TIMESTALKERS - "It's Way Past Time To Kill The Future" (1987)

It's not often I delve past the 70's, but tonight's feature is an extra special affair, so climb on board, and set your co-ordinates for 1987!

It's called "Timestalkers," and it's a 1987 TV movie about time traveling that has an stellar cast! It's not the best or the worst movie in the world, being neither great nor horrible, but it is special for a couple of reasons! The executive producer of "Timestalkers" was none other than Bill Hole, the guy who directed two of The Dungeon's favourite movies, "The Ghost Of Dragstrip Hollow," and "The Devil's Hand!"

"Timestalkers" stars Bill (The Dark Knight Rises) Devane as Scott McKenzie, a college professor fixated on the olde west!

In the opening scenes, Scott McKenzie's wife and son are killed in a fiery auto accident!

About a year or so later, Scott and his pal go to a western auction and buy these two chests!

Inside the larger trunk, the one that has the bullethole in it, there's an olde tintype photographe, and the time differential sequences begin! Enter Klaus Kinski as gungslinger Dr. Jospeh Cole!

Upon closer scrutiny, Scott Mckenzie realizes the gun in the photo was actually made in the 1980's, so he naturally figures the photographe is phony!

But then................Maybe not!

Enter Lauren (Once Bitten) Hutton as Georgia Crawford, a woman from 600 years in the future!

So what's the deal? Georgia and Dr. Cole are both from the future, and he's going back to the past in order to change history because he's pissed at her Father, and she's traveling through time to try and stop him!!

So now we come to the best part of this movie! Back in the past, a small gang of cowboys are partying down by the olde waterhole, and bigger than shit, I'll be damned if that isn't Tabonga there on the right in an un-credited role! He probably should have won some award for those chicken skin lookin' long johns, but we've never had that kind of luck!

Tabonga has told me that Klaus Kinski was all kinds of crazy on the set! Considering most of the roles Klaus had over the years, it would be pretty difficult to imagine that he wasn't a very strange man in real life too! Klaus is forever enshrined in the Dungeon Hall of Fame, and this is a great shot of him!

For some odd reason, 600 years in the future looks like a 1970's disco!

He looks great here, but this was the last movie Forrest Tucker would ever make, in fact, he passed away about 5 months before it was released! Forrest Tucker was in "The Abominable Snowman," "The Strange World Of Planet X," "The Crawling Eye," and will always be remembered by connoisseurs of 60's TV as Sgt. Morgan O'Rourke in the cowboy sitcom "F Troop!"

I actually liked this part of the movie a lot! Forrest Tucker's character was a wise olde gentleman named Texas John Cody, whose collection of historical cowboy songs provide clues that help solve this whole mystery!

It doesn't take much at all for Klaus Kinski to look like a complete and total train wreck! For some people it's just an inherent natural ability, and Klaus was one of the masters!

S H A Z A M ! ! !

This is my new favourite shot of the week!

TABONGA'S TV-MOVIE CREDITS (1986 - 1988)

Tonight I've got a most special Whacked-Out Wednesday X-Mas present for you!!
In the 1980's Tabonga moved to L.A. and tried his damnedest to carve out a career in the movies!
He was the guy known as 'The Extra!'

 In 1986 the movie "Stand By Me" came out, so to get in on the whole MTV video type scene, they brought out the original singer of "Stand By Me" Ben E. King to make a video that included some of the kids from the movie! 

Tabonga got a gig as an extra in the crowd, the guy up in the top left corner! It's almost like Tabonga was the precursor to the whole photobomb movement, and who else was cool enough to have shades on? Nobody in this scene! Tabonga's roles in both this video and movie dominate the screen, and have left viewers gasping for more! And here's what I'm talking about:

This shot is even better, you can see how he demanded to be center, and to further prove his talent, if you watch the video, you'll see that he's the only one swaying in the right direction, everyone else is going the other way! 

I don't know how the Director could put up with that many people out of synch! Check it out for yourself right

HERE!

 In 1987, Tabonga, on the right, had the almost co-star, but not quite credited hillbilly-in-long-johns role in "Timestalkers!"
 

Then in the 1988 James Woods' movie "Cop," they needed somebody with strong character to stand in the background with his pregnant wife answering cop questions while the main action was a conversation between the two detectives!

 Tabonga killed it in this performance! It was so easy for him, he even got to smoke a cigarette!
 

