Friday, December 24, 2010

HOMICIDAL - Hugo Friedhofer - "Emily, William or Warren" (1961)

Seems like Tabonga has got some kind of satan bug from trying to be a nice guy, right! I told him not to go there, but since when does anyone listen to me? SO, instead it's me, yer pal, Eegah!! again, and since it's Christmas Eve, I brought along my little buddy, Mickey the Worm to push that big red button thing, since neither Ralphie or Rufus showed up for work either! So, hit it Mickey......Ok, he's on his way, it'll just be a second or two longer, please just hang on,..... Ok, he's almost there.........

Confound it, I can't wait any longer, I'll do it myself! Here's your early freakin' X-Mas present, William Castle presents: "HOMICIDAL"! How's that for a needlepoint and stogie smug mug??

Here's a good spot to tell you that the music was composed by cellist Hugo Friedhofer, who played in live orchestras during silent films, and scored his first film, "Seven Faces" in 1929. He went on to compose, orchestrate, and musically direct hundreds of films over the years!

"Homicidal" begins right here, the year Tabonga was born, in the little village of Solvang, California, just a few miles down the road from the happiest place in the world, and just a couple of hours away from where the stupidest people in California live, if you believe what you read on the internet!

Wow, they've got a lot of classic cars in Ventura!!

Seems like Jean Arless, I mean Joan Marshall, here as Emily, is hot to trot! She checks into the Hotel and says, go on ahead and send up the bellhop too!! The older guy gets a little disappointed! Joan was a strange bird, she was a Las Vegas Show Girl at the age of 16, the movie "Shampoo" was based on her life, and when she had enough of Hollyweird, she moved to Jamaica, where her ashes were scattered in 1992!

Richard Rust is Jim Nesbitt, the Hotel clerk about to get suckered into turning his whole life around. Richard was in almost every cowboy TV show during the 50's and 60's from "Lawman" to Bonanza!"

I doubt it's an accident that the money Emily is offereing Jim is laying on Gideon's Bible!

Emily has offered Jim a large sum of money to marry her on the spot, so what's a fellah sposed to do, he gets in the car and goes!!

The Justice of the Peace Alfred S. Adrims portrayed by classic actor James Westerfield, and his wife played by Hope Summers are fairly annoyed by Emily's late hour demands!

You can now kiss the bride, Uh, Oh, I think I'll pass!!

Sometimes a person just needs to give in to the fact that there are Psychos in the world!

Emily's new husband watches on in disbelief and horror, this wasn't part of the deal!

Emily splits the scene post haste, leaving Jim to do the explaining!

Later, in the flower shop, Emily reacts to the cute little bride and groom figurines just about how you would expect!!

You just can't go wrong with gauges, clocks, and meters!

So, basically, I've told you nothing about "Homicidal," and I don't care if it has been 50 years, I can't give away all of William Castle's gimmicks, but I will leave you with this William Castle "Fright Meter," that gives you 45 seconds to get the Hell out of the room, by warning you when something truly horrible is going to happen.........and, trust me, it will!

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

THE THREE STOOGES in THE GHOST TALKS (1949)

"The Ghost Talks" is one of the rare Stooges romps that veers off into the supernatural, and once again, the music is basically insignificant, except for the "Three Blind Mice" theme, which we've stated here before, was a nursery rhyme written by English composer Thomas Ravenscroft in 1609!

Cinematographer M.A. Anderson gets a lot of credit for the terrific look of this short, in what I believe was his only Stooges outing! Producer and Director Jules White, on the other hand was responsible for over 300 Three Stooges episodes!

Shemp gets caught in the pouring rain not unlike what's been pounding California for the last week, and ends up with an inverted umbrella full of water!

Moe gets the situation all straightened out, and under control!

Growing up watching The Stooges, I always figured they were made for kids, I mean Dad never watched them and Mom sure as Hell didn't, but as an adult, you kind of get a different take on the whole scene, like this little film is about a ghost who was a peeping tom! A sex crime!

As a kid, I think a lot of guys identify with Curly, but as you grow older, Shemp's intellect shows off it's complexities!

Tell me this doesn't look like a set-up for a sight gag!!

Ow, right in Larry's gazitza!! It was "Just a coincidence!"

