BLACKOUT - Cleo Laine - "Murder By Proxy" (1954)

What can I say? It's a personal problem I have, I like movies with one word titles, and at least one thing is for sure, they're a Helluva lot easier to write about than something with a title like "Night Of The Day Of The Dawn Of The Son Of The Bride Of The Return Of The Revenge Of The Terror Of The Attack Of The Evil, Mutant, Alien, Flesh Eating, Hellbound Zombiefied Living Dead Part 2: In Shocking 2-D" made in 1991!

Any movie that starts off with a song like THIS is going to capture my attention each and every time! This is the amazing Jazz singer Cleo Laine, whose God given name was Clementina Dinah Campbell, how's that for a handle? In 1997 Cleo was named Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire by The Queen, for her services to music! Cleo was married to her bandleader, the late Sir John Dankworth!

Here's just a handful of titles that are only one word, some we haven't even got around to yet! Movies like: THINGS, SHANKS, CRAZE, SHOCK, PSYCHO, BEDLAM, CARNAGE, ZOTZ, CREEPERS, IMPULSE, HOMICIDAL, HAUNTS, SHATTER, TERROR, TRAUMA, AND SEIZURE!!

Dane Clark has the role of drunken loser lout Casey Morrow! Casey is in the business of drowning his sorrows! Dane had a very busy career, and was active up into his seventies! He was also in a number of movies and TV shows that had one word titles, stuff like MOONRISE, WHIPLASH, BACKFIRE, BARRICADE, JUSTICE, MASSACRE, CLIMAX, and PURSUIT!

Then, "like the hot kiss on the end of a wet fist," Belinda Lee as Phyllis Brunner struts into Casey's life! This was Belinda's third movie she made out of 33, before being killed in a car crash in between Los Angeles and Las Vegas in 1961! The blonde beauty was only 25 years old when she departed this sorry old world!

Phyllis has just made Casey an offer he can't refuse, she's going to pay him to marry her! I love the backdrop behind the band!!

Just to prove what an outstanding actor Dane Clark was, is it possible to look any more snockered than this? I seriously doubt it!!!

Well, how 'bout that? This evening seems to be turning out just fine!

Dude wakes up the next morning in the studio of some artiste, and a portrait of a woman who he's not sure he's married to, or is just a dream!!

Suddenly Casey Morrow is up to his ears in deep shit!! Not only is his new spouse missing, her Father has been murdered, and the description of the murderer fits Casey to a T!!

There's something about this still that just ain't right!

Seems like Casey isn't the only one who blacks out on occasion! The resident artiste is the fascinating Elanor (Petticoat Pirates) Summerfield!

My Goodness, would you look at the size of this gal's waist! WOW!!

Casey gets into all kinds of scuffles, has run ins with all kinds of unscrupulous characters, and even stops drinking for a bit before it's all over!

After sobering up, finding a hideout for himself and Phyllis, a long lost reunion with his Mother, and a slew of unsavory other characters and events, Casey finds himself in the unenviable position of receiving the "Huh, what, who are you, I'm engaged, and I don't hang around with third class citizens like yourself," look from Phyllis!

What The Fuck!!

"Blackout" is another outstanding 50's Hammer Terrence Fisher/MichaelCarreras Film Noir minor masterpiece, and is well worth 87 minutes of your time at any given moment! As a double feature with "Stolen Face," it's hard to beat, and can be found at places like Netflix!

THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES / AIP - 1971

It's Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Our weird little feature is fairly representative of the direction horror movies were going at the time, super clever ways in which to get back at the ones who done you wrong! Stars super Dungeon fave, Vincent Price, filmed in England for £300,000.

The music is old fashioned and includes some famaliar pieces. Eegah!! has given us a nice soundclip sampling from the flick, sooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there next to the little green 'STOP' lever... NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's a taste of... THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES!

The story's about Dr. Anton Phibes, a doctor, scientist, organist, and biblical scholar, and, he seeks revenge on nine doctors he considers responsible for his wife's death. The detectives on the case are baffled at every turn with the very creative murders! Bats took care of that jerk on the bed.

Here's the doc putting himself together!

Dr. Hargraves, psychiatrist, gets an assist from Phibes to latch his frog head at the masquerade ball and gets his head shrunk! Party goers watch as Hargraves dies there on the floor in front of them.

Now, it's your turn, Terry-Thomas!! He was caught watching this erotic snake dance by the doc and his helper. We love Terry, he was also in these fine flicks... SCHOOL FOR SCOUNDRELS, OPERATION SNATCH, BACHELOR FLAT, THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM, THE MOUSE ON THE MOON, IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD, THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES, TOP CRACK, MUNSTER, GO HOME!, DANGER: DIABOLIK, THE VAULT OF HORROR, SPANISH FLY, THE CHERRY PICKER, THE BAWDY ADVENTURES OF TOM JONES and THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES ('78).

