THE TERROR OF THE TONGS - Hammer Studios (1961)

Tonight's Saturday night special is part two of my mini-Christopher Lee tribute, an odd film from 1961, "The Terror Of The Tongs!"

"The Terror Of The Tongs" is set in 1910, the movie was made in 1961, and it wasn't until 1984 that England released it's grasp on Hong Kong! That's why the Brits found movies like this so fascinating, and Hammer Studios was more than happy to oblige!

Bottom line was they had some bad Juju going on, with an opium market rife with corruption and greed!

The best advice I could give you would be mind your own business, and stay out of the way if you possibly can, because The Tong ain't messing around!

 

Enter Geoffrey (Dr. Who) Toone as the enterprising Captain Jackson Sale, and Barbara (Gonks Go Beat) Brown, as his sweet and innocent daughter Helena!

When I was about 15 or 16, I always envisioned that someday I would live in an apartment that looked something like this!!

What I didn't envision was these guys being in there too! Christopher Lee as unmerciless Tong leader Chung King, and Dungeon fave ex wrassler Milton Reid as his faithful sidekick guardian!

Hatchets and Pajamas, much better than Guns and Roses!

 

"Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Bop!!"

The Tong might be cruel and ruthless, ("Where did Ruth go?") but they still put on a pretty good show;  music, dancing, a jiggler and a juggler!!

If they open up a "TONG" casino in Las Vegas, I might go there for the food, but I am definitely not gambling there!

I forget exactly why The Tong kills off the Captain's Daughter, but it didn't exactly win them a lot of friends! Now, the Captain has some serious investigating to do!!

 Enter the beautiful Yvonne Monlaur as Lee! If she looks a little familiar, it's because Yvonne was also in "Brides Of Dracula," and "Circus Of Horrors!" I think in almost every scene she's in, she has a different colored dress on!

I had to get a shot of the main Tong logo!

"I said Captain, I said What?" The Captain starts snooping around a little too much, and quickly finds himself in a passel of hot water!

Milton Reid gets the job of scraping the Captain's bones! Milton is that guy that you've seen in "Blood Of The Vampire," "Night Creatures," and "Dr. No." Just like all our favourite characters, Milton was also a professional wrassler! What I wrote about him a couple of years back is still the story: Milton started wrestling in 1952 as Jungle Boy, and as his career progressed, he became best known as The Mighty Chang! After his career fell apart, Milton went to India to act, and sometime in the late 80's, he mysteriously disappeared, and they still haven't figured out what happened to him! A bona fide WTF!? situation!

 The Captain escapes, and Milton is in hot pursuit until he misses the catch in the hatchet throw competition!

While he's resting up from that little episode, this evil Doctor impersonates a good Doctor and almost gets away with shooting up the Captain in his juggler vein with some vile substance!!

As you would expect, the Captain prevails and only leaves you with one last burning question, where was Tennille the whole time?

CHAMBER OF HORRORS / John Argyle Productions - 1940

It's Edgar Wallace Friday the 13th Theatre with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. We gots another classic tale to tell from the pen of the master of horror, our hero, Mr. Edgar Wallace, who had died 8 years earlier at the very young age of 56. To illustrate his influence in the film industry, he has 212 writing credits with a film currently in production!!.. What a man!!!

Eegah!! sent over a soundclip of the theme with an excellent mad laugh at the end for our earjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there next to the bloody laff box in a jar, NOW, Rufus The Gnat! Here's an earfull from the... CHAMBER OF HORRORS!

THE DOOR WITH SEVEN LOCKS was the original title of the story and of this film version.

The story starts with this old rich dude on his death bed, his heirs are there for his final moments. Leslie Banks as Dr. Manetta, the family's doctor, is in the background there.

In one of my favorite scenes, June, played by Lilli Palmer, reads an article to her BFF, Glenda, as she takes a bubble bath. I used to watch the Mexican channel on cable in the early eighties to see the wild Puerto Rican bombshell, Iris Chacon, because she always sang a song while all bubbled up in a tub!

A secret panel in this picture frame opens up and fires a silent poison dart into the victim!

