A STUDY IN TERROR - "Keep Your Fingers Crossed And Hope You Can Afford The Cost" (1965)

 

Tonight's Saturday Night Special is a real study in terror, so much that it's even titled "A Study In Terror!"

 "A Study In Terror" is an interesting little movie on a number of levels! The basic premise is a battle of wits between Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, and another character well known in British history, Jack The Ripper!

 This is the first of the many victims of Jack The Ripper's blade! The viewer gets the immediate sense that maybe this Ripper fellow is not such a nice guy!

 Here they are, Donald Huston as Dr. Watson on the left and John Neville on the right as the always calm, cool, and collected Sherlock Holmes! Both actors do an exceptional job, and John Neville's Sherlock Holmes is every bit as good as Basil Rathbone or Peter Cushing's version, and quite possibly even better!

 That's one thing I like about 1960's English films, there's almost always going to be a scene set in a pub! I don't know the name of this place but it's particularly lively with more than it's share of drunks and whores! Without a doubt, these people knew how to party! Georgia Brown sings a rousing version of the insane sing along classic written by Henry J. Sayers, and heard in over 25 movies and videos, "Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay!"

 This is quite the bawdy and risque joint! Georgia Brown does what is basically a turn of the century lap dance for this shoulder, and then when he gets just a little bit frisky, she pours her drink over his head while singing the whole time! You can't really see it in this shot, but after the song is over, everybody goes back to what they were doing, heavy petting!! This whole place is make-out city!

 This cheap whore lifts this dude's wallet while they're swapping spit, so when it comes time to pay for the drinks, and he's got no money, he's got a pretty good idea what happened to it, and turns her upside down and shakes his wallet out of her cleavage! That's the kind of movie this is!

 All these murders are really starting to interfere with all these people's good times! The whores are dropping like flies!

 Most of the dialogue between Holmes and Watson is borderline genius, but there's also strange comic book overtones! It's no wonder one poster from the movie, had pop 'Biff' 'Pow' 'Bang' symbols and included a tagline that states, "Here Comes The Original Caped Crusader!"

 This hooker gets kicked out of her room for non-payment, so in a desperate attempt to get off the streets, she offers it to one of her regular customers for free, but he's busy gutting pigs, and isn't in the mood!

 I've lost count, maybe that's five or six, Jack is a very busy fellow!

 Holmes disguises himself as a holmesless person that looks a lot like Mick Fleetwood, and even fools Dr. Watson!

 "A Study In Terror" is filled with late night foggy scenes like this, and that's one of the reasons that Jack can get away with so many murders and not get caught, plus there's not a whole lot of police intervention since this is a notorious lowlife district, so nobody really cares that much!

 

Robert Morely puts in a sterling performance as Sherlock's brother Mycroft Holmes! Their verbal dueling is a lot of fun to watch! What kind of parents would name their kids Sherlock and Mycroft anyway? Wouldn't that be considered child abuse in today's politically correct world?

 This case is really bugging Sherlock, so he hasn't talked for 24 hours and only sits around and plays his violin very badly! Mycroft is totally dismayed by the fact that Sherlock has had a violin since he was a young boy, and yet he still is unable to play the damn thing!

 Georgia Brown performs another number, and is quite animated while doing it!

 This short scene explains a lot about this film!  While listening to Georgia perform, the camera pans around the room, and at this one table, this sweet innocent looking little olde lady sneaks a drink from her companion's glass!

 Probably a good part of why "A Study In Terror" is so lively is because one of the producers was Herman (I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN, BLOOD OF DRACULA, I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF, HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER, HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM, KONGA,  BLACK ZOO, BESERK, CRAZE) Cohen!

 This whore is so desperate and dumb, she even invites Jack The Ripper up to her room! Anyway, I think you get the general idea!! I liked "A Study In Terror" a lot because it's probably the funnest slasher movie I've ever seen, and I would highly recommend going to see it if it ever comes to your local theatre! Big Thanx to Darren S. on this one!!

TABONGA'S BLUES - AKA "Beatsville" (1960)

Hey!!  I just got the word from Tabonga that his computer crashed, so rather than leave you high and dry with no place to go and nothing to do on a Friday night, here's a couple of mouldy crumbs I found in a corner on the floor of The Dungeon basement that you can enjoy while he's busy beating his head against the wall!

Speaking of beatings, 1960 was a great year for beat movies, and here's a couple of quick samples why: In America, it was "The Beatniks!" Oh, my, "Love Is A Thief!"

And in The UK, it was "Beat Girl" and "I Did Just What You Told Me!"

If you want to know more about either of these films, here are links to the original posts!

"The Beatniks"  and "Beat Girl"

THE MICROSCOPIC LIQUID SUBWAY TO OBLIVION - Bill Conti - Marcello Gigante - "And It's All Happening Here" (1970)

 Tear down the fences, and burn down your bras, it's a free concert! It's a Free Concert!!

 

The main feature of "The Microscopic Liquid Subway To Oblivion" is Ewa Aulin, every young man's dream in 1968 for her starring role as "Candy!" For some reason I'm sure she can explain, Ewa was also the associate producer of this film!

 

"The Microscopic Liquid Subway To Oblivion" is edited in some kind of chop and hack style that hardly makes any sense at all! Either that or the only remaining copy was chopped to bits in order to save it from further destruction!  Either way, to watch it, you can't help but wonder why you didn't choose to watch "Manos: The Hands Of Fate" again instead! Oh, that's right, Ewa Aulin is in it! Here she is as Miss Elizabeth!

