TENEBRE - "Darkness" (1982)

 The Saturday Night Special this week is another one of those non-stop laugh fests from the twisted mind of the Maestro Dario Argento!

 The original title was "Tenebre" but they changed it over to "Tenebrae" so you English speaking peoples could understand it better!

"Tenebrae" has a religious connotation but is also Latin for 'Darkness.'

"Tenebrae" has quite a cast that includes Anthony Franciosa as famed author Peter Neal. Over the course of his fine career, Anthony, also known as Tony, starred in at least five different TV shows from the 60's to the 80's including ""Valentine's Day," "The Name Of The Game," "Search," "Matt Helm," and "Finder Of Lost Loves."

Peter Neal has gone to Rome to promote his new novel called "Tenebrae."

There are so many pretty girls in this film that's it's hard to keep up with them!

Usually by about the time you get acquainted with a character, they get murdered in some grisly fashion usually including a straight razor or an axe!

John (The Evil Eye, Queen Of Blood) Saxon has the role of Peter Neal's agent!
With 198 credits under his belt, John is still working today, and has two new films in pre or post production!

The stories about the filming of "Tenebrae" could be made into a movie themselves, like the one about why Daria Nicolodi had the role of Anne, and how her new found relationship with her co-star Anthony Franciosa irritated the Hell out of her main squeeze Dario Argento!

 

Lara (Satan's Wife) Wendel is lovely as ever in the role of Maria Alboretto, an innocent young lady extremely persecuted!

Movies like this drive me crazy because the subject matter is so ugly, but the filming of it is so beautiful! There's one incredibly amazing 2 1/2 minute crane shot from the outside of a building that took three days to shoot! That's how meticulous Argento is!

"Tenebrae" crosses enough lines and is so grisly that it was banned in England until 1999, and was also banned in Germany for at least 25 years!

The hand of the killer in a black leather glove that is seen in a number of scenes, is the hand of Dario Argento himself!

Poor Maria is not only murdered!

She is persued first by a relentless Doberman Pinscher that can seemingly jump over, or scale every fence known to man! You really want her to get away, but you just know it's not going to happen!

Flanked by Daria Nicolodi as Anne, and Christiab Borromeo as Gianni, Peter Neal thinks he's got the whole thing figured out!

Just waiting even takes on whole new meaning when Dario Argento is running the show, and only Argento can make something as boring as just sitting around into something interesting!

The music is performed once again by Goblin, as they did in "Deep Red" and "Suspiria," but this time they are credited as the individual players Massimo Morante, Fabio Pignatelli, and Claudio Simonetti, instead of Goblin, because the drummer was no longer with them and owned the rights to the name Goblin!

 

 Daria Nicolodi is the reason I watched "Tenebre," and this last scene will show you why!

Despite all the horror films I've watched, I'm still not a big fan of stilettos, axes and straight razors, but Dario Argento always takes it to another level, and that's all I'm gonna say!

You can read all about it in this very extensive Wikipedia article!

LADY IN CEMENT - "A Private Eye In Over His Head" (1968)

It's about time we had a Sinatra Saturday Night Special, so that's just what I'm gonna do!

"Ring-A-Ding-Ding!"

2020 is the "Year Of The Rat," but I can't wait until then, so tonight's film will be an early Chinese New Year's celebration since it stars the leader of The Rat Pack himself, the Chairman Of The Board, Mr. Frank Sinatra!

We've featured all the other Rat Pack members except Joey Bishop at least once!

Dean Martin as Matt Helm was always fun, and Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford were both in 

"Salt And Pepper," 

but we've never featured Frankie in a feature of his own before, so let's get affair swingin'!

Frank Sinatra as Tony Rome, and his pal Pat (Matilda) Henry as Rubin, are out looking for treasure!

"Eleven Treasure Galleons Sunk" in this area, seems like it might be their lucky day!

Not so lucky after all......

......What Tony Rome finds is a blonde wearing cement shoes!

The guy responsible for staging the underwater scenes was Ricou Browning, who was the Gill Man in the underwater scenes of all three of the "Creature From The Black Lagoon" movies!

Ricou was also one of the original creators of "Flipper!"

Good ole Dan (Hoss) Blocker plays the literal heavy Waldo Gronsky!

On the right, that's Lainie (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) Kazan as exotic dancer Maria Baretto in one of her earliest roles! I'm happy to say that Lainie is still going strong and actively working today!

I used to drive a 1961 Ford Galaxie too, except mine wasn't a convertible, and the car I had after that was a 1969 Chevy Impala, and it was a convertible!

Raquel Welch plays a rich alcoholic! She's a beautiful woman, but she looks best in a robe and less makeup!

I wonder who has this painting today!

Dan Blocker was 6' 4" and Frankie was 5' 7 1/2" and it makes for quite a pairing!

Gulfstream Park in Florida is still alive and racing today, and is home to the now world famous "Pegasus World Cup!"