 And not to be content with that, Tabonga was one of the Storm Troopers in the 1988 Michael Jackson project, "Moonwalker" He's the one circled on the poster, and yeah, I know anyone could make that claim, but this time, it's actually true!!
The man was an icon of the late 80's, despite the fact that nobody knew it!

And finally, here he is on the left, in the yellow bumpcap as Race, on the legendary L.A. public access TV show "Offbeat" as one of the Offbeatniks, and to his left, or my right, is me! The other characters are the Brain on the bass, and Andy and Reverend Tom in the background! It wasn't weird at all, it just looks that way!

THE CRAWLING EYE / Tempean Films - 1958

Gut eefning everbloody, and, welcome to Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Tonite, we gots a reprise of a 5 pic post we did way back on March 1, 2008!

I always thought the poster art was weak, because, imagining what they could have come up with seems much scarier than what they used! Sometimes they do this to confuse the viewer, so, that when you do finally see the things, you get a hit squarely between the eyes with brass knuckles!

In case you forgot, or, don't know, the story's about a remote mountain resort in Switzerland invaded by horrible alien creatures that like to decapitate humans! They inhabit a mysterious, radioactive cloud that clings to the Trollenberg mountain.

My favorite screenwriter is Jimmy Sangster. There's a part in X- THE UNKNOWN that shows clearly how shrewd and sadistic he can be. Watch the scene in the hospital where the kid who had encountered the radioactive mud pie dies. It starts with the doctor pulling the sheet over the boy's face, his mom and dad are there in the room. Okay, notice what happens in the next 5 minutes!!!.. Now, that's good writing. Also, killing a kid with a monster in 1956 was absolutely taboo! As a reminder, here are a few other classics penned by Jimmy!.. THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN, BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE, JACK THE RIPPER, THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH, THE MUMMY, THE BRIDES OF DRACULA and THE NANNY.

Eegah!! inadverntently chose my title with Saturday's post, because, the music composer was also... Stanley Black!! Go figure. Luckily, I had this one waiting in the Pod, for just such an occassion! Stanley, though, probably didn't have much to do with the stuff we showcase in our soundclip.

So, lettuce bring in our littlest Dungeon helper and palsy-walsy... yessir... it's... yes... Rufus The Gnat!! HOO-RAY for Rufus! Okay, now that the informalites are over with, it's time to start the show! Push the 'GO' button Rufus, here's our psychotronicsoundclip for!.. THE CRAWLING EYE!

The Dungeon Dudes love Forrest Tucker, and are always glad when he makes an appearance!

Holy crap, this is weird!! I just noticed this on IMDb... I had a part in his last movie, TIMESTALKERS!! I got to play a drunk cowboy! Also, I was on the set with Klaus Kinski, and, he was actually nuts, but, a master horseman!

Anyway, Forrest plays American scientist, Alan Brooks. He's been asked to come and visit his buddy, Prof. Crevett, about a strange radioactive cloud on Trollenberg mountain.

Beautiful Janet Munro plays psychic medium, Anne Pilgrim. In the middle of a show she's giving for the people at the inn, she gets a deadly vision!..

The fat one is in danger!!

By the time Alan, Philip and the Mayor climb to the camp, it's too late, and, the fat one's already lost a few pounds!

The creepiest things keep happening! Again, confusing the viewer...

Andrew Faulds plays Brett, who's dead and possessed by the creatures. He's now a murdering zombie that prefers the freezing temperatures outside.

As a scientist, Alan's seen this disoriented characteristic before, in a similar case a few years earlier.

This is about the last thing a cute girl would want to find in her bedroom late at night!!

After Brett's shot and killed, he starts to quickly decompose!

This miniature set gives me vertigo the same way some of the sets do in THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI.

Finally, we're introduced to a true nightmare from Hell!! One of the very best things about the monsters is when their eyeballs look around!

It's a very tense moment when everyone's trying to make it to safety on the tram as the freezing cloud almost causes the equipment to fail before they can reach the laboratory.

Another zombie dude gets through to Anne, she's the target because of her psychic abilities, the crawlers perceive her as a danger to their plans.

This thing was playing on local TV by 1960 and that's when I caught it for the first time.

This is how we watch movies, here at The Dungeon!

Looks like Alan and Philip are just having a ton o' fun!!

....HELP, MR. WIZARD!!

Here's our hero, the B-57 B Canberra attack bomber, ready to drop those firebombs on the icy eyeballs below! I built the original Revell plastic model probably this same year.

For all you model buffs out there.

Ghoulnight Everbloody!!.. Hot, cha cha cha cha!!