This is Elizabeth's husband John, a University Professor who thinks he knows it all, especially when it comes to drug abuse! In reality, he's pretty stupid! One of the kids at the skool has committed suicide, so John is inviting the rest of the gang to his house for the weekend, so they can relax!

The guy playing the dick named John is none other than Alex, "The Incredible Melting Man" himself, Rebar!

The jagged rock hipster whatever music scattered throughout the movie is undoubtedly the best part, and was written by Bill Conti and Marcello Gigante! I have no clue who the musicians might be, but Here's just a taste of what's inside!

 

I'm not exactly sure why, but this picture reminds me a lot of my ex-wife in her better days!

John is a freakin' weirdo of the highest caliber!

This is Billy, a poor bastard stuck smack in the middle of a bad drug habit! Billy was played by Carlo De Mejo, who was also in "The Dead Are Alive," "City Of The Living Dead," and "The House By The Cemetery!"

Out of the 85 minutes this movie is running, I'm going to guess at least 15 minutes is just this group of stinkin' hippies hiking, camping and  cavorting about from morning to night!

Even though she's really cute, Elizabeth is also hooked on a strange blend of acid and heroin!

And she will do anything this loser Billy asks of her just to get some more of that junk+!

 

After she gets her fix, Elizabeth is so happy, she frolics around like a child chasing a butterfly!

In order to try and kick it cold turkey, Billy ties his own self to his bed, but since he's been banging the Professor's wife and giving her heroin etc, benevolent John does him a favor and shoots him up since Billy can't do it himself!

I did tell you that Ewa Aulin was in this movie, right?

 

So, why did I show you two pictures from the end of the movie with these guys on motorcycles holding flares? Because it's a scene that went on for like 10 minutes, so it must have great meaning!

 Wow, in some kind of nutjob nutshell, that about says it all!

~ 13 MORE OF TABONGA'S FAVORITE FIFTIES MONSTERS ~

It's another list of Favorite Fifties Flicks from Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. There are 13 more movies listed here, Dungeon fan Randall Landers gets credit for giving me the idea of more, and, they're listed in alphabetical order.

THE COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK - 1958 / I saw this one back in 1958, what a really teriffic movie it was! I love the size comparison between the Colossus and his doctor dad. What the Hell was dad thinking when he gave him a freakin' disintegating ray?!!

THE CRAWLING EYE - 1958 / First saw this one in the early sixties on TV, great monsters! The effects are a little hokey at the end, but, it's very original and it definitely tickled my sci-fi monster bone! Written by my fave, Jimmy Sangater.

THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON - 1954 / Here you go Randall, the fantastic Universal Creature, designed by the great artist, Milicent Patrick, who also created the Metaluna Mutant for THIS ISLAND EARTH, the Xenomorph in IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE and the Mr. Hyde mask for ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. She also has 28 acting credits including playing a Tavern Wench in ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET CAPTAIN KIDD.

THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT aka THE CREEPING UNKNOWN - 1955-6 / This movie was a real mind boggler, first with Caroon's skin turning transparent, then, him absorbing a cactus that's attached to his hand, until at the end where he's just a mass of zoo animals, as shown.

THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN - 1957 / Chris Lee makes for one gruesome Frankenstein Monster, it makes you sick to look at him, poor thing. Universal owned the rights to the protruding brow (believe it or not) and it wasn't until the making of THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN in 1964 that Hammer got permission to use it.

INVASION OF THE SAUCERMEN - 1957 / Paul Blaisdell was king of the Fifties Rubber Monsters, without a doubt! Here's an evil little Saucerman, ready to inject a cow with his syringe fingers. I'll be doing a special post of all of Paul's monsters, so, be looking for that one soon!

IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE - 1953 / Another great Universal flick, originally filmed in 3-D along with THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. Love this shot of Richard Carlson and Barbara Rush when they encounter the weird looking Xenomorpf on a desert road.

IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE - 1958 / Here's another great Blaisdell creation. Ray 'Crash' Corrigan plays IT!, when Ray put the mask on for the first time after shooting had begun, it was too small for his face and Paul had to redo the mask to make it fit properly! So, the first time you see the shadow of the monster in the spaceship before takeoff, you can tell that Ray has no mask on because you can see his big old nose!

KRONOS - 1957 / Saw this one at the theater in 1957, man, how cool it was!! This is a totally unique film and it had my attention the whole time, I was 9 years old when I saw it.

THE MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS - 1959 / Eegah!! and I saw this one in the theater and thought it was okay, you can see the Morro Rock in a few shots, Morro Bay was a popular place for us to go back then.

JEANNE CARMEN - Jeanne Carmen stars in THE MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS and plays a very innocent female character, totally opposite of who she really was. I've had a mad crush on her for years for obvious reasons!

THE THING - 1951 / I totally agree with Randall on this one, THE THING is one of my Top Ten Monster Movies from the Fifties. I like it a Hell of a lot better than Carpenter's 1982 freakout version. Weird, I never noticed that design on the Thing's suit before!

WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST - 1958 / This is probably Mr. BIG's best movie, I saw THE CYCLOPS with my neighbors in 1957 but the effects were not as good as in this one.

WORLD WITHOUT END - 1956 / This movie had the very best mutant men in the Fifties, the space ship was reused in IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE and QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE, another sci-fi movie my dad took me to see in 1959.

Next Monday, look for 13 More of My Favorite Sixties Monsters!