RAUMPATROUILLIE - DIE PHANTASTISCHEN ABENTEUR DES RAUMSCHIFFES ORION - Peter Thomas - "Space Patrol" (1966)

"Raumpatrouille - Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffes Orion!" The name alone commands your attention, but you gotta admit "Space Patrol" rolls off the tongue a whole lot easier!!

I hit the end of the road while searching for a copy of this series, and there are just enough snippets on Youtube to entice any diehard Sci-Fi fan into taking a European vacation, just so they can see it, because it's readily available in Germany, but you're not going to find it in the U.S except on a way overpriced VHS tape, and that's if you're lucky! It's quite the damn shame! Wirklich!!

What got me going was this trailer brought to you by IMDB and Moviemaze auf Deutschland, and you can see it right here: Raumpatrouille, and only wonder for yourself why it's not available in the states! I thought about buying a DVD player that plays Region 2 DVDs, and found out that they are not as expensive as you would think, but it seems like an extreme length to have to go, to watch a freakin' TV show, but then again, the music IS by Peter Thomas, it just might be worth it!

In this vision of the future, the human civilization had to move "Under the sea, Under the sea, Darling it's better, Down where it's wetter, Take it from me!"

So after you hear the short intro, the music kicks in for this scene where these people are dancing, and this is the main reason, I wanted to see this series! Suddenly, it does seem like the future, cause I sure as Hell don't see anyone dancing like this around here!

It's kinda like an open session of the Hokey Pokey crossed with the Tango, and anybody can just join in! Number 37, come on over !!!

D-E-F-I-N-I-T-E-L-Y got some Funky Chicken thrown in the mix!!

Not even them kissin' cousin line dancers from West Virginia can hold a candle to these future people. I wish I had some better pictures for you, but at least you get the idea, go check it out on Youtube, until something better comes along!!

DIE WEISSE SPINNE - Peter Thomas - "The White Spider" (1963)

Bug Kudos to Sinister Cinema for bringing out the series of Edgar Wallace films, "England's Master of Mystery & Horror" at a very reasonable price, and for including titles like "The White Spider" which even though it isn't an Edgar Wallace film, or English, it falls into the category of "And Others He Inspired" quite nicely!

No strangers to the strange world of Edgar Wallace, director Harold Reinl, and writer Egon Eis are able to spin this tale of a mad makeup artist as well as the master himself!! Harold Reinl also directed "Room 13" and the three best Jerry Cotton Movies! Mystery movies just don't get much better than this!!

A staple in German films of this era, Dieter Eppler shines like a bald diamond as the multi-faceted, and multi-faced Summerfield! Eye patch AND sunglasses at night, now that's a wild cat!! Summerfield is a very bad dude, and besides car crashes, he also has a penchant for cable and hangings!

Karin Dor as Muriel Irvine, the tortured widow left behind, made a successful transition from German to U.S. film, with her roles in Alfred Hitchcock's "Topaz" and Ian Fleming's James Bond vehicle, "You Only Live Twice."

Is the little white spider good luck or is it bad luck? Muriel's husband dies in a fiery car crash as he was leaving The Club, but what's really behind the whole thing?

The Germans have their own special ways of dealing with employees that they have a disagreement with!

Meet Horst Frank as Kiddie Phelips, one of the most devious henchmen you don't ever want to meet. He looks harmless enough, but he is a vicious killer! Last time we saw Horst was as crime boss Larry Link in the classic Jerry Cotton feature, "The Traps Snaps Shut At Midnight!"

The last, but definitely not least major player in "The White Spider" is yet another Dungeon iconoclast, Joachim Fuchsberger as just plain ole Ralph Hubbard!

Ralph is literally up to his ears in trouble as the smartass ex-con trying to help Muriel sort out all the problems after her husband's untimely demise!!

The music for "Die Weisse Spinne" was composed by one of the Dungeon's major musical heroes, and all around nice guy, the masestro Peter Thomas! Peter's work is always just one step above the rest, driven by boundless imagination and unpredictable jazzy scores. Besides everything else, he wrote the music for "Raumpatrouille" the German Space Patrol, The Jerry Cotton films, and a score of Edgar Wallace movies. Just a couple of titles we may have never mentioned before are "To Hell With School," "The Mysterious Magician," and "Face Of The Frog!"

