GLI AMORI DI ERCOLE (THE LOVES OF HERCULES)-(HERCULES VS THE HYDRA) - "Mr. and Mrs. Hargitay Go To Italy" (1960)

Welcome to Sci-Fi Sword and Sandal Wednesday in The Dungeon! Tonight's extra special feature is called  "Gli Amori Di Ercole," or "The Love Of Hercules," but one thing for sure,  it's not about this poster! Number one, Jayne Mansfield is not a blonde in this movie, and number two,  Mickey Hargitay as Hercules is not sporting a beard in this movie either! They do both wear sandals, so at least they got that part right!

I'm figuring Mickey and Jaynie were offered a chance to go hang out in Italy for a couple of months and get paid for it, so why not?? The other English title of this film is "Hercules Vs The Hydra" and here's just a taste of what you have in store for you if you're daring enough to view it!

Hercules is played this time by Mickey Hargitay, aka Mr. Universe 1955, and anybody who has seen it will never forget the Mickster's performance in "The Bloody Pit Of Horror!"

But it's his wife Jayne Mansfield that gets top billing! Check out that pair of macho guards!!

Just like the big, bad wolf, Herc huffs and puffs, and blows the door down!

This is a pretty cool shot of Herc in an Escheresque kind of way!

Jayne Mansfield had some special attributes you don't normally find in your run of the mill Sword and Sandal epics!

Herc is forced to throw hatchets at her, but manages to miss four times, and cut the binding ropes instead! What a guy!! Obviously, with talent like that he must be the son of a God!!

Titillating and tantalizing, that's what Jaynie brings to the table!

Mickey finally realizes that no matter how much he works out, Jayne has still got bigger guns than him!

The mythical beast, The Hydra has three heads, but it moves around so quickly, it was hard to get more than one in focus at any given time. All that smoke didn't help matters either! But give this movie some credit, unlike 90% of Sword and Sandal dramas,  it at least had a monster of some kind in it!

The Amazons are going out tonight!!

This creepy forest of living ex-lover trees was pretty cool too! IMDB only gives this film a 2.7 out of 10 star rating! What? Are they out of their freakin' minds??

Jayne actually got to play two roles, one as Queen Deianira, and also as Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons who took on her looks in order to lure Hercules into her lair of deceit and death!

Wow, not over yet, there's still another monster!! And what the heck is this thing anyway, an Italian Yeti?

That's an Italian monster for you, going for the goods! You better back off buddy, Mickey Hercules doesn't take too kindly to monsters fondling his main squeeze!

When it's all said and done, Mickey and Jayne have time to have a nice picnic out in the country

This poster is a little bit truer to what you'll find going on in the actual picture! "Hercules Vs The Hydra" streams on Netflix, so it can be enjoyed for a pittance, and I recommend it!!

THE VULTURE / Homeric Films Ltd. - 1967

It's Monsterous Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. I dig this weird little flick for a number of reasons, like, it stars Chaney pal Broderick (GOLIATH AND THE DRAGON) Crawford and Dungeon fave, Robert (INVISIBLE INVADERS) Hutton.. It's British, has twisted science and a human sized vulture with a man's head, come on!! And, I got a new 1967 VW Bug that year.

This movie is unavailable on Amazon, DVD and VHS, I got this copy off TV 20 years ago.

Eegah!! sent over a soundclip from this flick for our listening enjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button over there by the big old stuffed bird, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's our audio offering for... THE VULTURE!

It all starts when a lady is taking a short cut through the cemetary. She sees a giant bird come out of a grave and fly away, this coffin is now empty and's what the cops find when they get there.

Another cool part is the lady's hair has turned white!.. Overnight!! The 'mysterious man' shows up in her room at the hospital to give her a little word of advice!

It's all in the family when Robert meets Broderick after marrying niece Trudy. Sex used to be fairly formal back then!

Made to be hidden in the shadows, it's still fun to watch as Broderick's lifted off by the flying nightmare!

Robert and Trudy try and get their minds off the murder by going to the opera! It doesn't work.

The mysterious rap on the window!

Broderick's bro is next on the hit list!

Trudy has the discomfort and displeasure of spending some time with the creepy old Professor Hans Koniglich, AKA The Vulture!

Robert breaks into the professor's hidden science lab and discovers that old gold dubloons have something to do with the murders...

Robert shoots The Vulture after it kidnaps Trudy and takes her to it's caved lair on a sea cliff.

