THE ASTOUNDING SHE-MONSTER- "Evil... Beautiful... Deadly" (1957)

This Saturday Night Special is a Sci-Fi classic called "The Astounding She-Monster," and I can't believe we didn't already do it years ago, but I guess not. How ridiculous, the poster is even part of our header collage!

"The Astounding She-Monster" came out in 1957, and is not nearly as bad as people say it is, and a lot more watchable than at least 50% of the crap made today! It had an estimated budget of $18,000, or the equivalent cost of lunch for the crew of a film today.

The cast consists of six actors, period, and stars Dungeon hero Robert Clarke!

Pin-up model Shirley Kilpatrick had the role of the She-Monster. Shirley died in 1971 at the age of 35, but I cannot find out why or how, but what you can find are lots of cheesy photos of her with a quick search of her name!

Here's what's happening. This trio kidnapped a rich heiress with plans on making a lot of ransom money and are heading for higher ground.

 From left to right we have perennial heavy Kenne Duncan as Nat Burdell, who had 273 credits including Dr. Acula in Ed Wood's "Night Of The Ghouls." Nat was also a good drinkin' buddy of Ed's and made him executor of his estate!

 Next to him is Marilyn Harvey as the gagged kidnap victim Margaret Chaffee. The next woman is Jeanne Tatum as the drunkard girlfriend of Nat, Esther Malone, and driving is Ewing Miles Brown as the other thug, Brad Conley. Ewing's nickname was Lucky, and he lived to be 97, so I guess he was compared to most of the rest of the cast.

Driving along, Brad suddenly sees what he thinks is an apparition, and crashes the car.

The cops are after them, and they need to lay low, so they get out and start walking.

Robert Clarke as geologist Dick Cutler and his dog Egan saw a bright light come down from the sky, and headed back to their cabin in the woods..............

..............When Nat and the gang show up, and start making trouble!

Esther is very thirsty and kills a fifth of whiskey almost all by herself.

Tough guy Nat likes to slap dames around, and it's starting to piss Dick Cutler off!

Brad sees the strange woman at the window, and decides to pursue her, and after emptying his pistol into her without any results, she approaches him, and her mere touch is enough to kill him.

When Brad doesn't come back, Nat goes out looking for him, but finds the space woman instead, and fires way more bullets than his pistol could ever possible hold.

Meanwhile Esther is left alone to keep her eye on Dick and Margaret. She has a bit of a problem staying focused!

Nat finds Brad's dead body and drags it back to the cabin. Dick explains that it looks like her hand print is charged with radium, and tells Nat that he needs to go see a doctor immediately since he came in contact with Brad when he brought the body back.

"The She-Monster" breaks in through the window of the cabin, and all Hell breaks loose!

They decide to douse her with gasoline and light her up like Dr. Danger, but that doesn't work either!

She chases Nat to the edge of a cliff, and he is able to sidestep her, and she plunges to her death, so he thinks, but she just shakes it off, and gets back up!

Probably the weakest part of the film is the poor use of day for night towards the end! I mean seriously, does this look like night to you?

 

Everybody except for Dick and Margaret get knocked off, including "The She-Monster," and the only thing left is her medallion!

 

Inside it, they find a letter that says that "The She-Monster" wasn't a monster at all, but more of an emissary sent to get Earth to join up with the rest of the civilized Universe. It was all just a big case of misunderstanding and miscommunication!

Because of a lot of similarities, "The Astounding She-Monster," and "Beast From Haunted Cave" would make a riveting double feature for any fan of 50's Sci-Fi, and I'm sure you would agree!

DEVIL DOG: The Hound Of Hell - 1979

Welp, gots a weird one for you today, it's a TV movie directed by Curtis Harrington with a big cast of stars. The story's about a devil cult that forces a female dog to give birth to ten pups fathered by the devil, if you can process that...

Tons of stars including Richard (WAIT UNTIL DARK) Crenna, Yvette (THE TIME MACHINE) Mimieux, Kim (RETURN TO WITCH MOUNTAIN) Richards, Ike (ESCAPE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN) Eisenmann, Lou (THE OTHER) Frizzell, Ken (THE SEVEN UPS) Kercheval, Martine (DR, JEKYLL & SISTER HYDE) Beswick and more. Curtis Harrington directed six shorts between 1942 and 1956 and got his break in 1961 when he directed his first feature film, NIGHT TIDE.

The Barry's are a happy well to do family in LA. Daughter Bonnie wants a dog for her birthday or something, so, she picks up a pup from a weird dude out in the country...

The dog's name is Lucky, here he is after a year or so, he watches Mike, the dad, as he works on the lawnmower. The dog hypnotically tries to force Mike to stick his hand into the turning blade! Hmmm, wonder if there's a problem here...

