KILLER'S KISS - "Her Soft Mouth Was the Road to Sin-Smeared Violence!" - Stanley Kubrick (1955)

 Since we never have a clue what we're doing around here, it's always refreshing to stumble upon something great that you didn't know about previously, and such is the case tonight! 

Welcome to the Why Not Wednesday edition of The Dungeon, and a very, very interesting film!

 "Killer's Kiss" is a fairly extraordinary movie that came out in 1955, and was Mr. Stanley Kubrick's second feature film! Just in case that there is some possible chance that you don't know who Stanley Kubrick is, then you're probably also not familiar with films like "Dr. Strangelove," "2001," "A Clockwork Orange," and "The Shining," all which he is also responsible for!

 Jamie Smith is welterweight boxer Davey Gordon at the end of his career! Jamie was in one other movie in 1952 called "Faithful City," but the rest of his work was in TV.

 Davey Gordon has a big  'make it or break it' fight with a young and upcoming potential champion boxer named Kid Rodriguez!

 

 To show you a bit of his roots, this is one of the photos pinned to his mirror.

 When Davey looks out his window, he sees into his neighbor's room, a young lady named Gloria Price as portrayed by Irene Kane. Irene only has six acting credits, but they spread across 3 decades, the last being "All That Jazz" in 1979.

 Gloria works in this club as a hostess, and her sleazy boss thinks he loves her!

 Seriously, don't you just love it? This story was also written by Stanley Kubrick.

 Ladies and Gentlemen.....Let's get ready to Rumba!

Kid Rodriquez is raring to go, but Davey Gordon is still on his stool!

 That didn't take long!

 Frank Silvera is Vinnie Rapallo, the owner of the club and the guy in love with Gloria!

Frank Silvera is a very interesting story all unto himself. Frank was an African-American born in Jamaica who was an avid civil rights supporter, who because of his light skin was able to get roles from black to white, and everything in between! He was Dr. Koslenko in the "Twilight Zone" episode titled "Person Or Persons Unknown." Frank was also the star of Stanley Kubrick's first feature film titled "Fear And Desire!"

  These scenes in the gym are brilliant!

 It wouldn't be much of a movie if it didn't have some dancing drunken Shriner bandits in it!

 Signs in movies can be quite prophetic!

 "The Embassy Newsreel Theatre!"

 It's a case of mistaken identity, and after the deed is done, one of the hoodlums has to comb his hair walking away, because it got a little mussed up!

 Face down again! Davey's life is a shit storm!

 I find both the rooftop water towers and the staircase fascinating!

 So........if it's 1955, and you're Stanley Kubrick, and you need some place really wild to finish off your second movie, what else would you choose but a room full of mannequins?

 This is obviously not going to end well for somebody!

Hey, I liked this movie, and I feel bad that it took me 63 years before I got to see it. There aren't too many 1955 movies that look this cool, thanx to Mr. Kubrick, it's got boxing, and the background music throughout by Gerald Fried is outstanding! It's got the look, the feel, and the sound, and is a great example of what Stanley had in store for us in the future!

THE OUTER LIMITS: 'The Invisibles' / Season 1 Episode 19 - 1964

Here we go with another classic episode from this great TV series. This time, some aliens plan to take over the US by recruiting disaffected loners adverse to a normal society. The Invisibles send crab-like parasites that attach themselves to human hosts (like in THE BRAIN EATERS and IT CONQUERED THE WORLD) in order to control them. The recruits are assigned low-level jobs with highly appointed government officials so they can get the parasite in close proximity to them. A US intelligence agent infiltrates the alien organization, but it may be too late!

It all starts here, in an old military barracks, three new recruits are taken to a room at the end of a long, dingy hallway!

In another room there though, something pretty damn interesting is about to happen...

The Invisibles recruiter takes a parasite out, pets it and puts it back in its cage. Then, he goes into an unearthly rant about The Invisibles taking over the world!

