NIGHT AND THE CITY - "The Rat Of Soho" (1950)

Tonight's Saturday Night Special comes with a message.....as Frank Zappa would say many years later, "BE A JERK! GO TO WORK," but at least you might stay alive!

The title "Night And The City" is very awkward to me, I think the German title is much more descriptive, "Die Ratte Von Soho," or as translated...

"The Rat Of Soho!"

 It's 1950 London, and everybody's got a hustle going! This is the story of just one of the losers, and all the trouble and pain he causes for a whole bunch of other people because of it.

 Here's a portrait of  the happy/unhappy couple of Harry and Mary, but that was all in the distant past!

Richard (Kiss Of Death, Madigan) Widmark is Harry, and gorgeous Gene (Heaven Can Wait) Tierney is Mary!

 Now all the dirty rat Harry can think about is where his next buck is coming from because he's nothing but a cheap hustler and a two bit con man! Mary, on the other hand continues to love him as she always has.

 Mary works at a club called The Silver Fox where the girls dance and drink with the guys for a price. Harry goes out and finds suckers like these tourists to send her way!

After these guys got dropped off, Harry asked the cabbie what the guys were talking about on the way there, and then he approaches them like an old friend of a friend.

 It was seventy years ago, and this guy was running a business where he outfits people and sends them out on the street to beg. He's like a beggar pimp!

 Georgette Lizette Withers aka Googie Withers is Helen Nosseross. She ends up to her neck in trouble in no time at all! Googie was in classics like "The Lady Vanishes," and "Haunted Honeymoon." Googie was born in India, and was given her nickname Googie as a child by her nanny.

 "Night And The City" is a must see for any diehard wrasslin' fan! Harry's next big scam is to become a wrestling promoter in Soho. He can't wait to see his name in lights!

 Just another day in the gym!

 Real life big-time wrassler Stanislaus Zbyszko was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2003. The guy in the back is Ken Richmond who won a bronze medal in wrestling at the Olympics in 1952. These guys are more legitimate than professional wrestling itself!

 One of our favourite guys, Big Mike Mazurski is in there too, as

THE STRANGLER!

From Dick Tracy's Splitface to Batman's Allegro, Mike was always entertaining!

Iron Mike Mazurski was also a professional wrestler, and founded the "Cauliflower Club" in Los Angeles in the 60's to benefit all members of the boxing and wrestling community.

 Harry is so proud of himself, but just you wait.......

 The owner of the Silver Fox, Helen's husband, is played by Francis L. (Strange Wives, Cheating Cheaters, Chu-Chin-Chow) Sullivan. So his last name is Nosseros, if him and Helen ever had sex and had a little boy they could have called him Rye Nosseros.

 This impomptu match breaks out between The Great Gregorius and The Strangler, and it  goes on for quite a while!

 It actually wore me out just watching it!!

 Gregorius comes out the victor by putting a backbreaker on The Strangler, but at his age, the fight takes it's toll on him!

 Gregorius leaves with his son, and keeps telling his son to close the window because he's cold, but the window isn't open!

 The son's name is Kristo, and he's the biggest wrestling promoter in town, and now he's pissed off, and now Harry is in over his head. Kristo was played by none other than Herbert (Phantom Of The Opera) Lom. Unbelievably, Herbert Lom was on the silver screen from 1937 until 1993!

 Here's the big and the small of it, Mike Mazurki and Chunky Pattison!

 I seriously thought about doing this with only shots on stairs, or in hallways, and alleys, because there's that many of them!

 Harry is now a lost and broken man. There's no place to run and no place to hide. All he can do is disappear, but not the way he would like to!

Just for fun I started compiling a list of one word name titles for movies, and it's surprising how many of them would have been a good fit for this film too, like BAFFLED, BESERK, CORRUPTION, FRENZY, IMPACT, LURED, NIGHTMARE, OUTRAGE, REPULSION, SQUIRM, and TRAUMA, just to name a few! SCREWED would have been a good one too. It all works!

HOT RODS TO HELL / Call Them Punks, Call Them Animals... But You Better Get Out Of Their Way! - 1967

In today's super wild adventure, Tom Phillips, his wife Peg, their teenage daughter Tina and younger son Jamie drive through the California desert heading for a new life by running a motel. Things go south when teenage bad girl Gloria and her two delinquent boyfriends, Duke and Ernie, chase and harass them in a Corvette! With Duke attempting to seduce the daughter, it finally drives dad to take action against the sadistic trio. Filmed at Lake Los Angeles, Calabasas, Antelope Valley, Wilsona Gardens and Culver City.

It stars Dana (CURSE OF THE DEMON) Andrews, Jeanne (CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN) Crain, Mimsy (THE BLACK CAT '61) Farmer, Laurie (RIOT ON SUNSET STRIP) Mock, Paul (ANGELS FROM HELL) Bertoya, Gene (executive producer of ROCKY!) Kirkwood and Jeffrey (THE DUNGEONMASTER) Byron.

On his way back home for Christmas, Tom Phillips' car is hit by a drunk driver and he sustains multiple injuries. After he gets out of the hospital, he must choose a new life and a friend helps him aquire a motel establishment in the Californian desert...

