BLUE DEMON CONTRA LAS DIABOLICAS - El Klan - "The Solo Dance" (1968)

You know, the other day, Tabonga and I were hanging out talking crap with Rodan and Caltiki about the good old days, and of course what subject always comes up is wrasslin'!! Remember when they would have a scientific wrasslin' match?? It would be between two good guys, with no dirty moves, and was usually boring as hell. I remember one match between Pepper Gomez and some other Good Guy, where I think they ran across the ring and bounced off the ropes going over and under each other like 47 times in a row! We'll take a Lucha Libre masked free-for-all anytime instead! That said, here's another suave little tune by "El Klan" from the film "Blue Demon Contra Las Diabolicas" with our favorite twin saxes, groovy guitar, jungle bird calls, extra funky keyboards and sensual outer space vocals! What a sweet suite! Standing ovation please! Tequila Milagro con Blue Demon es muy bueno, una celebracion mas fina! Todo classico! Gracias! 

 

El Klan Rocks!

 Is that good stuff or what???

THE RETURN OF DRACULA - Gerald Fried - "Theme and Costume Party" (1958)

Composer, conductor, and oboist Gerald Fried might have one of the more remarkable careers we've written about yet, at least as far as TV is concerned anyway. Need proof? How about 9 episodes of "Star Trek", 45 episodes of "The Man From Uncle", 9 episodes of "Gilligan's Island", 2 episodes of "Lost In Space" and 5 episodes of "Mission Impossible", and that was just from 1965 to 1968! In the 50's he composed music for an wide array of films including many classic JD movies and horror films besides "The Return Of Dracula." Killer JD titles include "Dino", "Cry Baby Killer" and "High School Big Shot." More horror/sci-fi titles he composed for are "Curse Of The Faceless Man", "The Flame Barrier" and one our faves, "The Lost Missile." The man is obviously a genius, what else do you need to know?? 

 

Halloween party, the real good old fashion way, dunking for apples with some Dixie music blowing in the background! 

 

Belle Mitchell as Cornelia had a career in the movies that started in 1915 and continued well into the 70's!! Wow!! "That's right folks, have some fun!!" 

 

Francis Lederer makes for a pretty sleazy Count Dracula! 

 

Get back Drac!! Return Of Dracula

THE WIZARD OF MARS (Horrors Of The Red Planet) - Frank Coe - "Toot Toot" (1965)

Okay, you know, we're generally very reverent about the films we write about here, but there's at least one movie that really gets under our skin. What we're talkin' about here is "Horrors Of The Red Planet," aka "The Wizard Of Mars." Honestly, on multiple levels this could seriously be the worst sci-fi or horror film ever made, and that's coming from people who really like bad stuff! This movie just offends us! Number one, Duh!, NOTHING Happens!!! Normally that would be enough, but besides that, nothing else happens!! Of all the films or cartoons based on "The Wizard Of Oz," this one is by far the worst. What's really scary is, believe it or don't "The Wiz" is a better movie!!! 

 

Right! Sure! This is Dorothy!! 

 

You'll just have to guess which one is the Tin Man and which one is the Scarecrow. 

 

These Leaf Fin Martian Eel Critters were almost scary for about two seconds! 

 

Highlights of this film are, the disembodied John Carradine, rambling on forever about a bunch of foolish nonsense, the crew walking through a cave for about 20 minutes talking about absolutely nothing, and another 20 minutes walking in the sand dunes, I mean Mars, talking about more nothing! 

 Okay, Okay, this creepy little dude was kind of interesting. Seems like we saw one of his relatives in the "Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum." 

 

The big solar pendulum thing is just stupid! Forrest J. Ackerman got credit for technical advisor! They probably only asked him one question, so they could use his name! I'm almost positive his technical advice was to ditch the whole project without delay!! So don't blame Forry and don't blame composer Frank Coe either. He did his part with a decent orchestrated and theremin score. Frank also worked on other freaky psychotronic films like "Monsters And The Pajama Party" and "Lemon Grove Kids Meet The Monsters", but Frank couldn't even save this movie. To be fair, if they did replace the actors, the director, the cinematographer, and the script, this film might be watchable!! I said might! "Life Itself Is Meaningless Again" Do yourself a favor and first rent this movie, then rent or buy any Jerry Warren, Al Adamson, or Larry Buchanan movie to see what really good "Bad" is!!