June and Glenda go to Scotland Yard after June's relative is murdered. Here's Inspector Sneed and his helper, Dick Martin, listening to June's story.

Dick joins June to go to Dr. Manetta's to claim her inheritance along with Glenda and the Inspector. They almost drive off the cliff because of the fog.

Dick gets caught in a deadly device in the doctor's horror chamber and is saved at the last second when Manetta pulls a lever.

German born Lilli Palmer looks great in that dress, she's another lady I had a crush on when I was growing up.

The doctor's mute vampire-like servant pulls a gun on Dick, so, Inspector Sneed pulls the rug out from under him!

Dick has to do battle against the evil Dr. Manetta, but, the doc gets caught up in his own death device! We remember Leslie Banks as the hunter of humans, Zaroff, in THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME with Fay Wray from 1932.

Dick saves the doc from the device, but, now everyone knows who the murderer is. Manetta asks for a drink in his special glass that releases poison with a small switch on the side, so, does not have to face execution and any time in prison!!

Here's what the whole thing was about, all seven keys are now on just one chain!

Happy Friday the 13th, Everbloody!!

DAS RÄTSEL DER ROTEN ORCHIDEE - Peter Thomas - "The Secret Of The Red Orchid" (1962)

This week I've got a mini Christopher Lee Tribute for you! Two movies where Chris Lee is not from the UK! In this one he's from the U.S. and in the other one he's from Hong Kong!  This with be the 7th movie we've listed with foliage or vegetation in the title, the other six are "Attack Of The Mushroom People," "The Beast Of Yucca Flats," "The Blue Gardenia," "The Case Of The Bloody Iris," "The Day Of The Triffids,"  and "No Orchids For Miss Blandish!"

In the "Secret Of The Red Orchid," Christopher Lee has the role of hard-nosed American FBI agent Captain Allerman! It's not the greatest movie in the world, but the music is by Dungeon top dawg,  the always interesting Peter Thomas! So what is the secret of the red orchid you ask, beats the crap outta me!

Chicago: A place that produces Presidents and more gangland crime than is even imaginable in the 1960's right up to this day! Some things change, Chicago hasn't!

There's nothing like a good old-fashioned poker match to get things started, but you know there's always interruptions at these things usually involving guns! This one would be no exception!

Klaus Kinski is once again in there as sleazy slimeball Steve this time!

Looks like you damn well better have permission to enter this joint, or at least know what the password is! Tell 'em Joe sent you, and just see if they laugh out loud!

What was I telling you about that poker game?

                                                                    Beautiful shot!!

Hard to imagine, but Christopher Lee has over 275 acting roles to his credit, and most of them are major parts, and he's still going strong with appearances in the two new Hobbit movies!

At 6' 5", Christopher Lee towers over the 5' 8" Klaus Kinski, but Klaus has got Krazy on his side!

Captain Allerman comes out guns a' blazin'! For some strange reason, in the dubbed into English version, they don't use either Chris Lee's or Klaus Kinski's real voices! That's just weird, and it really detracts from the film!

The two crime bosses discuss their options from different ends of the table! I love the whole hat and glove routine!

"Secret Of The Red Orchid" is a fairly straight ahead crime drama with lots of Knives.............

........Guns and..........

.........Dead Bodies!!!!

It's got a lot of the regular Edgar Wallace elements, but when you make as many EW movies as these people did, you're not going to knock it out of the ballpark each and every time! Sometimes there's going to be lots of walks! This is one of those one to nothing in the ninth inning kind of games!

The combined talents of Klaus Kinski and Christopher Lee are what make "Secret Of The Red Orchid" watchable, but it will never be considered to be the best thing that they, or Edgar Wallace ever did!

I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if in this one case, the book was better than the movie!

Once again, like in countless other Edgar Wallace German made films, Eddi Arent provides the comedy relief, unfortunately, some movies don't need comedy relief, and if you don't think Eddi Arent is the best thing to come along since liquid soap, then you're not likely to like this film at all! The good news is that "Secret Of The Red Orchid" is on DVD as a double Feature with a better film, "Monster Of London City" so you really can't go wrong, it's just like an added bonus!