FUEGO - José Solá - "The Phantom Of The Ferris Wheel" (1964)

Writer and Producer Sidney Pink was the man responsible for the 60's classics "The Angry Red Planet," "Reptilicus," and "Journey To the Seventh Planet," but Sid claimed that "Pyro...The Thing Without A Face" was the favourite movie that he made, even though he really preferred the title "The Phantom of The Ferris Wheel!"

Life is  like a Ferris Wheel, it goes round and round but everybody has to get off at some point! The first Ferris Wheel was designed by George W. Ferris for the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago! Since that time it has become a staple at amusement parks and carnivals around the world!

A man with very little horror in his credit list except for this film, and "Planet Of The Vampires," the very talented Barry Sullivan is Vance Pierson, a Ferris Wheel admiring engineer assigned a new job that requires him to relocate to Spain where this film was made!

Just to prove it's Spain, we are immediately treated to some of the local colour!

From the looks of the grill design, Vance is given a 1961 Plymouth Valiant to cruise around in! The one I used to own was a blue '59! When I sold it, I told the guy to fix the brakes before driving it too far, but instead he gave the keys to his girlfriend who drove it to San Francisco and immediately wrecked it!!

Vance goes out looking for a house for him and his wife and daughter to live in and stumbles upon the gorgeous Martha Hyer as Laura Blanco getting ready to torch her house for some insurance money! Their relationship is immediately tumultuous and they end up in the sack together in no time at all! Except for "Sweet Martha Lorraine," I think Martha is just about the least sexiest name for a hot blonde I can think of, but Martha Hyer proves me wrong! Martha was in some great movies like "Abbott And Costello Go to Mars," "Riders To The Stars," and "House Of 1000 Dolls" before she retired in 1973!

Vance's wife is played by Sherry (Rocketship X-M, Mesa Of Lost Women) Moreland, and his relationship with her, and his home life goes completely to Hell as quick as you can say Jack Robinson........

.........while his affair with Laura just keeps getting hotter and hotter!!!!

Then, in a club on New Year's Eve, to the swinging sounds of José Solá,
Vance decides to call it all off!!!! Amazing, there just happens to be a Ferris Wheel centerpiece on their table! How ironic!

To say that Laura doesn't take it very well, would be a massive understatement as she torches the Pierson home with Vance's wife and daughter inside! Vance was leaving to go somewhere, but had a bad feeling, and turned around, but was too late to save his family from cremation!!

Vance ends up like a burnt piece of meat from head to toe, and when Laura comes to visit him, even though he can barely move or talk, he vows vengeance on her and her whole family!

Now it gets a little vague right about here, but somehow, by some miracle, Vance manages to escape from the hospital and end up looking like a normal person again! After some time passes, and Laura's Mother gets burned up at home, the authorities start looking for Vance, even though they have no idea where he is or what he looks like, or how he could even be remotely responsible!

Vance now has a completely different look, and works as the guy who runs the Ferris Wheel at a traveling carnival show! His assistant is a very young Soledad Miranda as Liz Frade, the daughter of the owner of the show!

Soledad Miranda has never looked cuter or more innocent on celluloid, but then this is a few years before hooking up with Jesus Franco, and making films like "Vampyros Lesbos," "She Killed In Ecstasy," and "Eugenie Sex Happening!"

One day Liz catches a glimpse of one of Vance's burnt and deformed hands, and he has to think fast to try and explain it to her, and cover his ass with some kind of cock and bull story about having a prosthetic hand!

Who could possibly look cuter than Soledad Miranda in a rain slicker?? The answer is: Nobody!!

Meanwhile, Laura has been hiding out on an island with her pyromaniac daughter who was a gift from her own Father!! The daughter sneaks away one day to the mainland where the carnival has set up, and gives away Mom's hiding place to the kind and benevolent Vance!

Vance makes it on over to the island in the dead of night, and has quite the surprise for ex-lover Laura when he pulls off his rubber mask and reveals his true burnt, scarred, and still alive self!!

Just like riding a Ferris Wheel, "Pyro" starts at the end, and ends where it started! Everybody has to pay to get on, and like I said, everybody has to eventually get off too!!

TARZAN'S DESERT MYSTERY / Sol Lesser Productions - 1943

It's Freaky Forties Friday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. We gots a weird one featuring Tarzan, Boy, chimpanzee pal, Cheetah, Nazis, giant lizards, man-eating plants and... A giant SPIDER! Oh, Hell yeah!

Eegah!! sent over a fun lil' soundclip for us to hear, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there by the monster mover, NOW, Rufus The Gnat! Here's our audio offering for... TARZAN'S DESERT MYSTERY!

