too! This lil' creep just scared the crap out of Ellen, believe it or not!

Ellen's body is taken over next... I dunno, I think she's a lot sexier as an alien, I dig those eyebrows the most!

She lures John into a mine entrance, then, turns on the charm!

Back at home, John notices that he's had an unearthly visitor, there's a snailish glitter-like substance on the floor, also, some of his clothes are missing!

When he goes back to the mine he's met by alien Ellen, who then tries to kill him with her deadly ray gun! Ironically, she dies during the encounter.

John meets his double, the leader of the mission, they just need a little more time to replinish the power to the ship's space drive...

The locals have come to blow the place up with dynamite. John convinces the aliens to release their captives, and, that would buy them the time they need to power up for the launch as a gesture of good faith.

We'll end with the wise words of John Putnam ~ They'll be back!..

REFRESHMENT TIME AT THE DRIVE-IN!! - "Hot Dog!!"

Hey, before Summer's over, let's head on back over to the drive-in threatre one more time!!!

First things first, got to get some refreshments, and to get you in the mood, here's the opening instrumental from the perennial 1967 drive-in fave,
"Catalina Caper" done up right by those "Rhythm of the Rain" guys, The Cascades!

"Hot Dog!" "And they said the word!" All filler and some kind of meat rolled up into a tube, and served up au naturale! Just shows to go you how resilient the human body really can be!

Fill it up with onions, ketchup, mustard, and relish, and wrap it up like a baby's butt! That hot dog on the left looks like it has teeth!!

Voilà! Get yourself a soda pop to wash it down, and hope the movie is boring enough that your best girl will want to pick the onions out of your teeth with her tongue!!

Meanwhile, your kid brother and his psycho best pal are getting their bellies full before the movie gets going! Hopefully this weenie roast doesn't burn the whole place to the ground!! After all, how would they explain that to Mom??

These boys don't need no stinkin' buns or condiments! Just get those puppies choked down before the main feature starts, cause they sure don't want to miss even one second of something like "Attack Kung-Fu Girls!"

UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS / Ivan Tors Productions - 1956

It's Friday wif' Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. We gots a fairly rare flick from Ivan Tors who was trying to capitalize on the UFO scare going on in the good old US at the time, poster sez it shows color footage kept 'top secret' until now! Ivan Tors also produced THE MAGNETIC MONSTER, RIDERS TO THE STARS, GOG, SCIENCE FICTION THEATRE, THE AQUANAUTS and FLIPPER.

Eegah!! made a fun lil' soundclip for our approval, soooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there next to the atomic trap door, NOW, Rufus The Gnat! Here's the audio for... UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS!

Tom Towers was hired to give authenticity to this semi-documentary, he was the Aviation Editor for the LA Examiner...

The US Dept. of War, the Pentagram!

Flying saucers are everywhere in the headlines and on the air waves... I was stationed at Fort Lewis in '68 and woke up to Mt. Rainier's majesty every morning, but, never saw any UFOs!

Fake UFO photos were a big fad, even Joe's getting into the act!

Dig it, free coffee for all those alien visitors from outer space!

This kid with the space helmut looks a lot like Tabonga at that age! One time, like in '62, Eegah!! and I dressed up as a psycho clown and a D. J. type villain with a make-up kit his mom got us and then walked to a liquor store and played the pinball machine, I used the right flipper, Eegah!! used the left flipper. The place was connected to a bar and a few drunks came out to take a gander at us!

Here's the part in the soundclip where the old guy tells the reporter about noticing his tie color... "But, you didn't come out of a flying saucer!"

One plane cracks up as they're reporting a saucer sighting, so, there had to be a death ray involved. EARTH vs THE FLYING SAUCERS came out the same year.

There's a lot of pointing up into the sky in this flick.

Life Magazine even featured flying saucers in an article, which was a big deal. Funny thing though, Truman is shown on the cover here, but, that issue actually had Marilyn Monroe on the cover!

The hunt for UFOs is on!!..

The big climax is that tired old archive footage of the cluster of objects roaring past the water tower, in 8mm color, wow!

Well, there you have it! My dad always said that UFOs were man made, I agree... Happy Birthday to Eegah!! and my son, Erik!