After a successful murder, the doc celebrates by burning in effigy a small wax figure representing the victim!

In this case, Phibes knocks out the chaffeur and flash freezes the victim in the back seat of his own limousine with a wicked ice machine!

Just really love this pic for some reason...

This dude crashes his plane after he discovers a bunch of hungry rats inside the cockpit! Wheeee!!!

There's nothing more fun and satisfying than working in your mad lab! I oughta know, I have a mad art lab.

All the murders have Biblical implications. Obviously, locusts have something to do with this one.

Did I mention that Joseph Cotton was in this thing?

Will the real Dr. Phibes please stand up?!..

Is this picture cool or what?!

Although the doc gets embalmed with his beloved wife, don't forget!.. DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN!!

DR. NO - "Three Blind Mice" (1962)

Tonight marks the 1400th time we've done this, and movie's like "Dr. No" are virtually impossible to find anything new to say about, so tonight's Saturday Night Special is just more of a reminder for you, that it might be a good time to check it out again, if you haven't seen it in a while! "Dr. No" was the first of the James Bond series, and one of the best!

Ian Fleming's "Dr. No" was released in 1962, and the iconic theme was written by Monty Norman! The same theme has been used in every James Bond movie ever made! The Bond character has changed many, many times, but the theme has always stayed the same! What an awesome achievement when you think about it. To show you where he was coming from, Monty only had a couple of credits before "Dr. No," and those included "Expresso Bongo" in 1959 where he wrote the music along with David Heneker for a song called "Nausea," he was the composer of the music in 1960 for the movie "The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll,' and he wrote the 'Beatnik' music in the 1961 film titled "The Day the Earth Caught Fire!" Go get yourself a shaken, not stirred martini, and we'll give a toast to Monty! Yessirree Buddy! Thank you, and ...Cheers!

"Dr No" starts off with a cool calypso version of "Three Blind Mice," that if you'll remember was also used as "The Three Stooges" theme!! There's nothing funny about these three though, that's for sure!

You know we're whatever is older than Olde Skool, so, in my book, there's really only one James Bond, and that's Sean Connery!!! All the movies after that might as well have had Ray Danton, Glenn Saxson, Tony Kendall, or Brad Harris in them as Bond, because it really didn't matter who it was if it wasn't Sean Connery!!

I started to only show pictures of all the boss cars in this film, and this '57 Chevy convertible was at the top of the heap!!

This is a really rude way to treat cases of  "Red Stripe" beer, probably one of the top 10 beers in the world!

There's lots of weird shenanigans happening over on the private island of "Dr. No," and a lot of it is radioactive, just for good measure!

This is a gorgeous shot......"Dr. No's" interrogation room!

........And this is a gorgeous shot too!! The exotic Zena Marshall is the treacherous Miss Taro, and no matter how she's served, roasted, baked, or boiled, her natural sugars give a sweet, nutty flavour!!

For all of you under the age of 30, this is what was commonly referred to as a record player, and James Bond is about to play a 7" 45 Revolution Per Minute single song, kind of like pushing the play button on your iPhone!

How stupid do you have to be to try and sneak up on James Bond?

This shot really makes me want to get up off my ass and go somewhere!!

The ravishing Ursula (Slave Of The Cannibal God) Andress is Honeychile "Honey" Ryder trespassing on "Dr. No's" private beach! How dare SHE, what a beach!

The dragon that scares off all the locals is nothing more than an amphibious tank and flame thrower!

Terence Young was the director of "Dr. No," and the killer cinematography was the result of the talents of  Ted Moore! Terence Young also directed Bond's "From Russia With Love," and "Thunderball!" Ted Moore  worked on those two and more Bond, and also was directory of photography on "The Gamma People," and "Day Of The Triffids!"

The all powerful and mysterious Dr. Julius No was played by a Canadian, Joseph Wiseman! The same year as "Dr. No," Joseph was in the "Twilight Zone" episode titled "One More Pallbearer!" Joseph continued to work until 1996, and just passed away in 2009 at the age of 91!

The Doctor's underwater pad is the ginchiest! Spellcheck isn't hip enough to know what I'm talkin' about, and wants to know if I mean Munchies, Winchester, Gilchrist, or Ginkoes!

James Bond stages a daring escape through the vent system on the island!

This is the big red "GO" button that Tabonga is always talking about!!

Blogger has really thrown us a curve ball with their new and better technology, bear with us til we get all the wrinkles ironed out! So that's it, and what a fantastic shot to end it all with! Maybe I'll use this shot when we ever get around to The End of this journey!