THE PSYCHOPATH - Ron Wood - "How Can It Be?" (1966)

I'd like to just take a second and thank all of you that read this blog on a regular basis, it's nice to know we're not the only krazy people in the world! Tonight's Saturday Night Special is dedicated to each and every one of you, and it's an obscure little Freddie Francis romp called "The Psychopath," or as it was released in Germany, "Der Puppen-Mörder."

"The Psychopath" starts off with this cat John (X:THE UNKNOWN, CURSE OF THE DEMON) Harvey as Reinhardt Klermer, getting pinned down by this red car in this dead end alley!

Inside of the violin case that he was carrying, was this weird doll that looked like either Reinhardt or a Presidential candidate, one of the two, you decide! VOODOO? Not quite!! More like just crazy!!

The string quartet is missing it's fourth tonight!

This is our next door neighbor's pad!

Patrick (CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED, THE SKULL) Wymark is the guy in charge of figuring the whole thing out, Inspector Holloway! Seeking clues he heads on over to the house of a known, but eccentric doll collector, a certain Mrs. Von Sturm, and this is what he finds!

"The Psychopath" is directed by Dungeon fave-a-roonie, the freakin' fantastic Freddie Francis! Using the keen eye he developed during his years as a Cinematographer, almost all of Freddie's flicks bring something special to the table, like hanging doll parts for instance! London stage actress Margaret (BURN WITCH BURN) Johnston as Mrs. Von Sturm, brings her own special brand of insanity to the party!

Sir John (TORTURE GARDEN) Standing has the role of Mrs. Von Sturm's son, Mark! Sir John has had a very active career, and was in a short, a TV series, and a movie released just this year! Mark seems to have a few issues of his own!

"It was THIS big!!" The Touchable Judy Huxtable is Louise Saville, the daughter of one of the men in the string quartet!

Judy was also in "Die Screaming Marianne" and "Scream And Scream Again!!!"

A doll is delivered to Louise's Dad, Alexander (THE SON OF DR. JEKYLL) Knox as Frank Saville, and it doesn't take a lot of imagination to visualize mentally what happens next! The former string quartet trimmed down to a trio, is now only a duet!

IF you're one of those kind of people that doesn't like dolls, then this is the prefect movie for you, because even the gal who sells cigarettes in the bar, Greta (THE DEADLY BEES) Farrer has one for you! "Cigars, cigarettes, freaky little weird dolls, cigars, cigarettes............"

One of the two remaining members is an accomplished artiste, Robert (BLOOD BEAST FROM OUTER SPACE) Crewdson as Victor Ledoux! Here's a look at Victor's model compared to his actual work!

Did I fail to mention that "The Psychopath" was written by famed "Psycho" author, Robert Bloch!?!

Besides painting, Victor Ledoux was also a sculptor! His studio also included a car junkyard where he salvages metal for his scuptures. Victor admits to The Inspector that he doesn't even like his own work, but it sells, and that was all that really mattered! The lower shot is more Freddie Francis madness!!

Thorley (PETTICOAT PIRATES, TROG, VAMPIRE CIRCUS) Walters as the nervous Marin Roth, gets pretty upset when he finds a doll in his own image!

And then the quartet was no more, and you would think that would be the end of the story, but.........

......during further investigation at Victor's junkyard studio, Inspector Holloway finds a doll that looks like HIM in one of the old cars right before it blows to Hell!!

How come these bars where you could go and sketch aren't popular anymore? I guess there's just not enough of you guys out there drawing! See all the fun you're missing out on watching TV!!

Even the gal who worked at the doll factory, Gina (THE DEADLY BEES) Gianelli as Gina, gets her own doll after she goes out on a date with Mark Von Sturm. During the rolling credits at the end of the film, the Von Sturms are listed as having the last name Maugham!

The main music from "THE PSYCHOPATH" was composed by Elisabeth (PARANOIAC) Lutyens, and some of it was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and arranged by Elizabeth, but the rockin' song from the club scene was written and performed by Faces and/or Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood!!

Unless somebody releases "The Psychopath" on DVD like they should, you're going to play Hell finding a copy, but I'll be damned if I'm going to tell you the ending, because that's something you need to discover for yourself! "The Psychopath" is a real jewel, and it's well worth mucking around trying to find a copy!! Good luck on your journey!

THE ADVENTURES OF EEGAH!! & TABONGA! Part 1 - 1959-66

Here's a look at some of the things that two monster dudes were up to in a small agricultural town in central California. There really weren't any other kids that could match our fervor for monster fever, we stood alone.

My dad was a good sport, he took this classic photo of us in 1964... Monster Dudes, man!

This is one of my favorite pics, we also let the spider monkey out to chase around!

Here's a pic I had to get off a slide, you can see that I have the image reversed, but, big deal. This photo is from 1960, we had already surrounded ourselves with the world of Famous Monsters!

Here I am in my closet, consoling my little monster head I created for art class. Check out the VOODOO WOMAN poster on the door along with some FM covers.

This is another picture I love, the jacket was literally falling apart. Eegah!! took this one with his parent's Polaroid camera.

My back yard had some interesting structures my dad built, we definitely used them to our twisted advantage!

Two cool pics of Eegah!! made up as a devil, my dad called Eegah!!.. Mel.

