GIANT CLAWS - "When Nature Rebels, All Hell Breaks Loose" (1980)

This is a pretty fishy Weird Wednesday presentation, but I kinda liked it!

This thing is called "Island Claws," it was made in 1980, and it is a legitimate monster movie that wasn't made in Japan!

Just to start off with the writers are Jack Cowden and Ricou Browning! What do these two men know about underwater adventures? Jack Cowden was the main writer for the "Flipper" TV series, and Mr. Ricou Browning was also a writer for "Flipper" but will always be remembered around these parts for being the man inside the rubber suit in all three of Universal's 'Creature' films!

Considering his creds, the music is not as great as it could have been, probably because Bill Justis was just trying to show he had soundtrack skills! The real story is Bill arranged and led studio bands in Memphis in the 50's for people like Elvis, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis! 

Bill also had the killer smash number two hit in 1957 called "Raunchy!"

Bouncing back from his creepster role in Hitchcock's "Misadventure," 

Barry Nelson is research scientist Dr. McNeal!
Did you know that Barry Nelson was the first actor to play James Bond, not Sean Connery. In the 1954 TV series called "Climax." Season 01, Episode 03 was titled "Casino Royale," and Barry played James Bond! Peter Lorre was the villain!

Since they need some women to be attacked by crabs, we've got Martina (Ghost) Deignan and Jo (The Munster's Revenge) McDonnell joining Barry Nelson, and the other fellow is Steve (Mega Shark Vs. Mecha Shark) Hanks as Pete Adams!

Take away the silly story, and you've almost got a top shelf high school biology class film!

The beer mug art on the wall looks like an ice cream soda instead of beer, but it's beer all right. You just wait and see!

The "4-D" man Robert Lansing is in there as a guy whose name describes him best, Moody!

What was I telling you about the beer? These guys are thiristy, and there's lots of beer drinking going on inside the "Half Shell Bar."

Mal (Yeah, he was in "Flipper" too) Jones is the innocent enough musician named Ames, and the first crab casualty!

Ames says Aaaaaahhhhhh!!

Most people think this is a bad movie, and it is, but at least it's a good bad movie!

It's not so fun when crabs have a gang or pack mentality!

More beer drinking!

The local crabs are getting larger. Growth hormones and nuclear waste make for a mighty potent cocktail!

What's all the screaming about??

Oh, Nevermind!

I was pretty impressed with the fact that they built a full-size giant crab!

"Squeeze me, Please me, Never tease me!"

So I think you get the general idea. Slow start and action packed ending, and just like "The Hokey Pokey,"
 that's what it's all about!

The good news is they've got free crab cakes for weeks!

An alternative title could have been, "Break Out The Butter!"

 Whatever you do, don't confuse the alternate title of "Giant Claws" with.........

.....The classic 1957 film, "The Giant Claw!"

THE OUTER LIMITS: 'The Invisibles' / Season 1 Episode 19 - 1964

Here we go with another classic episode from this great TV series. This time, some aliens plan to take over the US by recruiting disaffected loners adverse to a normal society. The Invisibles send crab-like parasites that attach themselves to human hosts (like in THE BRAIN EATERS and IT CONQUERED THE WORLD) in order to control them. The recruits are assigned low-level jobs with highly appointed government officials so they can get the parasite in close proximity to them. A US intelligence agent infiltrates the alien organization, but it may be too late!

It all starts here, in an old military barracks, three new recruits are taken to a room at the end of a long, dingy hallway!

In another room there though, something pretty damn interesting is about to happen...

The Invisibles recruiter takes a parasite out, pets it and puts it back in its cage. Then, he goes into an unearthly rant about The Invisibles taking over the world!

John (THE LOST WORLD) Graham Is the attachment supervisor, Don (THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS) Gordon plays Agent Spain and Walter (JACK THE GIANT KILLER) Burke plays the Invisibles recruiter.

At this point in the story, we find out that Spain is a government agent reporting in. He's trying to get to the bottom of what in the Hell's going on!

