CURSE OF THE FACELESS MAN - Gerald Fried - "Quintillus Aurelius Lives & So Does Charles Gemora" (1958)

Made 51 years ago, and still viable now, is tonight's movie "Curse of the Faceless Man." Yeah, there are WTF moments, but at one hour and five minutes, you know, you're almost getting straight action, and no filler, and that's the key to what modern film makers haven't figgered out! All that action and eye candy don't add up to dog poop, if there ain't no substance!!! It's that simple!!! "Curse Of The Faceless Man" has substance! Smoke it!!

This is Mt. Vesuvius, by the way, getting ready to blow, cover Pompeii in lava, and create the faceless man!! The music to go along with it, will beat the crap out of you!!

We've said it before and we'll say it again, musically speaking, Gerald Fried is one of THE main guys! His achievements are beyond imagination, and here you go again, just in case you missed it the first time, and this is just a sample of what Gerald has done the music for, 6 episodes of "Mission Impossible," 9 episodes of "Star-Trek," 2 episodes of "Lost In Space," 45 episodes of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.," and 9 episodes of "Gilligan's Island!" Now if that ain't a whole lot of TV Pop history, I don't know what is!!!

Many, many years later, digging around Pompeii, this is the first guy to notice that Quintillus Aurelius seems to still be stirring about, a bit!!

The truck driver transporting Quintillus wasn't expecting him to be alive!!

The Hero of the film, Richard Anderson as Dr. Paul Mallon, can't figure out how the body got tossed so far from the truck! It never dawned on him that he could walk! You see, Quintillus Aurelius isn't a Mummy, but instead a man who got caught up in the lava when Vesuvius erupted!!!

Quintillus Aurelius is sending mental messages to the doctor's artist girlfriend Tina Enright played by Elaine Edwards !!

Actually, considering everything, Tina is dealing with it pretty good!!!

Probably what's more interesting than the movie itself, is the fact that the guy who created the faceless man's outfit was none other than the master of monkeys himself, Mr. Charles Gemora! Now, if you don't know it, Charlie had been wearing and designing Gorilla suits since the 1928 flick, "The Leopard Woman" where he played what else but, The Gorilla! Charlie was of Filipino descent, so his small 5'5" frame lent itself quite nicely to being inside a Gorilla suit! Just to name a few, there was Charley, Zozo, Jocko, the boxing gorilla, Erik, Sir Charles, Sultan, and even Plato the gorilla, not to mention all the unnamed gorilla roles! Because of the nature of the beast, Charlie worked with most of the all-time great comedians, like The Ritz Brothers, The Marx Brothers, Abbott & Costello, and Bob Hope & Bing Crosby! And that's not even all, Charlie, along with his daughter Diana were the designers of the Martian costumes in "War Of The Worlds," and he even played one of the Martians!!

Unfortunately Charles Gemora passed away just a couple of years after "Curse Of The Faceless Man" was made, way back in 1961, but it's never too late for us to toast his accomplishments one more time, so lift those glasses high, this one's for you Charlie, you set the Gorilla standard high, and to this day, I doubt it's ever been done better!!

GODZILLA King of the Monsters / Toho - 1956 / Music by Akira Ifukube

Well, there's not much to add to what's already been written about GODZILLA, King of the Monsters, so, why try?! We do have lots of awesome stills, though!!

We just did another movie with music by Akira Ifukube this week, so, we'll just keep that streak going with another great soundclip from Eegah!! He's included a very funny little segment, so, get ready for THE KING OF THE MONSTERS!!!

The story starts in the present, as Raymond Burr (Steve Martin, a reporter) lies injured in a makeshift hospital in Japan.

Steve rethinks the whole experience in flashback from the beginning, with the unusual weather him and his Japanese military buddie got caught in.

Then, him and a scientific team go to the island where they say GODZILLA attacked a village, and, it seems fairly plausible when you add it all up!

And, yep, there he is!!

Can you say... phenonema?

Soon thereafter, GODZILLA turns up in Japan, having the same freaky effect on the city as those atomic bombs from only 9 years earlier!!!

Nuf' said?!

Freaky, freaky, freaky!!

Here's the real hero, Dr. Daisuke Serizawa, creator of the 'oxygen destroyer!'

Bring in the Sabre Jets with their missiles!

The oxygen destroyer must be used against the terrifying monster while it rests in the depths of the ocean...

A totally sad ending, the doctor takes his own life over a love he can never have, but, then, was the only one who could save the world from... GODZILLA!! At least until a few years later when Big G came back!!

Tune in next Sunday for SON OF GODZILLA!

THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF - Benjamin Frankel - "Who Said Life Was Fair?" (1961)

When we first started this blog, we hadn't planned on using very many Hammer flicks, because, let's face it, the eras that most Hammer films were shot in, don't really lend themselves to rockin' or swingin' elements! But, we have re-discovered that it's pretty hard to say 'Horror' or 'Terror' musically without getting pretty weird, and weird is something we have always enjoyed around here, which brings us around to tonight's feature, and a real classic, lovin' that howl from "The Cursed Werewolf!" Too bad the soundclip is no longer available!!

"Curse Of The Werewolf" is about a raging concept that has been going on since time immemorial, the battle between the rich and the poor, and how both sides always get screwed in the end in one way or another!! This is the pompous ass behind the whole thing, a wonderfrul actor by the name of Anthony Dawson, who does a horribly dispicable job as The Marques Siniestro! It's his wedding day, and he doesn't really like being disturbed!! The Marquis' blushing bride, The Marquesa, is played by Josephine Llewellyn in the second of the only two roles she ever took on. Maybe the pressure of having four L's in her name was just too much, or maybe it was just the goose!!

Enter a nameless beggar looking for a handout, played by Richard Wordsworth, who disrupts the party just enuf to piss off the Marquis, who then proceeds to throw him into jail forever! Check out The Marquis' Dawg Pound!!

Mr. Beggar ain't lookin' that swell after a many years in the hole!

And one day, the little servant girl, played by Yvonne Romain, who has been feeding him for years, once again, pisses off The Marquis, and gets tossed into the cell with Mr. Beggar! You'd a thought he would have had mercy on her since she's the only one who has ever cared about him at all, but No, he's just an animal now, and sexually ravages her! Now, how exactly that combination of DNA creates a werewolf offspring is up for debate, but that is what happens!

The Marquis keeps busy like all guys in charge, and now spends all his time making these very serious decisions!!

Have or have not, payback is a bitch!

The servant girl got away, had a baby boy, and dies. The boy gets adopted, grows up farily normal and turns into Leon Corledo, portrayed by, the one, and only, Oliver Reed!

Martin Mathews as Jose Amadayo, is Leon's new friend and co-worker!!! Jose is quite the horny cut-up!!!

Jose convinces Leon to go out with him, and have a good time dancing and drinking at a nice respectable place!! Hey, donde esta Sancho Lopez??

But Leon doesn't seem to enjoy dancing as much as his father did!!

Oliver Reed is one of many heroes we've got here in The Dungeon, and "The Curse Of The Werewolf" is one of the many reasons why!!

Makeup artist extraordinaire Roy Ashton is the man to thank for how cool Oliver looks as the wolfman. Roy did the makeup on so many Hammer films, it will make your head spin, because, Roy was The Guy!!!

The composer for the music used in "Curse Of The Werewolf" was Mr. Benjamin Frankel, a brilliant man who we haven't had a chance to talk about before, because he didn't do much work on horror films, but who had been working on music in the movies since 1934!!!!