NABONGA - "Weird Loves" (1944)

I think it's about time for another Gorilla Suit Saturday Night Special in The Dungeon, so tonight I've got one of the true classic gorilla suit movies, from 1944, it's Tabonga's third cousin on the primate side......

......"NABONGA" also known as "GORILLA."

An  African Airways plane full of stolen Jewelry has gone down in the jungle! The only passengers are a man and his young daughter.

After the plane crashes, the devious man shoots the pilot, and the girl is whisked off into the deep dark depths of the jungle by a large gorilla!

 The next thing you know it must be about eight years later, and all the local people know about the white witch of the jungle who has powers over some of the animals, especially one gorilla in particular!

A few days ago he was drinking martinis with Ray Danton, and now he's back in the jungle where he belongs! Barton MacLane is Carl Hurst, but he reminds me a lot of George Bush!

Buster (Flash Gordon) Crabbe as Ray Gorman needs to find that treasure, and Prince (South of Suez) Modupe as Tobo is more than happy to help him, since Ray just stopped another man from stabbing him.

Fifi D'Orsay as Marie was actually Canadian but you'd never guess it from the her accent or this outfit!

She's Carl's little henchwoman!

Tobo draws this very detailed map that shows how to get to the downed plane wreckage!

Ray Gorman has no idea what he's getting himself into!

Julie London was only 18 when this film was made!

If you spent as much time in thrift stores as I have looking at records, you would have seen Julie London's whole catalogue of music at some point. The smokey, sultry, sexy singer was probably only outdone by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass in the 'donated to charity' department!

Buster does a good job of looking genuinely terrified by Ray Corrigan, the man inside the gorilla suit!

Ray Gorman and the white witch have a tentative relationship. He kind of likes her, but he really only wants the jewels, and she kind of likes him, but she's not giving them up because they're hers!

Somebody should have remade this film a few years ago, and used Drew Barrymore as the white witch! Asking who does her hair or where she gets her clothes would almost make as much sense as asking.......

......How Ray and Marie put this gorilla trap together in about 15 minutes!

Carl and Marie end up getting their just rewards!

Dig deep folks! We still needs it!!

More not truth in advertising! Her picture isn't even in this one, and in all the other posters Julie London has the smallest credits, but then Ray Corrigan has no poster credits, and is known only as Nbonga, so I guess it all works out!!

CRIME AGAINST JOE - "That's him....that's the man who attacked me!" (1956)

Tonight's Wild Wednesday feature is a 1956 film directed by Lee "Rollem" Sholem entitled "Crime Against Joe." Lee Sholem had a reputation for having a no nonsense, let's just get this done, attitude! For example, "Crime Against Joe" was scheduled to be shot over the course of seven days. Lee Sholem finished the shoot in five days, hence the nickname "Rollem."
This poster is an amazing piece of exploitation art, and has almost nothing at all to do with the picture. To me the poster projects Julie London as the victim, when she is really the hero, and is just wrong in it's entirety!

One of the greatest things about watching movies from the 50's is you get killer shots like this!

Manly man John Bromfield is Joe Manning. If you like jungle horror films, then John is the man. He starred in "Manfish," "Revenge Of The Creature" and "Curucu, Beast Of The Amazon." Like cowboy TV shows? John was also the star in 78 episodes of "The Man From Cochise."

A depressed Korean war veteran, and wannabe artiste, Joe Manning lives at his Mom's house!

Out of frustration  he just tossed some red paint on this painting!

Joe's Mom supports him, and he calls her by her first name Nora, not Mother or Mom. 

Nora Manning is played by Frances (The Lost Missile, The Night Of The Hunter) Morris.

Joe just might have a bit of a drinking problem!

Filmed entirely in Tucson, Arizona, this was Duke's Drive-In circa 1956!

This is Duke's Drive-In today!

Joe really shouldn't be driving!

A couple of months ago, I told you all about Julie London, and her role in "Nabonga!"

In "Crime Against Joe," Julie plays a carhop named Frances "Slacks" Bennett! It's kind of surprising that they didn't film another Jungle movie with John and Julie instead!

Welcome to the world famous Pago-Pago Lounge, a tiki bar in a Tucson, Arizona.

 In this movie it's called the Pango-Pango Club, because that is the proper pronunciation of Pago-Pago.

The Pago-Pago is no longer open, and at one point turned into the Aku-Aku, and then the Ports O Call. No longer a lounge or restaurant, I read that it is scheduled for restoration!

The singer in the bar is Alika Louis as Irene Crescent in her sole acting performance! She performs  the cool tune "Looking For A Man."

There are a lot of jealous people in this story! The barkeep doesn't like Joe hitting on Irene so he punches his lights out in front of the bar. This cowboy, an old schoolmate of Joe's, witnesses the whole thing!

Joe is wandering around in the middle of the night in a drunken stupor when he stumbles on this pretty gal out sleepwalking. Joe tells the concerned Father, and is given a cordial but brisk thank-you!

So while Joe's out stumbling around town, somebody murders Irene Crescent, and she was found with this high school pin clutched in her hand that Joe and all his classmates received upon graduating.

All Joe has to do is produce his own, and he's in the clear, but who knows where it might be? It's been a few years since he's seen his, and isn't real clear where it's at.

Besides Slacks, Joe's only got one friend who believes in him, Henry Calvin as the cab driver Red Teller! There's only one problem, even though Joe and Slacks aren't an item, Red's still a little jealous just because he's been in love with her for years.

For all you "Zorro" fans, Henry was Sgt. Demetrio Lopez Garcia in 81 episodes of that show!

Looking through the high school yearbook for clues! At this point, almost any of these guys seem like they might be murderers!  Besides the cowboy, there's a politician named Ralph Corey, and a lawyer who are also possible suspects.

