PIT AND THE PENDULUM / Alta Vista Productions - 1961

It's Friday Fright with Tabonga, here at The Halloween Countdown Dungeon 2013!.. We gots a great little Corman production starring our favorite fiend, Vincent Price, and, a movie that Eegah!! and I saw back in 1961 when it came out. We loved it! Roger had a $200,000 budget this time and it showed, the budget for his MONSTER FROM THE OCEAN FLOOR was $28,000. Screenplay by Richard (THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN) Matheson.

Eegah!! sent over a great little soundclip for our earjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there next to the atomic slicing blade, NOW, Rufus The Gnat! Here's an earfull of... PIT AND THE PENDULUM!

The story's about Francis Barnard, played by John Kerr, who goes to the Medina castle in Spain when he hears that his sister Elizabeth has died, she was married to Nicholas Medina, son of the sadistic torturer of the Spanish Inquisition. Nicolas tells Francis that Elizabeth has died of a rare blood disease but Francis doesn't believe him. Family physician Dr. Leon watches the drama in the background.

Nicolas starts having vivid flashback from his childhood, while hiding in shadows he actually witnessed his father torture and kill his mother for infidelity!

It's decided to open Elizabeth's coffin to determine the cause of death... Welp, looks like she was buried alive!

Nicolas thinks he's to blame, he regresses into a paranoid mess and starts wandering the underground corridors.

After Elizabeth and her lover, Dr. Leon, spill the beans to a deranged, catatonic Nicolas, taunting him, the spirit of his father seems to possess him and the tables are turned! Antony (A BUCKET OF BLOOD) Carbone plays the doctor and the beautiful Barbara (BLACK SUNDAY) Steele is Elizabeth.

When you compare these sets to the Corman flicks of the fifties, there's just no comparison!

This is the Vinnie we love!!..

Brick-a-bracka, firecracker, sis, boom, bah!.. Vinnie, Vinnie, rah, rah, rah!

Some cool graphics line the walls of the pit.

Watching Vinnie's glee is priceless!

Nicolas and the doctor end up dead, in the pit!

And, I'll just let old Edgar Allan finish up!..

THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES - "Trick Or Treat" (1962)

Well, to start off this 2013 Halloween Countdown here in The Dungeon, we've got a real sweet treat for ya'll tonight! It's an episode of  "The Beverly Hillbillies" entitled "Trick Or Treat" and the theme song was played by those masters of the fiddle and banjo, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs!

This here's from season one, episode number 6 of "The Beverly Hillbillies!" Now I'm figgerin' everybody in the civilized world knows who the Beverly Hillbillies were since they was on the boob tube for 9 seasons from 1962 to 1971!

Indeed it was a mighty talented cast with Buddy Ebsen as Jed Clampett, Irene Ryan as Daisy Moses, or better known as Grannie, Max Baer Jr. as Jethro Bodine, and the gorgeous Donna Douglas as Elly Mae Clampett!

This particular episode, Max got to do double duty as Jethro, AND cousin Jethrine! Just in case you didn't know it, Max's Pappy was heavyweight boxing champion Max Baer who had a career record of 68 wins and 13 losses!

Former jazz musician Phil Gordon has the role of Jasper "Jazzbo" Depew! Jasper is incredibly smitten with Jethrine, and tells her how much he likes big women! Max was 6 foot four inches!

Grannie's upset because nobody ever comes to visit them, so the family decides that they'll just go out and visit the neighbors instead, not knowing that it's Halloween. Jethro's hoping maybe one of them neighbor's just might give them some salted-down possum! Yum!!

So the nice neighbor lady, thinking they're in costume, gives the family some Halloween treats!

These kids are ready to go out trick or treating, but it's not dark yet!!

Being from the hills, and not knowing about the likes of something like Halloween, Jed and Grannie are taken aback by the children's horrible appearance!

They feel real bad about how deformed the poor children are!

Once they get back home with their goodies, the whole family is completely delighted with their score! This here episode can be viewed or downloaded for free from The Internet Archive, and there ain't nothing stopping you from doing so, except yourself!

