THE ANDROMEDA BREAKTHROUGH - Fred Hoyle and John Elliot (1962)

 "THE ANDROMEDA BREAKTHROUGH"

From what I understand, "The Andromeda Breakthrough" was a sequel to the popular 1961 Btitish TV show "A For Andromeda," which for all rights and purposes is lost for all time, forever, kaput!

 Tonight I'm just going to tell you a little bit about the first of six episodes that was titled:
"COLD FRONT"
 

In the last episode of "A For Andromeda," Andromeda had fallen into a deep hole in a cave and supposedly drowned, but Peter (Night Creatures, Dr. Who) Halliday who reprises his role here as John Fleming, saves her after she miraculously reappears days later in another part of said cave, exhausted and almost lifeless!
  

Susan (Expresso Bongo) Hampshire is Andromeda!
It's kind of hard to jump right into the middle of this story, but the only thing you really need to know is that Andromeda is an artificially constructed female humanoid, that's right, a robot!

 

 Fleming manages to find this isolated island that only has one inhabitant for him and Andromeda to hang out in hiding for a while! She's become a hot property!

 
As Andromeda stares out into the evening with tons of questions on her mind, I think it's a good time to tell you that Andromeda was played by Julie (Fahrenheit 451) Christie in the original, "A For Andromeda!"

 Both of Andromeda's books were written by Fred Hoyle and John Elliot!
I have no idea who wrote the cool title music!

 You can find some bits and pieces of "A For Andromeda" on Youtube, but they're so poor that they barely even warrant mentioning!

 "Andromeda Breakthrough" is widely available from Sinister Cinema!

HORROR ISLAND / Universal Pictures - 1941

I'll start off the week with this fun little horror comedy from Universal about a down-on-his luck businessman and his pals who organizes an excursion to Sir Henry Morgan's Island for a treasure hunt but encounter a mysterious phantom there instead.

I have a sound clip for your approval, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button located there by our secret wall panel, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula!.. Here's a little sample from... HORROR ISLAND!

Here are the good guys, that's Dick (THE MUMMY'S TOMB) Foran in the center, Fuzzy (JUKE GIRL) Knight on the left and Leo (GHOST CATCHERS) Carrillo on the right.

Dick and Fuzzy get things ready for their treasure hunt on Sir Henry Morgan's Island.

They run an ad in the newspaper and send Leo out to sell, sell, sell some tickets...

Dick pilots the Skiddoo to the island and lets the people off while making a pass at the pretty girl, Peggy (THE MUMMY'S HAND) Moran, who made the trip.

They all enter the mansion and try and find their way inside the darkly lit rooms.

Fuzzy finds and tests out a spooky voice generator!.. A little weird.

Then, the phantom gets into the act and threatens Peggy as she prepares for bed... Woo-Woo!!

This poor guy wakes up next to a skull and does a triple take!

The bad guy (not the Phantom) presents himself.

He thinks by putting a coin in the slot that the door to the hidden treasure will open, but, that hammer comes down and strikes him in the head instead!!

Our guys finally get their hands on the booty only to find the chest empty, then, the Phantom, who's really the ghost of Sir Henry Morgan, gets the last laugh!!.. We're back on Wednesday.

THE WRECKING CREW - Mack David and Frank De Vol - "House Of 7 Joys" (1968)

"The Wrecking Crew" was the final installment of four Matt Helm films! The others being "The Silencers," "Murderers' Row," and "The Ambushers!" 

Welcome to another hot time Saturday night down in The Dungeon! Mix yourself up an ice cold dry martini or pour yourself a glass of Scotch, and let's get down to some not so serious business!

The star of "The Wrecking Crew" is the man himself, Mr. Cool, aka Dino Martin!

The co-stars are a bevy of beauties that will make any fan of the 60's feel like they found the pot of gold at the end of the corporate psychedelic rainbow!

"The Wrecking Crew" was probably my least favourite of the quartet, but is still a fun watch for a number of reasons! Without a doubt, "The Wrecking Crew" is a farce, and if you try to take it seriously, you'll be sorely disappointed! You just have to enjoy it for what it is, simplistically stupid, but a joy to enjoy!

That's a lot of gold bullion, and it's on a train that's about to get hijacked!

Now THAT is a cool phone! It only calls one very important place, so it doesn't need a dial!

Yet another bombshell who didn't even get top billing was Tina (Gilligan's Island) Louise!

Enjoying Tina's dance is Nigel (The Skull, Jason and the Argonauts, The Face of Fu ManChu) Green as supreme leader Count Massimo Contini, aka: the man who stole the gold!

Classy Nancy Kwan as Yu-Rang will probably always be remembered most for her very first two movie classics, "The World Of Suzie Wong," and "Flower Drum Song!" 

So Tina Louise was Ginger on 98 episodes of "Gilligan's Island" starring Bob Denver, and Bob Denver's gig previous to "Gilligan's Island" was "The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis" as Maynard, and just what was Maynard's classic line when someone spoke to him? 

That's right, it was "You Rang?!" Are you starting to see a pattern here?

The next gorgeous gal in this feature was Sharon Tate as Freya Carlson, Matt Helm's unwanted clown escort! Surely everybody knows the shocking true story about Director Roman Polowski's wife Sharon Tate who was brutally murdered by the Manson clan! If you don't, Google it!

Poor Dean, he has rendezvous with four of the best looking women in Hollywood at the time, and unlike James Bond, his suave character doesn't even ever score once!

Business is pleasure, but something like a bomb always wrecks all the fun!

Excellent shot of the two beauties Elke Sommer and Sharon Tate together! Elke has the role of Count Massimo Contini's girlfriend Linka Karensky!

A lot of the fight scenes have an obvious stunt man filling in for Dino, but in  the closeups, he's kicking ass himself!

Freya finally lets down her hair, and ditches the clown costume for something a little more appealing to Matt Helm!

She also does a little dance that just possibly might be the best part of the movie!

 At least Matt Helm gets to drive a cool Lincoln Continental instead of a station wagon in this movie! Here he is pulling up to that world famous dive, the House of 7 Joys which is celebrated in the theme song written by Mack David and Frank De Vol! This movie has a lot of eye candy in it, and I could have chosen a lot more pictures, but that's exactly the reason we've chosen to limit ourselves, otherwise, these things would go on forever!

Just in case you never watch this film, you need to know that Matt Helm had all the components to put this helicopter together in the trunk of his car in two large suitcases!

Visually, a lot of "The Wrecking Crew" is green screen city!

There were plans to have Sharon Tate and Dean Martin reunite for a fifth Matt Helm feature

 called "The Ravagers," but Dean refused to continue on with the series after the horrible murder of Sharon Tate by the Manson family, which all adds up to making "The Wrecking Crew" one of the silliest but saddest films of all time!

So that's the last of the Matt Helm films in The Dungeon Library, and now that I see that this 4 DVD set is selling online for a minimum of about $45.00, I guess it's time for my copy to vamanos too!