Tarzan is so well known by now that Jane can have her letters to him dropped off by parachute! Boy reads it for Tarzan...

Jane, who's currently nursing British troops, asks Tarzan to help in obtaining a malaria serum extractable from plants in a distant jungle region.

Tarzan interrupts the show at an oasis and chases off the customers because he thinks the girl's in danger, but, she wasn't! Now, he's stuck with her for the rest of the adventure. Nancy (THE BAD SEED) Kelly plays American desert entertainer Connie Bryce.

Cheetah shows off for the crowd with his tight rope walking prowess!

Tarzan's framed and thrown in jail, so, Boy comes up with a plan for him to escape...

Only to be followed by Nazis in a dust storm.

When they arrive at the mysterious jungle, Tarzan sees giant lizards roaming around!

Boy and Connie are discovered by the Nazis so they run into the jungle, there, they find a creepy hidden cave.

Cheetah informs Tarzan that Boy and Connie are in big trouble!

Gee, I wonder what they're looking at?!..

On the way to helping, Tarzan gets all tangled up in some man-eating plants! Believe it or don't, Tarzan does his yell and an elephant shows up to gets him out of the mess!!

The head Nazi finds the two in the cave and gets ready to shoot them, but Big T pushes him into the giant web instead!!..

Justice is served!!.. The head Nazi gets his brain sucked out of his skull!

Parting shot from our little buddy, Cheetah!

CASUS KIRAN - "Spy Smasher" (1968)

Let me see if I can remember how I ended up here!!  If I recall correctly I was at the WFMU Ichiban Blog and then I clicked on the sidebar link to J.R. Williams Prints Of Darkness blog, and I ended up on a post of his about Trailers and Scenes From Vintage Exploitation Films which took me to The Internet Archive, and there was something there that had a keyword of psychotronic, which I clicked on, and the next thing I knew there was handful of wack Turkish movies that included tonight's feature, "Spy Smasher!"

"Spy Smasher" doesn't appear to have an original thought in it's head, and this version is one of the worst copies of anything I've ever seen. The sound is choppy, and the video is washed out at best, but does that make this rockem-sockem rollie coaster ride any less enjoyable? Hell no! In fact, this movie is hypnotizing, and when it's over, you'll sit there just trying to figure out what in the heck just happened!!

"Spy Smasher" is non-stop action right out of the box! Obviously, there are no musical credits, because the music seems to be cribbed from stuff by Davie Allan and the Arrows, to "Wipe Out,"  and "Baby Elephant Walk!"

Spy Smasher is played by Irfan Atasoy, and his darling girlfriend and sidekick is Sevda Ferdag!

This evil cat is the boss of the gang of spies, and is known as "The Mask!" Who knows who he is, he's always wearing a mask! He is joined here by his confidante Suzy, who was played by the temptuous Suzan Avci! I find it interesting that the word 'Boss' is translated to 'Patron' in both Turkish and Spanish!

"The Association of Protecting Spies from Accidents!" Now, that's an organization that demands some respect!

Some of The Mask's spy guys break into Sevda's father's house looking for Spy Smasher, but she fools them into thinking this suitor of hers is Spy Smasher! Something appears to have gotten confused in the translation of the sub-titles, I think they meant dork!

Here's a shot from The Mask's training area for up and coming female assassins!

The mask's right hand man is the Black Glove!  Even though she is dedicated to The Mask, Black Glove is Suzy's main squeeze!

I should have counted them, but there must be at least 30 fight scenes or more in "Spy Smasher!"

Finally Spy Smasher gets caught and unmasked by The Mask's henchmen! Such language! Do you kiss your Mother with that mouth??

Just for kicks, go and check out the Bored Panda's website and this cool post about "13 Popular Movie Poster Cliches." Number four is the 'between the legs shot' and examples of 42 movie posters that have used that theme!

Part of the sound clip includes some of Suzy's performance at the club! The music sounds like it's being performed on sitar and tablas, but the guys in the band are playing sax, guitar, keyboards and drums! Amazing!!!

Sevda wears the latest in flip-up lens shades!!

There's so much action, and it is so fast and furious, it was very difficult getting any decent screen caps, but you get the idea from this shot from the fight in the club!

Spy Smasher's pal, and the source of the comedy relief is a moron named Bidik!

Yep, that Spy Smasher is a real party pooper!! Nobody can have any fun when he's around!!

In the end, Spy Smasher has the final say.......

......and him and darling Sevda ride off into the sunset!!

In one last final attempt to show you how original "Spy Smasher" is, on the right is the poster from the 1967 Italian film "Mister-X" and on the left is the poster from "Spy Smasher" made one year later! Oh, well, it's still a helluva lot of mindless fun!!!