THE CURSE OF THE MUMMY'S TOMB / Hammer Film Productions - 1964

Welp, here's our last post before the start of Halloween Countdown 2013. We gots a 'Curse' movie to cross off our 'to do' list, it's all about a group of greedy treasure seekers who uncover another Egyptian mummy that gets put on public display by a sleazy American showman, but then it mysteriously disappears. That's when the fun begins...

Eegah!! sent over a fun lil' soundclip from this flick, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there next to the Atomic Tana Tea Maker, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's our audio offering for... THE CURSE OF THE MUMMY'S TOMB!

Here's our little group of treasure seekers plotting their next move. Fred Clark plays the American showman bent on displaying their newly found mummy for monetary gain in England. Fred was the big lug you loved to hate back in the fifties and sixties, you can also see him in DR. GOLDFOOT AND THE BIKINI MACHINE.

In a flashback, we get to see the murderous event that inspired the creation of this panel.

The inscription on this amulet has a dire warning to all infidels.

When the sarcophagus is opened at the premiere, guess what?.. No freakin' mummy!!

Instead, mummy's boy is out takin' care of business by crushing the skulls of his enemies. In the second still, he has just smashed a heavy vase like ten times on the head of one of the men who opened his tomb. Love that profile!

After being caught in a trap set by the police, he rips the ropes off, then presses on to take care of his next victim by stepping on the poor guy's koph!

At the end, the mummy turns on his master and eventually caves the whole place down on himself!.. Tune in on Wednesday when Eegah!! unveils our first Halloweenie post for Halloween Countdown 2013!!

SCHÜSSE AUS DEM GEIGENKASTEN - Peter Thomas - "The Violin Case Murders" (1965)

"Schüsse Aus Dem Geigenkasten" or "The Violin Case Murders" was the first in the series of Jerry Cotton films that started in 1965! For me, it's not the best of the bunch, because they were still figuring things out, but just like every other Jerry Cotton film, it's still a fun watch, no matter what!

The Jerry Cotton series were German films about American places and characters! Kind of like me writing stories about some guy in Kiribati, Nauru, Tuvalu, Comoros, or Vanuatu!!

Dungeon Super Hero Peter Thomas once again is the guy in charge of the music! Here's a small sample of what he came up with for this film! Besides being an amazing composer, Peter also developed and used on some of his soundtracks an instrument known as the "Thowiephon," an instrument not nearly as well known as it's cousin the Theremin, but just as cool!

"The Violin Case Murders" was also released as the catchy title "Operation Hurricane: Friday Noon," whatever the Hell that's supposed to mean!

Machine gun inside a violin case, hence "Violin Case Murders!" Pretty nifty, eh?

This is a sample of the end-product of an ancient device known as a typewriter! At one time it was as high tech as an 8 track tape player, and just a few steps forward from cave paintings!

The G Men, and the T men, and the Revenuers too, were lookin' for the place they were cookin' up the stew! Time to call Jerry Cotton out of training!

This, my friends, is a genuine Ford tail light!!

Hubba, Hubba, Happy Birthday to me!!

As in all Jerry Cotton films, green screen is used to the hilt! Sometimes hokey, and sometimes to perfection!

Just to show you how classy they are, the Violin Case gang works out of the local bowling alley! Now it's time for Jerry Cotton to try and infiltrate the gang!! This is an awesome shot of George Nader!!

Jerry takes on the persona of a drunk punk to get to the inside of the out crowd!

Next up on the hit list of people to rob is Grandpa Munster! He pisses off the robbers because he hoards all his jewels and doesn't even share the viewing of them with anyone!

Everything about this shot just absolutely screams 1965!!

This is another great shot of George Nader as Jerry Cotton!

Hey, if you're going to carry machine guns around in violin cases, it's a pretty good idea to at least have some sheet music with you as a cover!

It's going to take a lot more than a switchblade to get rid of Jerry Cotton! Remember this was only the first in the series, there were at least seven more to go!