Here are Tom and his family driving to California in their 1961 Plymouth, I think, the ugliest car Plymouth ever made. The next year though, the 1962 version was super nice!

A few miles away from their destination, the family meets up with one of the hot rods headed to Hell, back in the day when crazy girls (like in THE GIANT CLAW) could legally sit like that in a vehicle. Those are Gloria, Duke and Ernie in the Vette, all are poor little ass hole rich kids with nothing else to do, naturally.

At one point, Ernie calls his friends to help harass the the family.

Duke likes Tina and stalks her at a park when the family stops to rest from dealing with the little fuckers. Problem is, Tina is attracted to Duke...

Finally, Tom is able to talk to a policeman about the situation and he is relieved when the officer says he'll keep an eye on the brats.

Tom is taking over the motel and roadhouse, and that night a great little band is playing live, and, it's none other than Mickey Rooney Jr. and his Combo!! Love those threads, man!

Tina goes to the roadhouse to see what's going on and Gloria confronts her (she thinks she's Duke's girl) and there's a bit of drama... Then guess who shows up and flatly tells Gloria (his girl before Tina arrived) that she ain't his girl, ouch!!

Tom can't find Tina at their place so goes out looking for her...

Not cool, Tom finds Duke putting the make on Tina!!.. Uh-Oh!!

That's it, Tom and the family pack up and head to the nearest police department 30 miles away to file a complaint against the delinquents! But Duke finds out so him and Ernie set out to stop them! Then at one point, Duke nearly runs Tom into a wall before the shits finally leave!!

Tom comes up with a plan, mom and the kids stand at a distance (check out that matte painting used for close ups in the background) while he turns the car around and turns on the lights. You see, the jerk asses have been tormenting the family on numerous occasions with a deadly game of chicken, so...

Duke and Ernie are laughing their asses off until they realize they're going to crash unless THEY swerve this time!! They end upside down in the dirt and weeds (I was actually hoping they'd run into the car!).

Tom's not taking any chances with these little bastards and has his handy equalizer ready and set to go!

After saying this is what he'd like to do to both of them, he starts beating the crap out of the wreck!! He gives them a few more lectures before...

The cop takes them away and the Phillips family head back to motel to live, peacefully!.. Tune in tomorrow for more mayhem, here at, The Dungeon!!..

HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR - "Visitor From The Grave" (1980)

It's a "Why Did It Take So Long Wednesday" in The Dungeon, and the feature is a British anthology of horror TV show called "Hammer House Of Horror."

"Hammer House Of Horror" was only on for one season in 1980. There were thirteen episodes, and it never aired in the United States to my knowledge.

"Visitor From The Grave" was the eleventh episode, and is a story about a guy who just refuses to stay dead!

There are basically only five characters in  this story, and it could easily be produced as a stage play! 

It starts off immediately with this woman who is home alone in the country seeing a shadowy figure outside her window.

Next thing you know he's in the house ranting and raving that her husband owes him!

Wouldn't this make a terrific painting?

In a panic, the woman shoots him in the face with a shotgun after he starts to molest her!

The man runs off into the woods, and later the woman's husband comes home.

She's a wreck. She's already strung out on some kind of medication, and when mixed with alcohol, well, anything  can happen!

She tells him the whole sordid story!

The woman is named Penny, and is played by Kathryn Leigh Scott. Among other things, Kathryn was Maggie Evans on 309 episodes of "Dark Shadows," and in her next film, she will be playing Mamie Eisenhower.

The very concerned husband is named Harry. 

Harry was played by Simon (Manimal) MacCorkindale.

Not far from the house, they find the body, and Harry decides to bury it on the spot!

Penny is busy freaking out!

Now it's time to clean up the blood. Even though it was an accident, Harry doesn't want to notify the authorities for numerous reasons! He also drives the man's car into the lake to hide it .

 

Penny keeps having nightmares about the whole situation!

 With the same predictable results!

A policeman shows up to ask some questions!

Now that is a police car that could strike fear into the heart of evildoers everywhere!

Harry and Penny go to a party! At the party they run into Margaret who can read Tarot cards, and offers to help ease Penny's troubled mind! Margaret was played by Mia (Orson Welle's Great Mysteries) Nadasi.

(The party is the only time that more than the five main cast members are in the scene.)

A guy who sure looks like the dead man shows up at the party!

Is this your card?

Tarot card XV is 'Le Diable', The Devil!!

Oh, this bastard will just not go away!

More pills and more booze aren't making it any easier f or poor Penny!

Finally, Harry can't take it any more, and he goes and digs up the grave to prove the guy is still in there! 

Good sport Stanley (Flash Gordon, Superman IV) Leber had the role of the dead man.

When that doesn't work, Margaret tells Penny about this Guru she knows of, but he's gone back to India, because his financial plans in America fell through. She contacts him, and he agrees to come and help for $150,000.00 which Penny says she will gladly pay to get this dead monkey off her back!

Veteran British television actor Gareth (Zigger Zagger) Thomas has this role, and he played the cop that came to their house too.

As I was writing this, I found out that all thirteen episodes of "Hammer House Of Horror" stream for free on Amazon Prime, so that means I'll be watching the rest of them some time real soon too!