This is a cool part too, Robert uses an anchor to weigh down the wrapped body before he tosses it into the sea, so that no one will ever know that such a freak of science ever existed!

ANGEL, ANGEL, DOWN WE GO - The Wild Ones - "Cult Of The Damned" (1969)

Well, it's time to wrap up this psycho-delicatessen of a month, and I can't think of a better film to do it with than "Angel, Angel, Down We Go" aka "Cult Of The Damned!"  This poster is a completely stupid misrepresentation of what this film is really about!!

I first came in contact with this film years ago on the internet! Long before Youtube, people used to post weird short avi or quicktime videos on their websites, and one night I stumbled on a clip from this movie, but there was no information as to where or what movie it was from. It wasn't until 4 or 5 years later that I figured it out, but then I was left with the problem of finding a copy, but thanx to Brian Horrorwitz over at The Trash Palace, my long journey finally came to an end! So, here we are, but where are we really?

"Cult Of The Damned" is one weird movie, and I'm not sure that anybody that had anything to do with it really wants it resurfacing!  It was directed by writer Robert Thom in his first and last try at directing! Robert also wrote the film! Some of Robert's other works include the masterpiece "Death Race 2000!"

The glue that binds the whole thing together are collages by an artiste named Shirley Kaplan in what I believe was her sole contribution to Hollywood film making!

The decadent band in the film is The Wild Ones lead by Jordan Christopher! The Wild Ones also performed in two other movies, "The Fat Spy" and "Lord Love A Duck!"

The portly spoiled rich girl angel is played by the talented feminist gay political activist, singer, songwriter Holly Near!

I'm not getting the vibe that Holly thinks this is the greatest accomplishment of her long and varied career!

The ex-stag film star Mother is played by classy actress Jennifer (Duel In The Sun) Jones, and the super rich closet-dwelling homosexual Father is played by the extremely talented Charles Aidman! Charles was in not one, but two "Twilight Zone" episodes, "Little Girl Lost," and "And When The Sky Was Opened!"

The whole skydiving element wasn't working for me, but it was a major part of the plot development! A much better skydiving film is Coleman Francis's "The Skydivers!"

This looks like a shot out of a "Monkees" episode or something! The rest of the gang is rounded out by Roddy (Planet Of The Apes) McDowall), sweet Lou (Stormy Monday) Rawls, and Davey (The Strangler) Davison!

Lou Rawls is just chillin' as The Natural Man by the pool! How you could have a movie with Lou Rawls in it, and he doesn't sing one note, is way beyond me!!

And that, my friends, is just about how much sense it makes!

Just in time for the 4th of July!!

WHITE ZOMBIE / Edward Halperin Productions - 1932

We have a nice little Friday zombie flick with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Lugosi was fresh off his Dracula success and was hitting on all eight cylinders. Here, he plays voodoo master, 'Murder' Legendre! Great name. It was filmed at the RKO-Pathé Studios in Culver City with a decent (for the time) $50,000 budget. This was Bela's 55th acting credit!

Eegah!! sent over a little soundclip from the movie for us to listen to, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there next to the zombie harness, NOW, Rufus The Gnat! Here's our audio offering for... WHITE ZOMBIE!

You hear in the soundclip the funeral procession as the mourners mourn away. The song gets on my nerves, at one point it sounds like "He's My Guy" from GHOST OF DRAGSTRIP HOLLOW! Two other ceremonial pieces that really bug me are from the Mexican AZTEC MUMMY trilogy and the Filipino weirdfest, BRIDES OF BLOOD...

All is overseen on the island by the mysterious voodoo dude, 'Murder' Legendre...

This nervous guy's in the market for a voodoo spell in order to steal a friend's bride, he visits this mill right out of an Escher lithograph!

So, on her wedding night, the bride, Madeline, is put into a coma by Bela and buried in the crypt.

Later, Bela's zombies steal her coffin and take her to his amazing castle in a familiar looking RKO scene with matte painting.

The guy who wanted Madeline for his own finds her totally uncooperative, Legendre now wants her for his own and even puts the knucklehead under his spell too!

For me, I want to call the butler... Catherwood!

Boy, this zombo haunted the pages of FAMOUS MONSTERS a lot back in the early days!

Legendre orders Madeline to kill her husband after he made his way to the castle...

One of the zombies gets his revenge by pushing Legendre off the ledge, and, he falls to his death into the deep blue sea below!