LAS GARRAS DE LORELEI - Antón García Abril - "The Loreley's Grasp" (1974)

Well, here we are! We finally made it to the end of another Hallowe'en Countdown, and I'm going to leave you this year with a Spanish made movie that is based on the classic German legend "Die Lorelei" written by Heinrich Heine in 1824! Now it just so happens that Tabonga! and Eegah!! are very familiar with this classic tale because it was required reading in our German I class in high school, and since we both had to take the class twice, it makes the story even more familiar to us!

"Die Lorelei" or The Loreley is a 433 feet high slate cliff in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley World Heritage near the town of St. Goarshausen in Germany! The heavy currents and a small waterfall cause the rock to make a murmuring sound. The rock and the murmur it creates have inspired various tales over the years of sirens and such! The original title of this movie is "Las Garras De Lorelei," but it has been released in English not only as "The Loreley's Grasp," but also as "When The Screaming Stops!" It's got a fairly nifty soundtrack that was written by Antón (Island Of The Doomed, The Werewolf Versus The Vampire Woman) García Abril, and here's just a small sample of what I'm talking about! 

 This fraulein is never going to make it to her own wedding!

 Bratwurst and Beer! This is Germany for sure!
You know, "In heaven there is no beer, that's why we drink it here!"

The local boarding school for girls calls out for some security after people start to get brutally murdered by what appears to be some creature of the night!

This just might be the last year of the rubber monster in film making outside of Japan! I'm sure they would have liked to have had a monster as cool as "It, The Terror From Beyond Space," "The Creature From The Black Lagoon," or "The Monster From Piadras Blancas," but instead, they resorted to one gloved hand and a whole lot of shadows, but that's better than no monster at all!

Tony (The Three Fantastic Supermen, Kommissar X) Kendall is the guy they call to guard the girls and track down the monster! His name is Sirgurd, he's a hunter and a horndog, and perfect for the job!!

 The story of "Die Lorelei" has inspired writers poets, singers, and songwriters of all ilks from Felix Mendelssohn to Styx, Roxy Music, Scorpions, Wishbone Ash, and The Pogues!

It's only fitting that Helga (Mr. X) Liné has the role! 

 It seems this Loreley has a penchant for fresh broken hearts! 

This shot goes out to the "Z" Man!

Sirgurd is hot for every gal he has ever met including Lorelei!

AARRRAAGGHHH!!!!

These two boarding school babes managed to escape being slashed to death!

Silvia Eulalia Catalina Tortosa López aka Silvia (Horror Express, The Brother From Space) Tortosa has the role of the beautiful but stern headmistress! 

Following the lead of the Lorelei myth, Sirgurd goes diving, and finds himself a cave! One key point is that he has brought some dynamite with him just in case he has to seal the deal!

That's quite the underground cave that Loreley has, there must be a Starbucks around the corner or somewhere close if I had to guess!

 The 1973 animated "Star Trek" episode titled "The Lorelei Signal" is about a planet of beautiful women who lure ships to their world and the ships' crew to their deaths.

This particular Loreley has a trio of girlfriends living in her cave that is never really explained, or in my case, understood!

I'm thinking the only way to see what this Loreley monster really looks like would to be to find some production stills somewhere! As the mailman said when he saw one of Tabonga's paintings one time,
"Is that teeth?"

Yep! Those was teeth, and this is what one of them eyes looks like! That's about all you're ever gonna get!

 Among all the other marvels of the universe, the Marvel Comics character Lorelei was also inspired by this legend!
That's how strong the song of Lorelei really is!
Be safe out there in the domain of ghosts and goblins tonight!
You never know what's lurking around the next corner!
And Thanx again to the whole gang over at the Hallowe'en Countdown! We'll see you all again next year!

FORBIDDEN PLANET / MGM - 1956

As promised, here's my Special Super Sci-Fi Halloween Eve post, a movie my dad took me to see in 1956 when I was a whopping 8 years old, and, wow, I would never be the same again!.. This movie is undoubtedly the very best of what came out in the fifties. Also, this is the movie that Eegah!! and I used to compare all movies to, it is virtually flawless...

I have a sound clip for your approval, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button located there by our Robby The Robot model, NOW, Rufus The Gnat!.. Here are some great moments from... FORBIDDEN PLANET!

Here's the C-57D saucer landing on Altair 4 to investigate what happened to the previous crew, there to colonize the planet.

Our heroes are greeted by Robby The Robot, and, he gives them a wild ride in his Robomobile when taking them to meet Dr. Morbius.

Morbius invites them into his amazing home, when he enables the protective shutters, it happens so quickly that the guys react by drawing their blasters.

Anne Francis was so damn beautiful, almost angelic. She plays Altaira, daughter of Morbius.

Doc tries out the mind boost machine and fails miserably, Morbius can make it go up quite a bit higher on the scale. A teen Krell was expected to send it all the way to the top!

Then, Morbius takes Commander Adams and Doc on a tour of the mighty subterranean array of machines that power the planet.

Earl Holliman is the cook, he gets Robby to make him 60 gallons of booze.

Doc makes a cast of one of the terrifying footprints they found near the saucer.

Then, the thing shows up again and the crew's ready for... Whatever! The blasted ID monster is invisible, but, we can see its outline in the electrical field.

Look at this spectacular still I got showing Robert Dix being stomped by the thing.

Then, loveable Jerry is grabbed and thrown to the ground!

Finally, Morbius realizes that his boosted evil subconscious has created the monster and he's helpless to stop it!

Morbius faces to evil and is wounded. The monster is gone now and he tells Commander Adams how to destroy the planet and all the destruction it could create...

We'll end with this very nice Mexican lobby card. Eegah!! will finish up Halloween Countdown tomorrow, be there!

THE HILARIOUS HOUSE OF FRIGHTENSTEIN - Billy Van (1971)

"The Hilarious House Of Frightenstein" was a crazed 70's TV show out of Canada that starred comedian Billy Van, and ran for 131 episodes (All in 1971?)!
Fightenstein! Cool name!!

Pre "Thriller," The honorable Vincent Price got the job as narrator some how, and it went something like 

THIS!!!!

Fishka (Cannibal Girls) Rais was Igor, Billy's vampire Count character's sidekick!

As a comedian, Billy Van was a regular on a couple of TV shows like "The Sonny And Cher Show," "The Bobby Vinton Show," and "The Ken Berry 'Wow' Show!"

Like Lon Chaney Sr., Billy Van was a man of a thousand faces!

Sadly, he passed away in 2003 at the age of 69!

I was in Alaska protecting the public from moose and squirrel during the time that Frightenstein aired on TV, and I'm pretty sure that even though it was Canadian, it never aired in the great northwest where I was! I'm not quite sure if I missed anything or not, but if you or I ever want to find out more, "The Hilarious House Of Frightenstein" airs both on YouTube and Amazon Prime, so it's covered!
EECH!! Indeed!!