This photo booth pic was probably taken in 1959, the year we met in 6th grade... Crazy kids!!

This is a drawing that Eegah!! drew of him laying on his bed, reading a sci-fi novel. The drawing is accurate considering we both had paperback book shelves, there's even his poster of CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF!

Okay, this is what we used to do in German class, we sat next to each other in the back, we called these tag team art, we liked cars. Eegah!! would start with a wheel or two, hand it back to me, I'd do a few things, hand it back to him, like that until we were done. We did about 16 of these, still have them. We just wanted to have fun, that's it!!

One of my favorite drawings from back then, the Ymir from 20,000,000 MILES TO EARTH, I cut it out and mounted it on the red background, really made it pop!

I would just get out my crow quill pen and ink and let it go, making up monsters is so cool.

This is my first oil painting, done I believe in 1964. I love shading and oil paint blends much better that acrylic. I'm still very proud of this piece.

Here's a good story... I had a few beers one night and decided to do a painting while under the influence of alcohol (pot came to our town in 1967). I disliked this acrylic painting so much that I have never drank before doing art ever again!

Eegah's!! mom was a costume whiz, she came up with our attire for our Sadie Hawkin's dance. We're supposed to be press reporters but Eegah!! is carrying a violin case with a freakin' machine gun inside! Wouldn't you know it, a horror twist... Eegah!! has something for us on Wednesday, so, be there!!!

A STUDY IN TERROR - "Keep Your Fingers Crossed And Hope You Can Afford The Cost" (1965)

 

Tonight's Saturday Night Special is a real study in terror, so much that it's even titled "A Study In Terror!"

 "A Study In Terror" is an interesting little movie on a number of levels! The basic premise is a battle of wits between Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, and another character well known in British history, Jack The Ripper!

 This is the first of the many victims of Jack The Ripper's blade! The viewer gets the immediate sense that maybe this Ripper fellow is not such a nice guy!

 Here they are, Donald Huston as Dr. Watson on the left and John Neville on the right as the always calm, cool, and collected Sherlock Holmes! Both actors do an exceptional job, and John Neville's Sherlock Holmes is every bit as good as Basil Rathbone or Peter Cushing's version, and quite possibly even better!

 That's one thing I like about 1960's English films, there's almost always going to be a scene set in a pub! I don't know the name of this place but it's particularly lively with more than it's share of drunks and whores! Without a doubt, these people knew how to party! Georgia Brown sings a rousing version of the insane sing along classic written by Henry J. Sayers, and heard in over 25 movies and videos, "Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay!"

 This is quite the bawdy and risque joint! Georgia Brown does what is basically a turn of the century lap dance for this shoulder, and then when he gets just a little bit frisky, she pours her drink over his head while singing the whole time! You can't really see it in this shot, but after the song is over, everybody goes back to what they were doing, heavy petting!! This whole place is make-out city!

 This cheap whore lifts this dude's wallet while they're swapping spit, so when it comes time to pay for the drinks, and he's got no money, he's got a pretty good idea what happened to it, and turns her upside down and shakes his wallet out of her cleavage! That's the kind of movie this is!

 All these murders are really starting to interfere with all these people's good times! The whores are dropping like flies!

 Most of the dialogue between Holmes and Watson is borderline genius, but there's also strange comic book overtones! It's no wonder one poster from the movie, had pop 'Biff' 'Pow' 'Bang' symbols and included a tagline that states, "Here Comes The Original Caped Crusader!"

 This hooker gets kicked out of her room for non-payment, so in a desperate attempt to get off the streets, she offers it to one of her regular customers for free, but he's busy gutting pigs, and isn't in the mood!

 I've lost count, maybe that's five or six, Jack is a very busy fellow!

 Holmes disguises himself as a holmesless person that looks a lot like Mick Fleetwood, and even fools Dr. Watson!

 "A Study In Terror" is filled with late night foggy scenes like this, and that's one of the reasons that Jack can get away with so many murders and not get caught, plus there's not a whole lot of police intervention since this is a notorious lowlife district, so nobody really cares that much!

 

Robert Morely puts in a sterling performance as Sherlock's brother Mycroft Holmes! Their verbal dueling is a lot of fun to watch! What kind of parents would name their kids Sherlock and Mycroft anyway? Wouldn't that be considered child abuse in today's politically correct world?

 This case is really bugging Sherlock, so he hasn't talked for 24 hours and only sits around and plays his violin very badly! Mycroft is totally dismayed by the fact that Sherlock has had a violin since he was a young boy, and yet he still is unable to play the damn thing!

 Georgia Brown performs another number, and is quite animated while doing it!

 This short scene explains a lot about this film!  While listening to Georgia perform, the camera pans around the room, and at this one table, this sweet innocent looking little olde lady sneaks a drink from her companion's glass!

 Probably a good part of why "A Study In Terror" is so lively is because one of the producers was Herman (I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN, BLOOD OF DRACULA, I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF, HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER, HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM, KONGA,  BLACK ZOO, BESERK, CRAZE) Cohen!

 This whore is so desperate and dumb, she even invites Jack The Ripper up to her room! Anyway, I think you get the general idea!! I liked "A Study In Terror" a lot because it's probably the funnest slasher movie I've ever seen, and I would highly recommend going to see it if it ever comes to your local theatre! Big Thanx to Darren S. on this one!!