Friday, July 5, 2013

CAT PEOPLE / RKO Radio Pictures - 1942

It's Friday Fright with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. We gots a very stylish noir mystery directed by Jacques (I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE and CURSE OF THE DEMON) Tourneur, starring French born Simone (THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE) Simon, Kent (THE INVADERS) Smith, Tom (VOODOO WOMAN and THE SHE-CREATURE) Conway and Jane (ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN) Randolph and had a very decent budget of $134,000, bringing in $4,000,000.

Eegah!! sent over a lil' soundclip from the movie for us to enjoy, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there next to the big black cat, NOW, Rufus The Gnat! Here's our audio offering for... CAT PEOPLE!

It's always interesting to start a horror flick with a little warning about something!..

It's love at first sight for Oliver after eyeballing pretty Irena at the zoo, she's a mysterious Serbian-born fashion artist living in New York. Oliver and Irena get married...

But, there's problems, Irena believes she has a family curse on her, that, whenever she get extremely agitated, she turns into a black panther and kills for revenge!

Oliver sends Irena to debonaire shrink, Dr. Louis Judd, he probes her mind for answers to her mysterious past.

I like this shot!..

After her sessions with Dr. Judd, though, she begins having vivid dreams and nightmares.

In a fit of jealously, Irena stalks Oliver's co-worker and good friend, Alice, and gives her quite a thrill at the indoor pool!

Oliver has to fend off a freakin' black panther in his office building!!

Dr. Judd has fallen in love with Irena, but, she doesn't love him, and, he'll get his just desserts in just a few moments!

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

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!!

Monday, July 1, 2013

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!

Monster Music

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