DYNAMIT IN GRÜNER SEIDE - Peter Thomas "Death And Diamonds" (1968)

Tonight's Saturday Night Special is straight out of 1967 Deutschland and is called "Dynamit In Grüner Seide" oder auf Englisch,  "Death And Diamonds!"

First off, a big shout out to my old buddy from Berlin, Lord Litter, who was the first person to turn me on to the Jerry Cotton series of films! In the 1960's there were eight Jerry Cotton Films made, and each and every one of them are worth seeking out, and you can thank Sinister Cinema for making them still available today!

"Death And Diamonds" starts off with the heist of some poison gas! Love that smiling skull!! It's like "Danger!!! Go out and have some fun kids!!!"

Dungeon Super Hero George Nader is FBI agent Jerry Cotton! Jerry  is one cool mofo and it's up to him to find out what the Hell is going on!

First stop is the Green Silk Bar in Los Angeles, California, or is it Berlin?

What an awesome scene, there's more go-go girls than there are patrons in the bar! Man, this is a dream come true!

Great trick to pull when you know somebody is spying on you, pop a bag into the secret spy microphone and blow their eardrums out! Works every time!! Jerry Cotton knows all the tricks!

Is anybody out there old enough to remember when slot car racing was all the rage? There was a time when every small burg in the civilized world had a slot car track race course! I used to have a kickass slot car that was painted purple and chartreuse!!! The colors alone totally smoked the competition!

Some smart ass decides to challenge Jerry's masculinity!!

Just to prove that the movie was made in L.A., they took a shot of the Los Angeles Street sign!

One thing about Jerry Cotton films that sets them apart from most of the other spy movies made in the 60's is that the killer music was composed by the genius Peter Thomas! Peter also scored quite a few films in the Edgar Wallace series, and was also of course responsible for the über-cool music in "Raumpatrouille" aka the German "Space Patrol!"

Breaking all of the rules, the first thing they ever taught me in film class was don't wave at the camera!! Jerry Cotton is the only cat cool enough to make it work!!

In "Death And Diamonds" Jerry is posing as a British guy who is a specialist at getting past alarm systems!

After Jerry rigs the alarm, the gang shoots the gas into this room and knocks out all these men inspecting the diamonds and then remotely vacuum them up using this tricky device! If they stay in this condition for too long they will die, and that's when Jerry freaks out, and tries to disrupt the whole operation!

To try and get rid of him, they stick Jerry's ass in an incinerator!!

I'm allowed at least one of these per film, I just like this shot!!

Enter femme fatale Marlies Dräger as the vixen Mabel! Marlies only has 9 acting credits to her name but is still considered one of the glamour girls of the 60's! Follow this link if you want to see a picture of Marlies topless! Marlies was also in the Edgar Wallace classic that we will feature here one day, "The Man With The Glass Eye!"

Tied up there in the background is the other female lead in the story, Sylvia Solar as Lana! Sylvia was hot like the sun, and was in a bunch of weird movies like "Danger! Death Ray," "Mexican Slayride," "The Wicked Caressses OF Satan," and "Cannibal Terror!"

After Marlies Dräger, here's my favourite part of the movie, this Cadillac with the bad guys in it is coming right at Jerry, and he runs at it, jumps through the windshield feet first, and punches out the driver all at the same time! What a guy!!

Jerry is in hot pursuit right up to The End! There is only one way to describe a movie like "Death And Diamonds!" Incredible!!!

KILLERS FROM SPACE / W. Lee Wilder Productions - 1954 / Music by Manuel Compinsky

Wow, Manuel Compinsky only compose for 3 flicks, KILLERS FROM SPACE, THE SNOW CREATURE and THE BIG BLUFF, 1954-5! Too bad, he make good stuff here! Theme and Other Cool Junk!

Peter Graves look safe in jet, then he crash and die! Colonel Banks tell Peter wife that Peter go poof and cannot find him!.. Whoa!! Wife cry for Frank while Colonel have a smoke. Very cool in '50s!!.. And look, Ike in picture hanging there, makes official, 1954! Later, Peter wander back to the base and surprise everbloody!

Do you think I look like I know what I'm doing?!.. Cause, I DON'T!..

Let Tabonga tell you a little story about Non-Flexible Collodian!! Well, you could buy at pharmacy and do crazy things on face, then scare living crap out of younger sisters!!! Ask Eegah!! he know.

Big eyeballs come into Peter bedroom at night and kinda bug him!

So, they give him truth serum to figure out what the hell going on around here!! Oh, see 'microphone' FBI dude holding?.. WRONG!

Peter start tell freakin' crazy story about bug-eyed space dudes with designer belts, big bugs and spiders in caves and space TV featuring bug-eyed Supreme Leader!.. So, no one beieve him!!

Finally, Peter figure out how space dudes stealing energy and he blow them sky high! Oh, same curtain in power plant and bedroom!!

Tabonga love make-up guy Harry Thomas, who come up with ping pong eyeballs for KILLERS FROM SPACE and he use again in FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER!

THE TRYGON FACTOR - "Edgar Wallace Strikes Again" (1966)

Well, the fun never stops down here in The Dungeon, and tonight's Saturday Night Special is no exception!

"The Trygon Factor" was made in 1966, and is yet another tale based on an Edgar Wallace novel. I think it's pretty funny that Edgar's name is plastered all over the posters, but he is not even credited in the actual movie! Instead, the opening credits say "Based on an original story by Derry Quinn." I think that's kind of weird!

First rule: Don't go creeping around places where nuns are spying on your every move, even if you're a police officer!

Or you just might end up getting baptized to death!

What can I say? He's even creepier when he's not wearing the mask!

Next tip off that something ain't right: That nun has got on some pretty fancy undergarments!

Stewart (Target For Killing) Granger and Sophie (Der Hexer) Hardy are a strange pairing at best, being as there is 31 years difference in their real ages, it makes it kind of difficult.

Stewart is Superintendent Cooper-Smith, and he's the one in charge of investigating this sordid affair!

Sophie is a receptionist at his hotel.

Sophie was also in a spy movie with Eddie Constantine called "Jeff Gordon, Secret Agent," or it's original title, "Des Frissons Partout!"

The nuns also frown on it when one of their flock decides to do something else!

I think this is the first movie I've seen where funny guy Eddi Arent wasn't in a comic role. It was good to see him play it straight for a change!

It was also good to see the always great Robert (A Study in Terror) Morely in this film!

So just what the Heck are these nuns up to anyway?

They're robbing banks, that's what they're doing!

Spunky Cathleen Nesbitt is the one running the whole nasty business behind her front of being a nice old kindly rich woman! At this point in her career, Cathleen had been acting for 47 years! She lived to be 93.

This is the job that Eddi Arent signed on for! He's the best in his field!

Once the girls get in the bank and gas everybody, he puts on this suit of armor and sets up this Gatling type gun and blasts the crap out of the vault door!

To the victors go the spoils!

Before I forget, the music in "The Trygon Factor" is by the always amazing Peter Thomas time after time after time! And where's the best place to get Peter Thomas music for yourself?

BSC Music, of course!

 

Oh, don't worry, Sophie and Stewart have it all under control!

But then again, maybe not!

Aw, just kidding! Despite all odds, they got it all figured out after all!

"The Trygon Factor" is a fun movie to watch!

 It's an Edgar Wallace story, that's it! Not much else matters!