THE TERROR OF THE TONGS - Hammer Studios (1961)

Tonight's Saturday night special is part two of my mini-Christopher Lee tribute, an odd film from 1961, "The Terror Of The Tongs!"

"The Terror Of The Tongs" is set in 1910, the movie was made in 1961, and it wasn't until 1984 that England released it's grasp on Hong Kong! That's why the Brits found movies like this so fascinating, and Hammer Studios was more than happy to oblige!

Bottom line was they had some bad Juju going on, with an opium market rife with corruption and greed!

The best advice I could give you would be mind your own business, and stay out of the way if you possibly can, because The Tong ain't messing around!

 

Enter Geoffrey (Dr. Who) Toone as the enterprising Captain Jackson Sale, and Barbara (Gonks Go Beat) Brown, as his sweet and innocent daughter Helena!

When I was about 15 or 16, I always envisioned that someday I would live in an apartment that looked something like this!!

What I didn't envision was these guys being in there too! Christopher Lee as unmerciless Tong leader Chung King, and Dungeon fave ex wrassler Milton Reid as his faithful sidekick guardian!

Hatchets and Pajamas, much better than Guns and Roses!

 

"Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Bop!!"

The Tong might be cruel and ruthless, ("Where did Ruth go?") but they still put on a pretty good show;  music, dancing, a jiggler and a juggler!!

If they open up a "TONG" casino in Las Vegas, I might go there for the food, but I am definitely not gambling there!

I forget exactly why The Tong kills off the Captain's Daughter, but it didn't exactly win them a lot of friends! Now, the Captain has some serious investigating to do!!

 Enter the beautiful Yvonne Monlaur as Lee! If she looks a little familiar, it's because Yvonne was also in "Brides Of Dracula," and "Circus Of Horrors!" I think in almost every scene she's in, she has a different colored dress on!

I had to get a shot of the main Tong logo!

"I said Captain, I said What?" The Captain starts snooping around a little too much, and quickly finds himself in a passel of hot water!

Milton Reid gets the job of scraping the Captain's bones! Milton is that guy that you've seen in "Blood Of The Vampire," "Night Creatures," and "Dr. No." Just like all our favourite characters, Milton was also a professional wrassler! What I wrote about him a couple of years back is still the story: Milton started wrestling in 1952 as Jungle Boy, and as his career progressed, he became best known as The Mighty Chang! After his career fell apart, Milton went to India to act, and sometime in the late 80's, he mysteriously disappeared, and they still haven't figured out what happened to him! A bona fide WTF!? situation!

 The Captain escapes, and Milton is in hot pursuit until he misses the catch in the hatchet throw competition!

While he's resting up from that little episode, this evil Doctor impersonates a good Doctor and almost gets away with shooting up the Captain in his juggler vein with some vile substance!!

As you would expect, the Captain prevails and only leaves you with one last burning question, where was Tennille the whole time?

THE PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT - John Scott - "The 7th Continent" (1977)

"The People That Time Forgot" is based on a story by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the creator of "Tarzan Of The Apes," and other books like.....

..."The Monster Men," a book I've had for years that has one of my favorite Frank Frazetta covers on it! Does that make it a good movie? Not exactly, but I did find it mildly entertaining for a few reasons!

If you really want to find some people that time forgot you need to either go to the bottom of the ocean, deep into some unknown jungle, or in this case, a distant frozen wasteland!

Voilà, once they get past the ice, there is a lush and green alternate environment replete with Dinosaurs and other remnants of the distant past!

The local cave girl is none other than Brit Pop Queen Dana Gillespie in another fine role, this time as Ajor! Last time we saw Dana, she was on another "Lost Continent!" John Wayne's son Patrick (Howdy Lewis) Wayne and Doug McClure get top credits in this film, but it's Dana that steals the show! Born Richenda Antoinette de Winterstein Gillespie, Dana has been the girlfriend of Donovan, has had records produced by Jimmy Page and David Bowie, and was Mary Magdalene in the original production of "Jesus Christ Superstar!"

"The television man is krazy, saying we're juvenile delinquent wrecks, Oh man, I need TV when I've got T Rex!" - David Bowie, from "All The Young Dudes."

Dana still performs today as Dana Gillespie and The London Blues Band! Imagine if you will, it's said that as a schoolgirl, David Bowie used to carry her books for her!!! It was a year before this film was released that Bowie was in "The Man Who Fell To Earth," another movie we still need to get around to someday!

I took almost this same exact footage a couple of weeks ago, when it was so hot, the pine cones starting popping like popcorn!!

This place is not only inhabited by your everyday variety dinos, there's also critters like this big Scutosaurus. It's not too difficult to imagine the Scutosaurus farting and the resulting effects!

Bill Beavis didn't get credit for the cool scenic artwork, but he's the one who did it! I think the people who dwell here probably went to the "House On Skull Mountain" for vacations!