George Niles seems like a good candidate, especially after he tries to run Slacks over with his car!

The Father of the sleepwalking girl will not substantiate Joe's story because he thinks it would be too embarrassing for his daughter. She's tired of his overbearing jealousy, and gives him both barrels!

The daughter was played by Patricia (The Black Sleep) Blair. Patricia was also Rebecca Boone in 118 episodes of  the "Daniel Boone" TV series!

Slacks and Joe go to the high school reunion dance for the class of 1945, and while they are at the school, they sneak off to the records office to see if the records show any aberrant anti-social behavior in any of Joe's classmates. 

Uh, Oh, the jig is up, and not only are Joe and Slacks going to finally find out who the killer is, the viewer is about to find out at the same time, but........

.......I think this movie is short enough,

 and good enough, that you should just find out on your own!

Moral of the story....Don't drink and drive!!!

THE INVISIBLE MAN'S REVENGE / THEY'RE MARKED...for DEATH! - 1944

Welp. looks like we've got another classic Universal movie today, this time, an eccentric scientist helps a fugitive running from the law become invisible, unwittingly giving him the power to exact revenge on his former friends and business partners...

It stars Jon (MONSTER FROM THE SURF) Hall, Leon (MEXICAN SPITFIRE'S ELEPHANT) Errol, John (THE UNEARTHLY) Carradine, Alan (PHILO VANCE'S SECRET MISSION) Curtis, Evelyn (THE WOLF MAN) Ankers, and Gale (THE BLACK CAT) Sondergaard.

It's a twisted tale to start with, Bob Griffin has made his way back to London from South Africa after he became ill and ended up in a mental hospital. He has escaped from South Africa by killing two interns at the hospital. Running from the law, Griffin shows up at his partner's home and demands his cut of the fortune (of which he has the contract with him) from their diamond mine (business partner Sir Jasper Herrick and his wife left South Africa after they thought Griffin would die from his illness) but finds out that they lost most of the money in an investment that went south.

Griffin gets angry and tells Herrick that he wants everything they have including their home! And their daughter, Julie!!.. But after Griffin has a drink, he becomes dizzy and faints. Thinking they're dealing with a madman, Jasper and Irene take the contract and then have their butler dump the body near a nearby lake.

At the lake, Griffin wakes up but is still dizzy, and falls in the water. Luckily, Herbert Higgins is strolling by and pulls him out of the lake. He takes Griffin home with him and lets him stay there while he recovers.

Griffin, paranoid, goes wandering (he had to leave the place he was staying because of the police) and comes across a large stone house. It's the home of the scientist, Doctor Drury. Asking for help, he tells the doctor that he's hiding from the police, and that he was being unjustly accused. The doctor lets Griffin come in, and he shows him his mad lab.

Then the doc shows him his faithful invisible German Shepard, and tells him the story of how one intruder found that out the hard way!

So, after Griffin becomes invisible and pummels the doctor, he heads off into the night.

Griffin sneaks into Jasper's house and gives him a big surprise, and has him write out a letter of guilt dictated by the invisible bully, and then he leaves.

He goes back to Herbert's place and spooks the Hell out of his friend!

But, Herbert doesn't have the rent money and is getting kicked out. So, Griffin comes up with a scheme. They go to the pub and bet 5 pounds that Herbert can hit the bulls eye with all his darts. the big guy on the right top takes him up on the bet. After Griffith assists Herbert by running the dart to the center of the bulls eye a number of times, the little guy shoots a dart off of a squeeze box and it hits its mark. The guy who's betting with Herbert finally loses his cool!

He takes his money back from the little guy and is ready to clock him when Griffin steps in and knocks the big guy out cold. Everyone thinks Herbert hit him!

Griffin is creeping around the doctor's house one night.

He sees the doc give his dog a transfusion where it becomes visible again!

Griffin has the doctor call the police, asking for Mark Foster, Julie's beau, to have him come to his house where he can find the invisible man. What Griffin wants Foster for is to drain his blood for the transfusion, and to get rid of him so that he can marry Julie. But, Mark is not there, so Griffin decides to use Dr. Drury, calling the police back (as the doctor) to say he didn't make the call.

Then Mark shows up and the officers tell him the odd story of the phone calls. Mark (a newspaper reporter) grabs a policeman and they drive out to the doctor's place to check the story out.

In the meantime, Griffin has finished the transfusion and starts the place on fire! The dog (now visible) escapes the house and follows Griffin through the woods.

Now visible himself, Griffin goes back to Jasper's house and tells him and the butler that he's a guest who is there to stay for a while, and his name's not Griffin, it's Fields!

Griffin's new plan is to get rid of Mark and marry into the money with Julie!

Herbert drops in to say hello to his friend, but the crazy man is thinking about using Herbert's blood for the next transfusion!! The little guy weasels his way out of the sticky situation, so, Griffin wants him to kills the dog that keeps howling and is driving him crazy. Herbert agrees after Griffin says that he'll give him 1,000 pounds to take care of the dog!!

But at lunch when Julie and Mark are there, Griffin starts to turn invisible again. He runs out of the room saying that he had cut his hand with a knife.

Mark is lured to the basement where Griffin locks him in, then begins to pummel the unsuspecting victim. The maniac knocks Mark out and puts him on a table where he starts performing the transfusion...

Herbert cannot control the dog and it gets loose and goes directly to the basement door where it scratches and howls.

The police show up and knock a hole in the door and the dog jumps through and goes directly at Griffin. By the time the cops break in, it's too late, the invisible man is Dead!! Mark recovers and there's a happy ending.

If the world doesn't end, we'll be back on Wednesday with who the Hell knows what, here at The Dungeon!!..