John (THE LOST WORLD) Graham Is the attachment supervisor, Don (THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS) Gordon plays Agent Spain and Walter (JACK THE GIANT KILLER) Burke plays the Invisibles recruiter.

At this point in the story, we find out that Spain is a government agent reporting in. He's trying to get to the bottom of what in the Hell's going on!

So, Agent Spain is given the job as a chauffeur for the Governor, but, the General (Neil Hamilton) and his helper, Oliver (Richard Dawson), suspect that Spain is an agent. But, the parasite dies and Spain has to wait for another one to arrive...

The General then goes into his emotional alien diatribe, welcome to Coo-Coo Ville!!

While waiting for the parasite to arrive, Oliver keeps an eye on Spain. Our hero tries to escape at night but his foot gets run over by the General's wife when she arrives at the house. During the confusion, Spain is barely able to speed away in the car...

Spain is to meet with another recruit he has befriended, he hobbles his way to the room.

But, his pal has agreed to set a parasite loose on him, hidden in a suitcase under the bed!

The thing is out and Spain crawls away as fast as he can, which ain't that fast, his foot is horribly damaged!.. Crawl you Mofo!!

The parasite, which growls, puts it into turbo drive and attacks Spain. Luckily, his pal comes to his aid and pulls the thing off and throws it as far away as he can. Then...

The cops shoot it full of lead, putting an end to the current nightmare. We also find out that the government is in hot pursuit of rooting out the Hellish creatures and the Invisibles' Earthly helpers! Phew, I was getting worried!!

Tune in again on Wednesday as we continue down the old Dungeon Trail...

MIDNIGHT LACE - Doris Day - "The Strangest Most Terrifying Game" (1960)

Tonight's Saturday Night Special is a movie I first saw a long, long time ago. It was made in 1960, and is titled......

.........."Midnight Lace!"

"Midnight Lace" stars Doris Day, whose body of film work is usually confined to the puppies and cotton candy realm, so it freaked me out as a kid to see her in a movie like this, kind of like how I felt when Frankie Avalon got stabbed in "The Haunted House Of Horror!"

Doris is a rich American in London!

Her British husband is played by the always charming Rex (Dr. Dolittle) Harrison!

I look at this shot, and the word 'stuffy' comes to mind first thing!

Hence the title "Midnight Lace!"

The 'Danger' signs come into play more than once to help deliver the foreboding overall feel! 

Dungeon stalwart Roddy (Planet of the Apes) McDowall 

has the role of an annoying possible suspect, a role that fits him well!

But all in all, "Midnight Lace" is basically a suspenseful showcase for Doris Day!

Gee Willikers, where's Rock Hudson when you need him?

Not really the best time to be celebrating anything!

Doris is stuck in the dark and claustrophobic lift going up to her flat!

These days any prank, annoying, or threatening phone call you make can probably be traced back to you, but back in the day when phone booths existed, it was a lot easier to hassle people on the phone anonymously! Like today, if you called your local dive bar and asked for mouse knuckles like Tabonga and I used to do, you'd probably have the authorities up your butt in no time at all!

Doris just turned 96 four days ago on April 3rd!

In a 60's male-dominated society, "Midnight Lace" was a film that had a female in the lead role, and supporting roles like Myrna (Nora Charles) Loy, and......

.....Natasha (The Fourth Square) Parry! Oddly enough, Natasha was also in another movie with the word midnight in the tile in 1950, "Midnight Episode!"

I don't have the exact calculations, but I'd bet that close to 40% of "Midnight Lace" is different head shots of Doris Day!

Doris Day has 43 acting credits to her name, but she was also a very successful singer, and songs with her vocals have been used in movies 117 times and growing, and that's why she will never be forgotten, because of songs like "Dream A Little Dream," "Tea For Two," and "Que Sera, Sera!"

Belated Happy Birthday Doris!! We love you!