When in doubt, get out the manual and look up the chapter on how to move a suit of armor! The fact that they are the 'Express' company cracks me up!

Oh, Yeah, Sure, kid's program ALL the way, as the boys drop down and have a smoke!

But it was just a set-up for this and another gag!

Boy, what an enviable way to work. A small closed set, a cast of basically only three very experienced and talented actors, and good lighting, how could you go wrong?

I love this shot and the living skull routine! So, besides Moe, Larry, and Shemp, all you needed was a voice for the ghost, and a voice for the skeleton, and............

......Nancy Saunders as Lady Godiva! Nancy was also in two other Stooge's shorts, "The Brideless Groom," and "I'm A Monkey's Uncle," and another flick called "The Thirteenth Hour," and started off her career in film as a glamour girl in the movie "The Bamboo Blonde!"

Wolf whistles, catcalls, it may be The End, but it's almost more than these three hotblooded guys can handle!!

Monday, December 20, 2010

BEYOND THE TIME BARRIER / MCP - 1960

Hello everbloody, welcome to Mondo Monday, here at The Dungeon...

What a flick we gots tonight, directed by Edgar G. Ulmer, stars Robert Clarke, filmed back to back with THE AMAZING TRANSPARENT MAN using the Texas State Show Grounds for locations, and it even co-stars Ulmer's own daughter, Arianne!

This is the actual mint 3-sheet I sold on eBay for $400 in 1999 to help pay for a generator we needed for night shoots while making THE CREEP. Eegah!! and I spent many nights using noise reduction software, taking out that infernal generator noise in post production!!

The music's by Mr. Darrell Calker, here's the titles of some Walter Lantz cartoons he worked on!.. VOO-DOO BOO-BOO, WOODY'S KOOK-OUT, FOWLED-UP BIRTHDAY, PHONEY EXPRESS, CARELESS CARETAKER, CORNY CONCERTO, HYDE AND SNEAK and HI-SEAS HI-JACKER, and that's how he ended his career!!

Awrat then... Here's that lil' Dungeon helper and gnat-weight hot dog eating champ, Rufus The Gnat, to push the big red 'GO' button way over there, which starts our Eariffic Earclip for yer listenin' enjoyment! Git ready for... BEYOND THE TIME BARRIER!

Ground control is monitoring Major Allison as he becomes THE FIRST MAN INTO SPACE, even though the plot is WORLD WITHOUT END!..

Nice model work, modifying this Delta Dart into a spaceship!

You can hear in the soundclip where the Major hits that time twisting spot in space!

After the Major lands back on Earth, well, things, they just don't seem the same... A few years later, Robert Hutton pulls the same act when he lands at the Van Nuys airport in THE SLIME PEOPLE... "Hey, where did everbloody go, George?!"

Then, the Major looks around the corner of the building and sees this!

As he approaches the complex, the people watching prepare to zap him with their knock-out ray.

He wakes up in a big tube!.. Yeah, the poster art looks a bit more dramatic.

Here's beautiful Darlene Tompkins as Princess Trirene and Vladimir Sokoloff as the Supreme. Darlene was also in BLUE HAWAII and FUN IN ACAPULCO, Vladimir was in I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF, SABU AND THE MAGIC RING, MONSTER FROM GREEN HELL and MR. SARDONICUS.

Don Flournoy and Tom Ravick get the only 'mutant' credits. Here, Major Allison tries to reason with them. It doesn't work.

The Princess is a deaf-mute, but can read minds. She likes the Major.

The Major asks her is she can read his mind, and, she'll slap the crap out of him a moment later!!

Then, the lucky dog gets to watch her skinny dip!

Here's director Ulmer's daughter, Arianne, as Capt. Markova, she lets the mutants go against the leaders! She was also in the movie THE NAKED VENUS aka DIARY OF A NUDIST!

The mutants get a little distracted!

The architecture is interesting and all, but, seems so damn impractical... I mean, c'mon, it's like a funhouse in there!

The Princess accidently gets shot and dies!

In order to get back to his time, the Major has to exit out the back door!

After going through the time barrier again, he lands back in 1960 and is taken directly to the hospital...

Because, he is now an old man!!

Thanks to TedMo for retrieving this flick for us!

Ghoulnight Everbloody!!

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??