So, Agent Spain is given the job as a chauffeur for the Governor, but, the General (Neil Hamilton) and his helper, Oliver (Richard Dawson), suspect that Spain is an agent. But, the parasite dies and Spain has to wait for another one to arrive...

The General then goes into his emotional alien diatribe, welcome to Coo-Coo Ville!!

While waiting for the parasite to arrive, Oliver keeps an eye on Spain. Our hero tries to escape at night but his foot gets run over by the General's wife when she arrives at the house. During the confusion, Spain is barely able to speed away in the car...

Spain is to meet with another recruit he has befriended, he hobbles his way to the room.

But, his pal has agreed to set a parasite loose on him, hidden in a suitcase under the bed!

The thing is out and Spain crawls away as fast as he can, which ain't that fast, his foot is horribly damaged!.. Crawl you Mofo!!

The parasite, which growls, puts it into turbo drive and attacks Spain. Luckily, his pal comes to his aid and pulls the thing off and throws it as far away as he can. Then...

The cops shoot it full of lead, putting an end to the current nightmare. We also find out that the government is in hot pursuit of rooting out the Hellish creatures and the Invisibles' Earthly helpers! Phew, I was getting worried!!

Tune in again on Wednesday as we continue down the old Dungeon Trail...

5 AGAINST THE HOUSE - "Life Of The Party" (1955)

Welcome to "What A Cast Wednesday" in The Dungeon! 

Tonight's feature is called "5 Against The House!" Tricky title, but not exactly what the movie's about, but then that would be splitting hairs!

"5 Against The House" has a Dungeon all-star cast without a doubt starting with Guy Madison! Good lookin' Guy Madison was born outside of Bakersfield, California in a little hole in the wall called Pumpkin Center. Some 95 years later, the place has done nothing but shrank, and is almost non-existent today! The following year after this film was made, Guy would be in two classic movies, "The Beast Of Hollow Mountain," and "On The Threshold Of Space!"

Kerwin Mathews would go on to be Captain Sinbad, Gulliver, and Jack the Giant Killer in the 60's!

From the 60's to the 90's, Brian Keith wasn't just on, but was the star of at least six television shows ranging from "Family Affair" to "Walter and Emily!!"

Alvy Moore provides the lame comic relief! Alvy was in almost every TV show ever made in the 60's including the "Twilight Zone" episode called "Showdown With Rance McGrew as 'The Man On The Stool!'

And the icing on the cake is Kim Novak in her 4th film! I'm only got one word to say about Kim, "Vertigo!" Unlike all the male stars of this film, Kim is still around and will be celebrating her 85th birthday on February 13th of next year!

To this day, Reno still claims to be the "biggest little city in the world," and I guess it's pretty hard to dispute since there are no real parameters to that declaration!

 "5 Against The House" is just fun to watch as a period piece! To say that casinos have really changed over the years would be a huge understatement!

If these college kids look it a little olde to you, you have to remember that this is set after the war!

 

Kim absolutely kills this song called.....
"Life Of The Party"
Too bad she's not really singing it. The real vocals are by big band vocalist Jo Ann Greer, who was 'the ghost singer' in a handful of other movies too!

The guys think her performance is heaven on earth, and don't really care if it's her singing or not!!

Cool looking shoebox!

Nice frame! Reminds me of "The Graduate"

 

Just like Rio or New Orleans, Reno is having their big annual celebration and everybody in town dresses up like cowboys, so it gives the guys a perfect reason to wear disguises so they can pull off this caper! That's William (The Killers) Conrad on the right as the casino worker! Besides being "Cannon" and "The Fatman," Bill Conrad had a huge career as a narrator on TV shows like "Rocky And His Friends," "The Fugitive," "Tales Of The Unexpected," "Buck Rogers In The 25th Century" etc etc!

Drugs, Smokes, and Show, what more could you possibly need?

The author of the original story, a gentleman known as Jack Finney, also wrote perennial favourite, "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers!"