You've seen him here before, one of the Dungeon faves Milton (BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE, NIGHT CREATURES, DR.NO) Reid as the almighty and powerful SABBALA!

"The People That Time Forgot" may not be the best movie ever made, but I give them a lot of credits for some cool sets!

Here's the guy they have been looking for, Doug McClure as Bowen Tyler! Doug had an amazing career for a guy who only lived to be 59! Besides film, Doug had some incredible runs on TV, including 17 episodes of "Overland Trail" as Frank "Flip" Flippen, 70 episodes of "Checkmate" as Jed Sills, 249 episodes of "The Virginian" as Trampas/Tampas, and 13 episodes of "Barnaby Coast" as Cash Conover!

Joining Dana here for the big ceremony is Sarah (STRIPPERS VS. WEREWOLVES) Douglas as Charly! Among a horde of other things, Sarah was Ursa in "Superman" & "Superman II."

Sabbala attempts to have the last laugh at Ajor's expense!

The music throughout the whole ordeal was created by Maestro John Scott! Mr. Scott has almost 150 credits in almost every genre of film you can think of! I could write a whole blog on this one man's accomplishments, but I'll just tell you that he played both tenor and alto flute on The Beatles hauntingly beautiful number "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," and that should be enough!

Not overly sexy, gross or gory for 1977, "The People That Time Forgot" can still be found on Netflix last time I checked!

CAPTAIN CLEGG - Don Banks - "Night Creatures" (1961)

"Captain Clegg" was the original name of this film, but I've always only known it as "Night Creatures," which you have to admit, has a better ring to it!

The most unusual thing about this 1962 Hammer release is despite the way it looks, it's not a horror tale by any means at all! Good damn pirate movie, but not a horror film!

Captain Clegg has the title role, but for me, Milton Reid as The Mulatto is the real star, and this film would be pretty boring without his part! As much as it looks like a "Three Stooges" episode, it's really not very funny, because he's just had his tongue removed for raping the Captain's wife, which was not a very smart move!

Captain Clegg gives his Mulatto friend a free, all expenses paid trip to the Caribbean.

Looks a lot like that Crystal Skull full of vodka staring at me from that shelf over yonder!

People would go to any lengths to get their booze back in the day!! These are the ghostly creatures that haunt Romney Marsh after dark! Kinda sounds like the possible future of Washington AC/DC!

"Night Creatures" is an elegant atmospheric flick that would appeal to anybody who likes a good-lookin' swashbucklin' adventure! The musical score is by Hammer workhorse Don (PANIC, NIGHTMARE, HYSTERIA) Banks in one of his earliest outings!

The former evil Captain Clegg has retired anonymously and come back as the good Reverend Doctor Blyss, the most respected preacher in the land! The role is filled by the all-time great, Peter (Dr. Who, Baron Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes, Van Helsing) Cushing!!

Any movie with Oliver (These Are The Damned, Paranoiac, Girl-Getters) Reed in it is usually worth watching, and "Night Creatures" is no exception! It really looks like the two of them got skewered through the head like some kind of Sub-Genius Shish-Ka-Bobs!

Here's what I wrote about Milton Reid in a previous post, and it's still pertinent today, "Just like all our favourite characters, Milton was also a professional wrassler! He started in 1952 as Jungle Boy, and as his career progressed, he became best known as The Mighty Chang! After his career fell apart, Milton went to India to act, and sometime in the late 80's, he mysteriously disappeared, and they still haven't figured out what happened to him!" Milton was in some great films like "Dr. No," "Blood Of The Vampire," "Panic," "Berserk," and "Terror!"

This shot pretty much portrays the definition of ribald!

Just like peaches and herbs, things really heat up when olde friends are reunited once again! Looks like somebody's going to get hurt!

There is such an abundance of talent in "Night Creatures" that I have purposely left out pictures of Yvonne (Curse Of The Werewolf) Romain as Imogene the serving wench, and Patrick (The Body Stealers) Allen as Captain Collier, and decided to focus more on the ethereal elements contained therein!

Another brilliant workhorse that probably doesn't get near enough credit was Cinematographer Arthur Grant, who worked on Hammer films from "Terror Of The Tongs" in 1961 to "Blood From The Mummy's Tomb" in 1971, with stops for at least 13 other Hammer classics in between!

Having a wrasslin' background makes Milton Reid a difficult opponent to pin, and so he comes back to challenge Captain Clegg for the final fall!

Michael (Girly, Moon Zero Two, X: The Unknown) Ripper as the coffinmaker Jeremiah Mipps has the last say! Freakin' KA-BLAM!! Now that's how they used to deal with stuff in the good olde days!!

When some lazy minded fool with nothing else to do tells you that they don't like old movies, grab a copy of "Night Creatures" and you just might be able to widen their narrow mind! Imagine that, Milton Reid didn't even get poster credits!