A TRIP TO THE MOON / Star-Film - 1902

It's Friday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Our feature was written and directed by Georges Méliès, and, plays Prof. Barbenfouillis in this early sci-fi short from France. Estimated budget was 30,000 Francs. The story is based on the books "From the Earth to the Moon" by Jules Verne and "The First Men in the Moon" by H. G. Wells.

Georges had, get this, 553 short movie directing credits from 1896 to 1913!! A few titles are A TERRIBLE NIGHT, CONJURING, THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL, A NIGHTMARE, SEA BATHING, THE HALLUCINATED ALCHEMIST, THE DEVIL'S CASTLE, THE DEVIL'S LABORATORY, FOUR HEADS ARE BETTER THAN ONE, A TRIP TO THE MOON (1898), BLACK ART, A NOVICE AT X-RAYS, THE CAVE OF THE DEMONS, FANTASTICAL ILLUSIONS, THE DEVIL'S ISLAND, THE SNOW MAN, THE CLOWN AND THE AUTOMOBILE, THE DOCTOR AND THE MONKEY, THE DANGEROUS LUNATIC, THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY, THE CLOWN vs SATAN, THE HUMAN FLY, THE MAGICIAN AND THE IMP, BEWITCHED DUNGEON, ARTIST AND THE DUMMY, BEELZEBUB'S DAUGHTERS, THE MONSTER, FAUST IN HELL, THE CRAZY COMPOSER, SOAP BUBBLES, THE WITCH, TWO CRAZY BUGS, SEEIN' THINGS and THE GHOST OF SULFER MOUNTAIN! Wow, I'll bet those are some tough titles to come by!!..

Little Rufus The Gnat is here to start the show, so, push the big red 'GO' button there by the toaster oven, now, Rufus! Here's some silent music for... A TRIP TO THE MOON!

When you decide to go to the Moon, well, you have to build a spaceship first... In this case, a big bullet!

Hey, looks like something interesting's going on over there!

These Reubenesque beauties have the official duty of seeing the brave expolrers off!

After the colossal cannon shoots the capsule into space, it finally comes to rest on the iconic face of The Man In The Moon! Even in the great British comedy, THE MIGHTY BOOSH, The Man In The Moon is a regular character.

The explorers exit the capsule, then, are amazed when they watch the Earth rise into the sky.

Ballet girls from the Theatre du Chatelet were used in these scenes.

The explorers have to make their way through this amazing underground fungus garden!

Here are the leaders of the Moon with their army of skeletal warriors, the Selenites. The creatures were played by acrobats from the Folies-Bergere.

The explorers escape and make their way to the capsule, followed in hot pursuit by the Selenites. One of the men jumps onto the rope tied to the ship and pulls it off its rocky perch...

The capsule falls back to Earth and crashes into the ocean!

Georges Méliès used miniatures, matte paintings, animation, double exposure and other camera and stage tricks to achieve his images. Director D.W. Griffith said, "I owe him everything" and Charles Chaplin called him "the alchemist of light!"

THE MUMMY'S CURSE - Codee and Orth - "Hey, You!" (1944)

Curse that dang mummy, who's he think he is anyway, Lon Chaney??

Well, the reason this classic has got our ear tonight, is because at the very beginning of the film, the viewer is treated to this special moment, a pretty cool song by the lady of the house, the Belgian beauty Ann Codee, as barkeeper Tante Berthe! The song is called "Hey, You" and was written by her husband Frank Orth, along with another gentleman, Oliver Drake. Ann and Frank had a vaudeville act back in the day, called what else but "Codee and Orth!"

Unless something changes, this will be the last sound clip we feature! It's gotten far too complicated to be fun any more, and Kurt Katch as Cajun Joe agrees 100%. So our focus will no longer be on the music, but more on the films themselves. I thought offering up a short sound collage was a good way to give more insight, but I didn't know it was going to be such a headache. So welcome to the new look....

Peter Coe is Dr. Ilzor Zandaab, racial profiling aside, is it really possible to trust a guy wearing a fez?

What's really incarnately evil is the power duo of Dr. Zandaab with the fez, and Martin Kosleck, the future supremely execrable Professor Peter Bartell in "The Flesh Eaters!"

They've got a lot in common! Looks like the prefect couple to me!!

Virginia Christine is Princess Ananka, and you gotta admit, she cleans up pretty good!!

Kharis, the peeping mummy! What a perv!

You better watch out, because in about 15 minutes of so, I'm gonna get you!!

Kind of an awkward time to catch up on your pole dancing techniques, isn't it ladies?

This is one awesome painted backdrop, and they wisely use it more than once!

