R.I.P. - PETER THOMAS (December 1, 1925 – May 17, 2020)

 Well, I had something completely different planned for tonight, but I was just informed by Lord Litter in Berlin, that the great composer and Dungeon hero Peter Thomas has passed away at the age of 95 on May 17th.

Sadly, you probably won't even hear about it on the news in the U.S.

So here are some of the films, and one TV show, that Peter has scored that we have featured on this blog. Take a look, and you'll understand why I think he was one of, if not the best, soundtrack composers of all time!

1962 - "Das Rätsel Der Roten Orchidee" (The Secret Of The Red Orchid)

1963 - "Das Indische Tuch" (The Indian Scarf)

1963 -  Die Weisse Spinne (The White Spider)

1964 "Die Gruft Mit Dem Rätselschloß" (The Curse Of The Hidden Vault)

1964 - "Zimmer 13" (Room 13) 

1965 - "Schüsse Aus Dem Geigenkasten" (The Violin Case Murders)

1966 - "Raumpatrouille!"(German Space Patrol)
 

1966 - "Die Rechnung - Eiskalt Serviert" (Tip Not Included) 

1966 - "The Trygon Factor"  

1966 - "Um Null Uhr Schnappt Die Falle Zu"

1967 - "Die Schlangengrube Und Das Pendel" (Castle Of The Walking Dead)

1967 "Der Mörderclub Von Brooklyn" (The Body In Central Park)

1968 - Der Hund Von Blackwood Castle" (The Monster Of Blackwood Castle)

1968 - "Dynamit In Grüner Seide" (Death And Diamonds)

1968 - "Der Tot Im Roten Jaguar" (Death In The Red Jaguar)

1969 - "Der Mann Mit Dem Glasauge" (The Man With The Glass Eye)
And that's just a taste!
Peter Thomas left us with 175 composing credits to his name, and his passing is the end of an era!
Try as they may, he will never be replaced!

SOME NEAT ALBUM COVERS FROM MOVIES & TV SHOWS (1956 - 1987)

The original concept of this blog was to be 'music from the monster movies,' so I think it's about time I showed you some of the record soundtrack album covers to go along with some of those movies! Welcome to The Dungeon! Up first from 1956, is the wild electronic soundtrack by Louis and Bebe Barron for one of the best movies of all time, "Forbidden Planet." As cool and ahead of it's time as this music was, it's still hard for me to imagine anybody taking this record home and listening to it over and over. It was perfect for the movie, but it's just not that kind of music!

I was going to strictly do records from movies we've written about here, but I'm making the exception for these two "Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer" records, just because it's Mickey Spillane we're talking about here, not some ordinary chump!!

 "The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad" from 1958 had a magnificent score by Bernard Herrmann!

"I Married A Monster From Outer Space" came out in 1958, but this 'soundtrack' CD wasn't released until 2012. I still included it here since it's one of our favourite movies!

This LP was a 1964 release of music from the TV series "Burke's Law." The double entendre here is that the composer's name was Herschel Burke Gilbert. Tricky, right?

Piero Umiliani was a gifted composer we have featured here many times, and I'm sure this 1965 album for the movie "Operazione Poker" is a swingin' affair! Five aces in the deck, you gotta love it!

"The Satan Bug" came out in 1965, but this hard to find CD by Jerry Goldsmith wasn't released until 2007.

This fantastic record of music by Peter Thomas for the German Space Patrol, "Raumpatrouille" was released in 1966. I'm pretty sure that autographed CD's can still be purchased from BSC Music for a very reasonable price.

This seven inch 45 from 1966 by Nelson Riddle featured the "Batman Theme" written by Neal Hefti from the "Batman" TV series, and the flip side was another composer play on words, called "Nelson's Riddler!"

In 1967 "Bedazzled" came out, and this soundtrack LP came out the following year. Most of the music for the movie was composed by Dudley Moore himself. What a talented guy he was!

This is the cover for a 2016 vinyl LP they released of the 1967 film "Mad Monster Party" featuring music composed by Maury Lewis and Jules Bass, with some spoken word from Boris Karloff, and the title song sung by Ethel Ennis as can be heard right here!

This 1968 soundtrack from "Danger: Diabolik" is composed by Maestro Ennio Morricone and features the awesome song "Deep Down."