Kiddie and Summerfield have a brief disagreement, and Summerfield quickly shows Kiddie who's the boss with one of his cable lasso tricks!

Ever want a cheap but very effective scary ass Halloween mask? Well, don't forget about the old silk stocking over the head routine, it always looks freaky!!

There's also a very mysterious force being emitted by the authorities, and even the local law enforcement can be subject to intense interrogation!

I can't count high enough, so I don't know exactly how many different personas Summerfield takes on during the course of the film, but I'm pretty sure it's more than Tony Randall in "7 Faces Of Dr. Lao!"

Here's even a couple more, let's hope he got paid salaries for each different character, it would only be fair!

In the film "The College Girl Murders," I wrote that Joachim Fuchsberger was chewing gum throughout the whole movie, in this one, I think he's munching on something about half the time! What a great character!

Joachim is the only one smart enough to carry wirecutters around with him!

I'm not sure exactly who to credit for set design, but isn't this a wild amalgamation of objects? There's a skeleton, a Balinese carved mask, a poster of a polka trio, and Lord only knows what else just for starters!

In The End, this whole amazing film gets a most deserved standing ovation, kinda like when CREAM reunited, it's an all-star ensemble!!

25 GOOD REASONS TO WATCH OLDE MOVIES Part 02

 Life without history is meaningless! So where are we at in the wheel of life?  5% or 93%? 

Your guess is as good as mine, but all I know is that there's a Helluva lot of good reasons to look back, because the future looks dim, but the past is still a shining star!

So, here they are, 25 more reasons to appreciate the past, in no particular order!

#26 - Agnès Spaak - "The Secret Of Dr. Orloff"  (1964)

#27 - Barbara Eden - "I Dream Of Jeannie"

 #28 - Barbara Steele - "Black Sabbath" etc, etc, etc!

 #29 - Barboura Morris - "Bucket Of Blood" & "Wasp Woman" So mouth watering, it makes me want to Barbecue something!

 #30 - Carolyn (Morticia Addams) Jones

 #31 - Daliah Lavi - "The Silencers" "Some Girls Do"

 #32 - Dany Carrel - "The Hands Of Orlac"

#33 - Isn't this just the cutest damn picture you've ever seen of Diana Rigg in your life?

It was in mine!

 #34 - Elizabeth Montgomery - "Bewitched"

 #35 - Elke Sommer

When I was digging around looking for photos, sometimes I ended up with more than one. It's not that I necessarily like these ladies more than the others, but why beat myself up trying to pick out one? It's not worth the hassle, when you can get two or more for the price of one!

 #36 - Eva Pflug - "Raumpatrouille Orion"

#37 - Honor Blackman - "The Avengers"

#38 - Irish McCalla - "Sheena: Queen Of The Jungle"

#39 - Jeanne Carmen - "The Monster Of Piedras Blancas" and an amazing golfer!

#40 - Julie Newmar - If I was going to truly fall in love with one of these gals, I think it would be Julie! Can you blame me?

#41 - Kamala Devi - "The Brass Bottle"

#42 - Kumi Mizuno - "Gojira, Ebirâ, Mosura: Nankai No Daiketto" etc.

#43 - Lilli Palmer - All four of these shots are so good, I couldn't just pick one or two!

#44 - Lori Eastside as Nada. Her performance just drives me crazy!

#45 - Maria Perschy - "Horror Of The Zombies" etc.

#46 - Sylva Koscina -"Deadlier Than The Male" etc.

 #47 - Mara Corday - "Tarantula" Etc.

 48 - Shirley Eaton - "Goldfinger" etc.

#49 - Soledad Miranda - "Sound Of Horror" "Vampyros Lesbos" etc.

#50 - Susan Hart - "The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini" "The Slime People" etc.

Seriously, don't you want to see every movie or TV show that each and every one of these gals has appeared in now? 

If not, then you just might want to check yourself into the emergency room ASAP, because you have no pulse!!
And if you just happen to still not see your favourite on this list, don't fret because I'm working on Part 3 right now!