MISS MUERTE (The Diabolical Dr. Z) - Daniel J. White - "Cacophony" (1966)

Just like seeing fire shoot out of your headphones, this music is dissident, jarring and discordant! That's not easy to do and still be listenable. Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Sun-Ra, and all the free jazz cats blowing in lofts at 3 o'clock in the morning have nothing on this short piece that rumbles along like some kind of freight train from Hell shot off like a rocket into outer space in about 47 seconds! Whew! Try and imagine the whole Miles Davis Quintet falling down a flight of stairs together, then at the bottom they just dust themselves off and go on like nothing ever happened. That's what Daniel J. White came up with for this hunt and capture scene. It's short, it's nuts! It's chaos!! It's beautiful!!! 

 

"Attacophony"

MAROONED - "Title Credits" (1969)

Never did consider the 1969 Oscar winning film "Marooned" to be a 'Monster Movie' by any means, but it is in space, okay, that's good, but it's not scary, and there's no monsters!! Still, there's a fascinating little story here. More science than science fiction, they chose to use electronic sounds instead of big orchestrated music as background. So, there is no score for this movie, I guess the sound guys, Les Fresholtz and Arthur Piantadosi get the credit since it's more sounds than music. They did get an Oscar nod for 'Best Sound' but they didn't win. Neat stuff, quite unique, and the only thing boring about it, is the feeling that a drill is boring into your cranium!! Good job guys!! By the way, Netflix is streaming this movie, so you can watch it whenever you want! Decent quality too!! 

 

"Marooned"

GASU NINGEN DAI ICHIGO (The Human Vapor) - Kunio Miyauchi - "Modern Bar-Traditional Dance" (1960)

Kunio Miyauchi composed music for Ultraman and Godzilla exclusively except for this title from 1960, "The Human Vapor." Right up there with "The H-Man" as far as gaseous people and cool music is concerned, this is another one of those films you should go out of your way to try and find a copy somehow. 

 

Beware! Do not screw around with the librarian!! 

 

He's starting to glow! 

 

Now he's glowing and constricting around your neck. 

 

There are two great bar scenes where glib Detective Okamoto and his girlfriend, nosey Reporter Kyoko are discussing the case with a very witty dialogue exchange, and some swingin' with-it music In The Background. 

 

He's so full of it, and she has got that dirty look down pat! 

 

Later on in the film, they're going at it again! 

 

And once again, he deserves and gets that icy stare. Ow!! 

 

Then, towards the end of the film, the librarian, aka the human vapor is trying to take in a beautiful show of traditional Japanese music. Of course the crowd gets in, gets ants in their pants real fast, and after one unruly guy yells out, "Bring on the strippers!" you know some body's going to pay! They really shouldn't push the librarian like that! 

 

Fujichiyo Kasuga as the dancer. Kishiro Katada was the supervisor for the.....Traditional Music

THE DEVIL'S MESSENGER - Alfred Gwynn - "Don Freaks Out" (1961)

After that break, seemed like a good time to do something simple, unfortunately for me this is no simple tale. In the movie "The Devil's Messenger," you have a small series of vignettes hosted by Satan himself in the guise of Lon Chaney Jr. This piece starts off with the title music composed by Alfred Gwynn. The sound quality in Hell is not that great! 

 

Lon looks pretty happy in this role as Satan! 

 

Here you have the character of Don Powell contemplating strange happenings. 

 

Cinematography by Artie Shotz! 

 

This is the only film that composer Alfred Gwynn ever worked on, but the two guys in this scene have an unbelievable history! Ralph Brown (with the glasses) as Charlie, started his career playing himself as a tap dancer in a 1946 film called "Jivin' In Be-Bop", starring, for all you jazz buffs, none other than Mr. Dizzy Gillespie, with James Moody, Milt Jackson, Ray Brown, Helen Humes, and Benny Carter. John Crawford (not to get mixed up with The Rifleman's son Johnny Crawford) had a TV and movie history they should make a movie about! His way amazing career started off in 1933, in a small film called "King Kong," as a 'native dancer'. The rest of his career is like opening up a TV Guide from the 60's to the 80's. It will leave you breathless. Probably in the 70's, if this guy showed up at your house for dinner, you'd think he was part of your family because his face would be more familiar than a lot of your cousins! Hey John, Cheers!! 

 

Man, I love this scene, Don & his best friend for 15 years, Charlie, are having a discussion about Don's mental behavior. Don asks for Charlie's help, and when Charlie offers to help him, Don punches him in the face! What a pal!  

Don and Charlie

 We hope you enjoy your stay!!