For me, Frank Sinatra and Raquel Welch are an odd match at best!

Richard Deacon has a very odd role as an artiste with a model who needs to get up and go to the bathroom! Richard was Mel Cooley in 82 episodes of "The Dick Van Dyke Show," he was in "The Birds," and "Piranha," and the star of the "Twilight Zone" episode called "The Brain Center At Whipple's."

Simplicity at it's finest, like a meal in a 5 star Michelin restaurant!

They have nice back yards in Miami!

 That's Richard (77 Sunset Strip, The Blue Gardenia) Conte reprising his role as Tony Rome's cop buddy from the first "Tony Rome" movie.

Richard was also in the "Twilight Zone" episode titled "Perchance To Dream."

As crowded as this place was in 1968, I can't imagine what it would be like today!

"Lady In Cement" is a sick, twisted, and sexy comedy!

For example, in this scene, Gronksky is watching "Bonanza" on TV!

This Japanese poster is one of the more honest ones as far as content is concerned!
I don't exactly get it, but in a few of the posters for "Lady In Cement," they have the nude body dangling upside down from a ball and tackle, and not in the water, and I say....
That's just weird!

THE STRANGLER - Victor Buono (1964)

There's probably nothing much stranger than a strangler in The Dungeon for a Saturday night Special! I searched our blog, and it's pretty amazing how many titles there are with the word 'Strangler' in them, and these are just the ones we've done! I'm sure there's more! So here you go.....starting in 1946, STRANGLER OF THE SWAMP, then in 1958 - THE HAUNTED STRANGLER, 1963 - TEENAGE STRANGLER & STRANGLER OF BLACKMOOR CASTLE, 1965 - SANTO vs. EL ESTRANGULADOR, and the 1966 sequel SANTO VS. EL SPECTRO DEL ESTRANGULADOR, 1972 - THE NIGHT OF THE STRANGLER, 1976 - ASTRAL FACTOR aka INVISIBLE STRANGLER, and in 1979 - THE HOLLYWOOD STRANGLER MEETS THE SKID ROW SLASHER!!!

Victor Buono is a hero in The Dungeon, but I don't believe "The Strangler" is his finest hour! Number one, I don't really appreciate movies where instead of trying to figure out who the depraved killer is, you already know who he is, and the movie is about just when will he finally get caught! It's just kind of anti-climactic in my humble opinion! They were just trying to turn things inside out and I get it, but I just don't dig it!

There's a lot of peepin' and a hidin' going on!

He's a strangler! So, now what are they gonna do about it?

 Meet "The Strangler" Leo Kroll!! He's a creep of utmost proportion!

 He's got a drawer full of busted up dolls!

 His records are filthy, and I'm sure most of them are not even put back in the cover!
For the record, Martin (The Queen Of Outer Space, The Hypnotic Eye, The Crawling Hand) Skiles does a fine job of putting together a swingin' soundtrack; These days I'm just too lazy to put a sound clip together, but I would if somebody really wanted it!

 He smokes at work!

 And in his free time he likes to hang out at the "Fun Palace" throwing rings, and winning more of those cheapass dolls!

 Nice portrait of Victor!!

 Damn! I might even strangle someone if it meant I could have those two pinball machines!

The basic problem is that Leo is a Mama's boy, but he don't like his Mama, so it creates a bit of internal friction that Leo has to find an outlet for, aka killing women left and right! Ellen Corby in the wheelchair is his Mom! Ellen has a whopping 266 credits that include being 'The Queen of the Artichokes' in "Bedlam," and an uncredited nurse in "Mighty Joe Young!" She was in "Macabre," and "Visit To A Small Planet," AND, she was Eshter Walton in 142 episodes of "The Waltons!"

 Leo is truly pissed because his Mom told him that without this nurse, she would be dead! And since he wants nothing more than to see her dead, it really hit a sore spot!

 When you're so comfortable with whatever you're doing right or wrong, seemingly you can even pass a lie detector test after viciously killing multiple times! It just shows what a great actor Victor Buono really was! Too bad nobody ever cast Victor Buono and Bruno Vesota in a movie together as brothers or something, maybe Father and son, they were 16 years apart. That would have been too cool! Bruno Buono, Buono Bruno! Try saying that ten times in a row real fast, and if you can, take three shots of good tequila and try it again!

 Now this is what cops looked like in 1964!

 Somehow all the victims manage to strip down to bra and panties, or bra and slip before being attacked!

 This would be pretty unsettling if you really didn't have a clue this guy was waiting for you after you got out of the shower!

Victor Buono, what a guy! He was King Tut for 10 episodes of "Batman" in the 60's, and he was the nefarious foe Tung-Tze of Matt Helm in "The Silencers" besides a host of other things, but seemingly his heart could not carry all that weight around and he died from a heart attack at the age of 43, but the fittest man on the planet, Bruce Lee died at the age of 32 from the same thing, so maybe his size doesn't matter at all, and he just got an early call!

SPLAT!!!