The prolific Bruno Nicolai is another Italian composer we've featured on these pages a number of times! This 1972 LP featured the music from the film "All The Colors Of The Dark!"

This CD for the 1973 film "The Satanic Rites Of Dracula" composed by John Cacavas, came back from the dead in 2011.

Sun Ra and his amazing Intergalactic Solar Arkestra came out with this movie and record called "Space Is The Place" in 1974, and is a must-see for any true fan of music!

"Suspiria" from 1977 is a Dario Argento movie we haven't got around to yet, but I wanted to include this cover just because I like the "Creepers" band called Goblin!

"The Monster Club" came out in 1981, with this very fun and listenable soundtrack featuring B.A. Robertson, The Viewers, Night, UB-40, Expressos. The Pretty Things, John Williams with the Douglas Gamely Orchestra, John Georgiadis, and Alan Hawkshaw!

Last but not least comes "Evil Dead II" from 1987, and music from Joseph Lo Duca!

Pretty Crazy, huh?

DYNAMIT IN GRÜNER SEIDE - Peter Thomas "Death And Diamonds" (1968)

Tonight's Saturday Night Special is straight out of 1967 Deutschland and is called "Dynamit In Grüner Seide" oder auf Englisch,  "Death And Diamonds!"

First off, a big shout out to my old buddy from Berlin, Lord Litter, who was the first person to turn me on to the Jerry Cotton series of films! In the 1960's there were eight Jerry Cotton Films made, and each and every one of them are worth seeking out, and you can thank Sinister Cinema for making them still available today!

"Death And Diamonds" starts off with the heist of some poison gas! Love that smiling skull!! It's like "Danger!!! Go out and have some fun kids!!!"

Dungeon Super Hero George Nader is FBI agent Jerry Cotton! Jerry  is one cool mofo and it's up to him to find out what the Hell is going on!

First stop is the Green Silk Bar in Los Angeles, California, or is it Berlin?

What an awesome scene, there's more go-go girls than there are patrons in the bar! Man, this is a dream come true!

Great trick to pull when you know somebody is spying on you, pop a bag into the secret spy microphone and blow their eardrums out! Works every time!! Jerry Cotton knows all the tricks!

Is anybody out there old enough to remember when slot car racing was all the rage? There was a time when every small burg in the civilized world had a slot car track race course! I used to have a kickass slot car that was painted purple and chartreuse!!! The colors alone totally smoked the competition!

Some smart ass decides to challenge Jerry's masculinity!!

Just to prove that the movie was made in L.A., they took a shot of the Los Angeles Street sign!

One thing about Jerry Cotton films that sets them apart from most of the other spy movies made in the 60's is that the killer music was composed by the genius Peter Thomas! Peter also scored quite a few films in the Edgar Wallace series, and was also of course responsible for the über-cool music in "Raumpatrouille" aka the German "Space Patrol!"

Breaking all of the rules, the first thing they ever taught me in film class was don't wave at the camera!! Jerry Cotton is the only cat cool enough to make it work!!

In "Death And Diamonds" Jerry is posing as a British guy who is a specialist at getting past alarm systems!

After Jerry rigs the alarm, the gang shoots the gas into this room and knocks out all these men inspecting the diamonds and then remotely vacuum them up using this tricky device! If they stay in this condition for too long they will die, and that's when Jerry freaks out, and tries to disrupt the whole operation!

To try and get rid of him, they stick Jerry's ass in an incinerator!!

I'm allowed at least one of these per film, I just like this shot!!

Enter femme fatale Marlies Dräger as the vixen Mabel! Marlies only has 9 acting credits to her name but is still considered one of the glamour girls of the 60's! Follow this link if you want to see a picture of Marlies topless! Marlies was also in the Edgar Wallace classic that we will feature here one day, "The Man With The Glass Eye!"

Tied up there in the background is the other female lead in the story, Sylvia Solar as Lana! Sylvia was hot like the sun, and was in a bunch of weird movies like "Danger! Death Ray," "Mexican Slayride," "The Wicked Caressses OF Satan," and "Cannibal Terror!"

After Marlies Dräger, here's my favourite part of the movie, this Cadillac with the bad guys in it is coming right at Jerry, and he runs at it, jumps through the windshield feet first, and punches out the driver all at the same time! What a guy!!

Jerry is in hot pursuit right up to The End! There is only one way to describe a movie like "Death And Diamonds!" Incredible!!!