SOUL OF A MONSTER - "You'll Shudder!" (1944)

I wanted to see "The Soul Of  A Monster" because, number one, it has a cool name, and number two, it had this cool poster! Unlike a lot of other movies, at least the statements on this poster are true! It's just unfortunate that they are not that spectacular!

So welcome to the Saturday Night Special in The Dungeon! Tonight's obscure little feature from 1944 is less than an hour long, is supernatural, and doesn't spend a lot of time dicking around! If you would like to see it, you have two choices, you can either buy a DVD from Amazon for $17.99 or you can watch it with a couple of short ads for free on YouTube!

"The Soul Of A Monster" has a small but durable main cast that includes Rose (The Mad Ghoul) Hobart, George (The Alligator People) Macready, Jim (Phantom From Space) Bannon, Jeanne (Eraserhead) Bates, and Erik (Song Of The South) Rolf!

I don't know what the deal is, but the version that is on YouTube looks like somebody is shining a flashlight right into the middle of the picture! I don't know whether it is intentional or not, but it's weird! It's a very dark and soft copy (you can thank PhotoShop for the beefed-up stills I have here for you), but for the price it's okay, or perhaps it's just a dream!

A well respected Doctor has a terminal disease and is dying!

This guy has saved so many lives, everybody knows about it!

Maybe he's just tired of having that flashlight shining in his face!

His best friend stays devotedly by his side!

The Doctor's wife doesn't feel like her many prayers to God have been answered, so she turns to the dark side for help!

She really had no clue what she had bargained for!

Out of nowhere, a woman by the name of Lilyan Greg shows up after a long walk that includes getting hit by a car, and in a matter of a few hours, the Doctor miraculously recovers! 

Fully recovered except that he has no pulse, he no longer bleeds, and he's killed his beloved German Shepherd!

The witch, the devil that now controls his life, makes him turn on his two best friends, another Doctor, and a Preacher!

They never really explain her at all, she's just diabolically evil!

His best buddy could have been saved after the witch ran over him with a car, but the voices in the Doctor's head made him unavailable for service!

And now it's become a legal matter! He's accused of murder!

The Doctor doesn't care because he has no idea who he is or what he's doing anymore!

Was it just a crappy dream??

Here's a little combo of Franz Lizt's "Mephisto Waltz" and the styling of the marvelous Clarence Muse! Clarence was a musician and an actor, and it's said that he was the first Afro-American to 'star' in a movie, and his career spanned everything from "The Invisible Ghost" to "Car Wash!"
Stay cool, and have a good weekend!

FRANKENSTEIN UNBOUND / The Mount Company - 1990

It's Friday the 3rd, that mean it's time to check out this $11,500,000 production filmed in Italy, starring John (Caligula) Hurt and Raul Julia and directed by the man hisself, Roger Corman! It's a story based on a novel by Brian Aldiss, when the ultimate weapon which was meant to be safe to use develops side effects including time slides and disappearances, the scientist behind the project (Hurt) and his car are ripped from the year 2031 to 1817 Switzerland, where he finds Dr. Victor Frankenstein to collaborate with.

I have a sound clip for your approval, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button located there by our atomic lava lamp, NOW, Rufus The Gnat!.. Here's some... FRANKENSTEIN UNBOUND!

John Hurt plays Buchanan, his death machine has some problems, a time rip shows up as a huge bizarre cloud that reaches across the sky.

Buchanan ends up in Switzerland in the year 1817, and, he meets Frankenstein's monster.

Here's Buchanan's futuristic car that ends up with him is Switzerland, it looks like a converted Nissan to me. Where the Hell's he going to find a freakin' gas station?!

The monster kills Frankenstein's fiancée by pulling out her heart!! So, Victor plans on bringing her back to life, the monster is now part of the lab crew and throws the switch.

This still cracks me up big time, these orbs were popular in the eighties and nineties.

You can hear in the sound clip where Victor cries out... She lives.. SHE LIVEEEES!..

What the Hell's wrong with you, man!! You call that shit living?!..

Then, the devious Buchanan tells Frankenstein... Now, meet my monster!!.. What a SOB!

The lightning charged up his death machine, he wants to return to the future...

But, it destroys the world instead, another miscalculation by the maniac.

The monster pulls off his arm and uses it to clobber Buchanan!

Buchanan then uses his insane machine to decimate the monster, interesting effects...

Anyway, Buchanan inherits a dead world, a just dessert!.. Check in tomorrow when Eegah!! dishes out another tasty Saturday Special serving.. Later, ya'll..

ROPE - Alfred Hitchcock - (1948)

 It's the first of June, it's already hot as Hell, and..........it feels like something is tightening around my throat!

 Tonight's classic thriller falls squarely into the department of "It's all been said before, it's just my time to say it!" But, if you just happen to be that one person who doesn't know about tonight's feature, but now you do, then my job is done!  

 I saw "Rope" as a student of film back in the mid seventies! My teacher couldn't stop babbling on about how the movie was shot in just one shot, and what a tremendous achievement that was, and you know what, he was absolutely correct! The only time they do a fade to another shot is when they had to change out the roll of film! It's really quite amazing!

 Why is this guy getting killed? It really doesn't matter because "Rope" isn't about something that happened, it's about lies and deceit!

Far ahead of the curve, "Rope" depicts a gay couple way back in 1948! It was also Alfred Hitchcock's first colour film! Many of the movies he made after this were still in black and white!

"Rope" is a stage play that goes against the grain of Alfred's total film philosophy that movies should be a montage! The small cast includes Edith (The Soul Of A Monster) Evanson as Mrs. Wilson, the maid!

The less than happy couple are John (Gun Crazy) Dall, and Farley (Strangers On A Train) Granger!

The guys murder their friend basically just to prove they can do it, leave his body in a chest in the living room, and then entertain their friends, and the victim's girlfriend, her ex, and the victim's family for dinner! Pretty sick! The girlfriend and her ex are Joan (Dragstrip Riot) Chandler, and Douglas (Waterfront) Dick!

Bernie Sanders, I mean Sir Cedric (Uncle Simon in the Twilight Zone episode "Uncle Simon Polk") Hardwicke as the victim's Father, and his sister Constance (Perils of Pauline) Collier show up for the party!

And so does the ever popular Jimmy Stewart, as Rupert, one of the guy's ex-professors!

They could have gotten away with it if they hadn't invited Rupert to the party, but they had to push it to the edge, and now, they have to pay!

The trunk containing the body is the centerpiece of the party, it's just that the guests don't know it!

No, it's not Jello Biafra's hat! It's the hat of the dead man handed to Rupert by mistake, and now it's time for all the lies to become truth!

Alfred Hitchcock's cameo is very difficult to find in "Rope!" Look out the window, and you'll barely be able to make out Alfred's classic silhouette as a flashing red neon light off in the distance!

If you'd like to know about each and every one of Alfred's cameos, there's an awesome site called The Hitchcock Zone that showcases them all with very cool screen caps!

So Rupert comes back and confronts the boys with the truth, and it doesn't take much imagination to figure out where it goes from there!
No shit, if you're looking for a bargain, I bought a 37 DVD Box set of Alfred Hitchcock films for 65 bucks from China on Ebay, and the quality has been quite good so far! It comes with Chinese sub-titles, but you can turn them off, and I can't even imagine what they think about it, but I'm pretty sure, in the next 50 years, we'll find out!