This scene shocked me, mom's snooping around in one of the kids' rooms, they have both been acting strangely lately. She sees a drawing that creeps her out, when, Bonnie and Charlie show up with Lucky. They say things like "I said, what are you doing sneaking around in here?!" and "Leave my things alone. Get out of my room and forget all about this. I mean it!" Lucky licks Charlie's hand and the kids turn all nicey-nice, oh, we're sorry, we had just sat on a tack and were all angry and the such... We love you!

Yvette's still hot 19 years after The Time Machine, but, she plays a royal bitch after the Devil Dog gets control over her. The stuff she says to Mike, wow.

Then, the kid's principal is a target because he's concerned they have turned into sadistic bullies at school. The Devil Dog pays him a visit one night, the man runs into the street trying to get away, he's hit and killed by a passing car...

Dad decides to do some snooping of his own in the attic and is baffled by what he finds.

He also finds a drawing in blood, he turns around to see what had once been his adoring family. They all have some choice words for him...

Mike goes to see a lady that know a lot about the occult, she fills him in on a bunch of stuff, like, how to tell if a person is possessed by the devil. Bonnie is definitely possessed!!

So, Mike heads to Ecuador by himself to find some answers to his problem.

This dude just wanders into the scene, and for some reason, he knows why Mike is there in Ecuador. Mike gets the same tattoo on his palm that the old man has, but whyever for?..

Back home now, Mike gets access to an industrial facility (obviously for effect, I mean, you could fight a freakin' Devil Dog in a vacant lot!). Cool damn place though!

Once inside, it's not long before the Hound of Hell shows up to dispose of measly lil' Mike!

But remember that ding-danged tattoo, he holds up his hand and creates a counter force to the monster's ominous power.

He touches the thing and it starts burning the Hell out of itself until it evaporates... The spell is broken and the family's normal again, but Charlie asks dad, what about those other nine pups?!.. Okay then, here we go with another month of thrills, here at The Dungeon!!..

THE THRILL KILLERS / Ray Dennis Steckler - 1964

Hey, how lucky were you if you got to see this version of THE THRILL KILLERS, Ray Dennis and pals, running around like maniacs in the dark audience, menacing the rubberneckers and geeks with real axes!! Oh, hell yeah!!! Now, that's a poster, love that poor man's Gray Morrow style!!

André Brummer, aka Henri Price, is music guy today, a Steckler/Hall stalwart who work on title like MONSTER FROM THE OCEAN FLOOR, LOVE SLAVES OF THE AMAZON, MOONWOLF, THE JAILBREAKERS, EEGAH!, GOOF ON THE LOOSE, DAY OF THE NIGHTMARE, MUDHONEY, TEENAGE SHE DEVIL and GODMONSTER OF INDIAN FLATS...

Nice soundclip from Eegah, sez it all!! This particular flick is probably pick of the litter for most convincing, or disturbing production by Ray D. Hard to watch at times, down and dirty all the way. Aligns with THE SADIST!

Oh look, here is Ralphie the Tarantula, ready to be pushin' the old red 'GO' button and start today' show a rollin'... So, open the pod bay door!.. THE THRILL KILLERS!

Good joke to start off with!

Narrator is Coleman Francis... Oh, and by the way, "Flag on the Moon!"

A Hollywood to be nostalgic for!

Okay, enough fun, already!.. 'Mad Dog' Click need a car, so he kill family man Atlas King (Mumbles from THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES WHO...) and steal that blue Plymouth station wagon from same flick! Whoa, Atlas' face look really smashed flat into pavement!

PAR-TY!!

Seven year old neighbor girl Julie say she do the party decoration for free, an offer too good for a lush to pass up!

Now you never have to wonder... WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ARCHIE? Arch is one of three producers!

Brick Bardo having little chat wif' one very weird looking yes man, Titus (Boo Boo) Moede! Titus also play motorcycle cop who chase Mad Dog at end! Man, the MST gang slice an' dice him bad when he drive his bike through that barn in THE SKYDIVERS! Fight scene with Tony Cardoza is totally hilarious too!!

Back in the day, good old booze could produce some very WTF! impromptu moments.

Mad Dog pop into town and he horny...

Horny for blood!

Back at the ranch, the three escaped maniacs (one is Mad Dog's bro) are holed up there, ready for anyone who might discover them!!

Meet Gary, Herbie and Keith, in no particular order. Those are also their real names, because, in Tabonga' opinion, didn't need to change them because they maniacs already in real life!!! Help create realism.

And, guess what?.. They out of Coke!!

Oops!.. Tabonga caught in embarrassing moment!

Radio say, "Watch out for three escaped mental"...

Oh, shit!!

Mad Dog' bro don't like them pretty boys, got it?!

Rat poison for Brother Rat!

Not cool!..

YAH... HOO... HOO... HOOEY!!!

Mad Dog finally show up, but things start to disintegrate fast!

So, then he kill state trooper and steal horse and hat. There is Titus on the police motorcycle way back there that can never catch up!

Nice relaxing bath after hard day of filmmaking!