OCTAMAN / Filmers Guild - 1976

Welcome to Friday Night Halloween Countdown Drive-In Theater with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. And, as promised, here is our offering of... OCTAMAN!

For those not familiar with this weird little story, it goes like this... A scientific expedition in Mexico discovers several unusual baby octopus specimens that seem to have been spawned by toxic waste in the water. Octopus in a river? Whatever. Anywho, when several of the little critters are captured, their half-man/half-octopus parent gets involved.

The music is by... Who The Hell Knows!

Lettuce then bring in our little Friday Night Dungeon helper and button pusher, what else... Rufus The Gnat!.. Rufus is here to start our Eariffic Soundclip, so... Push the big red 'GO' button there in front of your nose, now, Rufus! Here's... OCTAMAN!

If you can understand these numbers and what they mean, then, good for you! I assumed they were just arbitrary numbers made up by the prop department because they were making a movie. Filmed at the old same place, Bronson Canyon and Griffith Park.

Let's honk and let them know we're here!

It stars Dungeon favorite, Kerwin Mathews, he plays Dr. Rick Torres. Kerwin got his start as Major Caldwell on TV's SPACE PATROL in 1954 in the episode called 'The Escape Of Dr. Proteus.'

Dr. Rick is shown a little mutant octopus found in the water. Then, you get to see what the baby's seeing... Ain't that cute?

Uh oh!!..

This classic puss was designed by George Barr, built by Rick Baker and Doug Beswick and worn by Read Morgan.

Jeff Morrow gets a starring credit for 5 minutes of screen time! Here, he sports a mustache as Dr. Willard, head of the IEI.

Looks a lot like Hedorah!

Dr. Rick learns a bunch of junk from Dr. Willard, then, goes out into the countryside to talk with residents about anything strange they may have recently noticed.

He's shown a page of a weird looking creatures made by a local. Which, I'm pretty sure, are some prelims by Barr.

Number 3, gimme a profile!

This dude's searchin' for worms, when, he looks up and gets Octaman's tentacles raked across his face!

This reminds me of the scene where Tabonga throws the Chief down the hill in FROM HELL IT CAME.

Winnebagos were new and quite a big deal back then!

What a motley crew, that's top billed Pier Angeli there, leading the pack. This would be her last film (filmed in 1971), because, disillusioned with her career, was found dead of a barbiturate overdose in her Beverly Hills home. She was 39 years old.

Looks like they built the costume right onto a pair of cowboy boots!

All I can say is, dude!.. Watch out for them freakin' tentacles!!

TRICK OR TREAT, YOU SON OF A BITCH!!

Here are 3 pics for all the gurlz, 4 hot studs from the seventies!!

This is what it takes to humiliate and then capture an Octaman!

It escapes and they follow it through the forest to this cave. There's no forest near the mouth of any cave at Bronson Canyon, you can see that the branches they cut and brought to the set were all dried up by the time they shot this part!

DRAW!!!..

Oh, right, you don't have a gun... Sorry!

They fill it full of lead, so, it decides to head back into the water...

And, take your cheap, piece-o-crap trinkets with you!

KRONOS / Regal Films -1957

Welcome to another Halloween Countdown Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. I was lucky enough to see this sci-fi gem when it came out, I had just turned nine. I absolutely loved the movie, it had it all!! This is a special Halloween widescreen redo of an earlier post.

In our soundclip, we hear the pickup driver whistling to a tune on the radio, and, that tune happens to be by the legendary Johnny Mercer!

Okay then, lettuce bring in our fuzzy little Dungeon helper and button pusher, of course, it's Ralphie The Tarantula! Ralphie's here to start our show by pushing that big red 'GO' button over there by the nukeular washing machine, so, push the button, now, Ralphie!! Here's the driving scene from... KRONOS!

Kenneth Alton plays the pickup driver in this opening scene, who's attacked/possessed, whatever you want to call it, to perfection. Here's yet another guy who just had that look, so, besides pickup driver, he was the guy you'd choose when you needed an Apache kid, a Hun warrior, Russian sentry, cowboy, policeman or boxer!

The driver pays a visit to the head of the scientific project, Dr. Eliot, and proceeds to transfer the alien force into him. The doctor is played by John Emery, John was in ROCKETSHIP X-M and THE MAD MAGICIAN and did an episode in each of these TV series... LIGHTS OUT, SUSPENSE, CLIMAX!, I LOVE LUCY, HAVE GUN - WILL TRAVEL, THRILLER, ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS and WAGON TRAIN.

Dr. Eliot goes to the dark side and starts communicating with the alien craft.

Here's George (BOP GIRL GOES CALYPSO) O'Hanlon as Dr. Culver and Barbara (HERE COMES THE NELSONS/OKLAHOMA!) Lawrence as Vera Hunter. Dr. Culver explains to Vera how the super computer got the name SUSIE.

The military decides to hit the 'asteroid' with a bevy of missiles armed with nuclear war heads.

They hit!!..

The 'asteroid' plunges into the ocean off the coast of Mexico, so, Dr. Culver and Dr. Gaskell rent out a casa nearby. Jeff Morrow plays Dr. Gaskell. We love Jeff here at The Dungeon because of movies like THIS ISLAND EARTH, THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US, THE GIANT CLAW and an upcoming Halloween Countdown Friday Night Drive-In post, OCTAMAN!!

In the meantime, Dr. Eliot has fallen into a coma and his mind is completely melded with the alien force.

The next morning, a weird looking giant robot rises from the ocean and moves itself to the shoreline.

The gang take a helicopter and go exploring on the top of the thing.

Dr. Eliot's out of the hospital now, so, decides to deep six his fellow scientist, Dr. Stern, played by Morris Ankrum. Morris had a monster movie resume second to none!

Dr. Eliot gives the thing the coordinates of an atomic facility, and, well, see for yourself what happened!

KRONOS locks in on the B-47 and pulls it in for an atomic bomb snack!

KRONOS now has everything it needs to depleat the Earth of it's energy resources and has grown to mammoth proportions. The doctor's no longer needed and is drained of his life forces!

Good thing this is a widescreen print!

This F-100 pilot drops a canister of negative... whatever, to see if they can trick KRONOS into swallowing it!

It does, and, Kronos starts to implode from feeding off itself! Great special effects!!

KA-EFFIN-BLEWIE!!

We can all give a big sigh of relief, now... It atchally woiked!! Phew!..

Two very nice posters, also known as... KRONOS, DESTROYER OF THE UNIVERSE!

In fact, I liked KRONOS so much that my 8 page comic story, "The Devil Robots," published in VORTEX Comics #12 in 1986, was modelled after it. My robots were also energy vampires that went from solar system to solar system exploiting any developed civilizations! To top it all off, I think that THE IRON GIANT story may have been inspired by my Devil Robots, there are a few weird coincidences. I also did the cover art shown here.

Happy Halloweenie, Everbloody!!