Saturday, April 16, 2016

MACISTE CONTRO IL VAMPIRO - Les Baxter - "Goliath And The Vampires" (1961)

Tonight's Saturday Night Special is a sword and sandal film that could actually also be considered a monster movie! It's called "Goliath And The Vampires," and it has got some extra weird stuff going on!

We've been through this before, whether you want to call him Maciste, Samson, or Goliath, it doesn't matter! What matters is that he's one bad cat just short of being super human!

This evil character looks like a cross between Obama and The Rock! 

One of the first all-girl bands!

You've got to love a movie that moves seamlessly between evil monsters and nicely choreographed dance numbers!

This evil apparition is called Kobrak as played by Guido (HYPNOSIS, BARABBAS) Celano! He is a vampire of sorts! The gorgeous gal doing his bidding is Gianna Maria (HERCULES, LUST OF THE VAMPIRE) Canale as Astra!

Kobrak is not your typical vampire! He doesn't choose to suck blood from necks because he has other methods!

Time to go to the club, and another dance number! 
Now this just might be the most interesting piece of music that was ever in a sword and sandal movie! I guess they got the sand part right because this sounds like it should have been in a movie called something like "Beach Blanket Babylon!" And no wonder since the music in the American version of this film was composed by Dungeon super hero Les (BEACH PARTY, BIKINI BEACH, MUSCLE BEACH PARTY, HOW TO STUFF A WILD BIKINI) Baxter! Electric guitars B.C., I love it!!

Time to prepare the wench for his majesty!

Now this is a great shot! It looks like a guy breaking into a strip mall!

These cats were called the Blue Men! I think somebody in Vegas owes Ambrosiana Cinematografica Productions a little cash!

How'd you like to have this funny little monster nipping at your heels?

I'm almost done, and I haven't even mentioned the star of the show, Gordon (GOLIATH) Scott yet!
If you want to know a lot more about Gordon, then read this post of mine for the movie
 "Danger!! Death Ray!"  Out of all the guys to play Tarzan in the movies, Gordon Scott was always my favourite!!

He got caught, and now Goliath's on a bummer!

But this guy is no quitter! Talk about bringin' down the house!

Tricky Freakin' Kobrak comes back disguised as Goliath himself, and tries to cause a bunch of trouble! (Shows you the depth of Gordon Scott!)

Time for Gordon to go mano a mano with himself!!

BACKBREAKER!!

When stripped of his mask, Kobrak turns out to be one ugly sumbitch!

Peace Out Citizens!
Maciste For President!

Friday, April 15, 2016

DARK INTRUDER / Shamley Productions, Universal Pictures - 1965

Here's a redo from a 2008 post that had horrible stills, so, time to take another look at this Jack the Ripper/Mr. Hyde tale with a sci-fi twist TV movie. It stars Dungeon Favorites Leslie (FORBIDDEN PLANET) Nielsen and Mark (AGENT FOR H.A.R.M.) Richman. This movie is finally available on DVD along with THE NIGHT WALKER, making for a great double feature!

I have a sound clip for your approval, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button located there by our Psycho From Space, NOW, Rufus The Gnat!.. Here's... DARK INTRUDER!

There has been a number of Ripper style murders in old SF, throats torn to shreds basically. And as always, a small weird porcelain figure is left at the scene by the murderer...

Leslie plays private detective, Brett Kingsford. He's bent on solving the horrifying mystery.

He's friends with Robert Vandenburg, Mark's character. Here they are discussing the murders. It seems like Robert knows more than he's letting on.

Brett uses any means possible to get a handle on the crimes. He goes to the local swami for advice. There, he learns about the meaning of the demonic porcelain figures.

Brett is then attacked by the living nightmare in his curio shop...

And, now has proof of the terrifying creature's deadly shredding claws' potential for harm.

Brett, desperate to solve the case, takes Robert to see a psychic to try and uncover more clues.

The thing is actually Robert's hideous dear brother. Here, they have a meeting of the minds and Robert comes out the loser and gets the short straw!

After Robert dies, he changes into the monster in front of everyone...

Brett watches with the knowledge that the crime spree is finally over, his face scarred from the final encounter! Tune in again tomorrow when Eegah!! grabs the old steering wheel, here, at The Dungeon!

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

YOUNG COUPLES ONLY - Studio 57 - The Dumont Television Network (1955)

Tonight's feature was off my radar until a couple of days ago, but then again, that's what this is all about! That saying, welcome to another wacked-out Wednesday the 13th in The Dungeon, and a weird little TV show from 1955 called "Studio 57" on the Dumont Television Network! Never heard of Dumont before, then check out this bit of information from Wikipedia!
In a nutshell, Dumont was one of the world's first TV networks, but for various reasons discombobulated after a couple of years, and given all the respect a pioneering network should deserve, most of their programming was destroyed in the 1970's!
So let's get this ball rolling!

The DVD I have was bought from Sinister Cinema, and I have no idea why they shortened the title to "Couples Only!"

The reason I wanted to see "Young Couples Only" was because it stars Dungeon fave Peter Lorre, and for me, any movie with Peter Lorre in it is worth watching!

Barbara Hale has tons and tons of acting credits, mostly on TV, but she will always be remembered for her ongoing appearance through five decades as Della Street on the"Perry Mason" show! She was in 271 episodes of Perry Mason from 1957 to 1966 alone! Barbara will be having her 94th birthday next Monday on April 18th, and we wish her all the best!!

In this story, Bill Williams is Barbara's husband! Bill's first movie appearance was as an uncredited theatergoer in "King Kong!" He played Kit Carson" in the 1950's on TV for 103 episodes and he was also in "Space Master X-7," "Spaceflight IC-1: An Adventure In Space," and "Night Of The Zombies!"

Hello down there!!!!

I read on IMDB that in the original short story written by fabulous author Richard Matheson called "Shipshape Home," the janitor was described as looking like Peter Lorre, so what better person to actually play the role than Peter himself?

So this story is just rolling along, and then it suddenly gets really weird when Barbara's character notices that Peter the strange janitor in their apartment building has a third eye in the back of his head! Pretty cool for 1955!!

Her response was pretty predictable!

I read a review that said this was not a good performance by Peter Lorre, and I beg to disagree! In my little world, there are no bad performances by Peter Lorre! Just his presence in a film or TV show makes it worthwhile in my humble opinion!

Kinda freaky when the couple's little dog disappears!

Barbara says she came upon a secret room in their apartment building that housed a bunch of odd machinery! At first her husband doubted her, but when he sees it in person, he changes his tune!

Peter might not look too tough, but he's a lot stronger than Bill thought!

Thank God this policeman shows up to save the day! If you were making a movie, in the 40's, 50's or 60's and you needed somebody to play a military man, a police officer, or a bartender, Paul Bryar was the man to choose! Paul had an amazing total of 375 credits! Most actors today probably can't even count that high!

Oops, looks like Paul's not going to be able to save the day after all!

And now, the happy couple realize they are in deep shit!

And they are not alone! Not only is the whole building being launched into space, this whole city block is going along for the ride too!

Up, up, and away!! (And this ain't no beautiful balloon!)

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??