It's not bad enough that Lon had to wear all those bandages, and carry Christina around, now it's time to go up stairs! Great!!

Big Thanx to Douglas McEwan for sharing the following tasty bit of information, and correction in the Comments Section:

"I knew Virigina Christine a little bit, who was a wonderful woman, the wife of lip-popping Fritz Feld. I talked with her once about this movie. She told me that when Lon as Kharis had to carry her up those worn and uneven temple steps, she was strapped to him under her and his costumes, so he literally could not drop her.

Unfortunately, they shot it after lunch. In those days, sad but true (Remember, this is what Virginia Christine told me herself, face-to-face), Lon drank his lunch and was very drunk when they shot it. (Universal usually tried to get Lon's scenes in all movies shot in the mornings, because he was always useless after lunch.)

So predictably, Lon fell in doing the scene, fell on her! Since she was strapped to him, she couldn't get loose or out from under this much, much larger person, and was severly squished aganst the steps under Lon until they could first cut her loose and then roll him off of her. They could not roll him off of her when she was still strapped to him, It was impossible.

So Lon then went off to his dressing room to drink the rest of the day away, and Eddie Parker came in and shot the scene. That's Eddie Parker carrying her up the stairs in your screencap above."

The lighting on this shot is really cool, and they use it on each group of people that come down the stairs!

Despicable contra Loathsome, who will come out behind?

The pith helmet just sets off the whole shot!

"The man in the fez, he turns around and sez, I'd like to help you make your trip!" - Country Joe

All right kids, go off, and be good now, ya hear? Right!! You can't tell me they didn't knock it out before they even got out of the tomb!

ADVENTURE AT THE CENTER OF THE EARTH / Producciones Sotomayor - 1965

Welcome to Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Our panoramic feature was filmed in the caves of Cacahuamilpa in Mexico and is an above average production for the time.

The plot's about a group of scientists with interests in human evolution, so, make a journey beneath the earth through a series of caverns where they encounter a variety of deadly humanoid monsters and even a giant spider!

Raúl Lavista was the musical director, probably using existing music from the Sotomayer library, who knows... Raúl, himself, had 275 composing credits that includes the titles WOMAN AGAINST WOMAN, ZORINA, RANCOR OF THE SOIL, THE BRUTE, THE REVIVED MONSTER, THE BEAST OF HOLLOW MOUNTAIN, SKELETON OF MRS. MORALES, TOM THUMB AND LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD, THE NIGHT OF A THOUSAND CATS and the Mexican ISLAND OF LOST SOULS.

Letz bring our fuzzy little Dungeon helper and button pusher, the one and only, Ralphie The Tarantula!.. It's time to start our Eariffic Soundclip for your listening pressure, so, push the big red 'GO' button there by the unplugged teleporter, now, Ralphie! Here's an... ADVENTURE AT THE CENTER OF THE EARTH!

Many great adventures start with a kiss!.. These two lovers leave the group during a cave tour and go explore some crevasses and stalagmites on their own!

Oh yeah, and, sadly, many great adventures end up in divorce!..

A group of scientists and their colleagues meet to discuss the possibility that some caves in Mexico may hold answers to prehistoric animals still alive today, hidden below ground.

They watch some amazing footage from ONE MILLION B. C., UNKNOWN ISLAND and what looks to be from their own prop department with the volcano and dinosaur landscape.

That's all the proof these eager spelunkers need to get this small expedition ready to go exploring!

You'll hear in the soundclip the unaccompanied love song sung by this horny casanova!

This is the beautiful Kitty de Hoyos as Hilda. Kitty was dubbed the Mexican Marilyn Monroe and was LA LOBA that same year! She died of cancer in 1999 at age 58.

Hilda stumbles upon a pit of deadly vipers and has to be rescued!

Then, they're visited by some strange humanoid creature!..

On her way to the lady's room, this lady sees something hiding in the shadows...

A freaky cyclops thing jumps down from a rock ledge and brutally attacks and kills her! This creation is also the 'Ook' character in SHIP OF THE MONSTERS.

At one point, a few men have to cross a ravine using a secured rope...

And, not everyone makes it across!

They actually find this place down there!

Suave bizarro!

A rare look at the giant spider as it chews on this guy's head!!

A favorite part of mine is where one monster grabs Hilda and pulls her into the water, then, she has to swim to another part of the cave.

The weird bat creature offers Hilda half of its jumbo Slim Jim (a snake) to snack on...

When the creature approaches the explorers one last time, the Army has moved in and they fill the thing full of lead!

Another nice Mexican lobby card once in my possession...