Saturday, February 26, 2011

KYÔRYÛ KAICHÔ NO DENSETSU - Masao Yagi - "Legend Of Dinosaurs And Ominous Birds" (1977)

Things are not well in Gotham City, but when the searchlight beams, the show must go on!

"Legends Of Dinosaurs And Monster Birds" is not by any means your standard 1977 Japanese Big Monster flick! I don't even really know what to compare it to! Toei Productions were responsible for a weird handful of cool Sci-Fi films over the years like "Prince Of Space," "Invasion Of The Neptune Men," "The Terror Beneath The Sea," and "The Green Slime," but generally they didn't venture into the Sci-Fi Monster genre, it was Toho Studios who were the guys making all the big rubber monster flicks like "Gojira," and that's what makes this movie so different looking!!

This opening scene concerns a young girl in the woods alone, who suddenly falls into a gigantic ice cave!

What she sees will open a completely different chapter of Japanese Kaiju history, and a very violent one!

The music by the Maestro Masao Yagi is superlative, and used quite differently, like soft and jazzy during a monster attack! Masao has a colourful array of titles under his belt! Fittingly, the last film he made in 1986 was a documentary called "The Shocks" that was kind of a "Mondo Cane" version of American TV! Here's a couple more: "Tattooed Hit Man," "School Of The Holy Beast," "Girl Boss Revenge," "Gangster Cop," "Inferno Of Torture," "The Sexploiters," and my favorite, "Tokyo 196X."

The kid in the picture with his corncob pipe smoking Dad is Tsunehiko Watase as Ashizawa, a man in search of a legend that only his Father had seen, a giant beast that lives in the lake!

It just so happens that there's a festival going on down by that very lake, "The Happy Country Music Show" featuring Beau Yatani and his The Last Longhorn Band!

We get a nice history of Mt. Fuji, and the boys are jamming, when the whole stage suddenly falls apart!

The people all go into a panic when they see the monster, but it just turns out to be a prank by some of the local boys!!

The prank turns very ugly when the real monster shows up and wolfs one of the pranksters down like a piece of yellowtail sashimi, and you suddenly realize, that you don't think this is a kid's picture anymore!

It's a little hard to see, but the monster in question that nobody still has seen yet, does some peeping "Gorgo" or "King Kong" style!

The Co-star of the film is the extremely lovely Nobiko Sawa as Akiko! What a shame, Nobiko was only ever in one other film, made the same year, "Nippon No Don:Yabohen."

Akiko and her friend are divers, and unaware of the danger, are out for a nice relaxing dive on the lake!

Left alone up top while Akiko is diving below, everything goes to Hell in a Japanese clutch purse real fast!

I'll say it again, this is NOT a children's movie, this poor girl is basically tortured, mutilated, and dismembered, and the sight that Akiko must endure after re-surfacing is terrifying, and nothing like any old Toho movie I've ever seen!

Just in case you were wondering where and when the monster bird comes into the act...........Hereeee's The Pteranodon!!!

So by now everybody has seen the monsters, and it's time for them to have a major clash to see who is the new world's champion!

Tsunehiko Watase has had a pretty wild and varied career, working on everything from "Jesus Is My Boss" to the "Wild Sex Gang."

Ashizawa and Akiko were in the lake when the authorities start dumping in depth charges, they manage to escape only to get caught up in the whole battle between the sea monster and the flying monster, and then the freakin' volcano erupts setting the entire landscape on fire!

The viewer along with the actors is really left hanging in The End. Do they make it, is it possible, or Not?!

Friday, February 25, 2011

GRAVEYARD OF HORROR / Films Internacionales - 1971

Welcome everbloody to Friday Frights with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon. Tonite, we have a weird one from Spain, it's also known as NECROMANIAC and THE BUTCHER OF BINBROOK, original Spanish title is NECROPHAGUS! But, there's no gore, no nudity and no sleeping with corpses!..

This title card is excellent, you can see it has the same distributor as the Filipino BLOOD movies and Al Adamson! The music is by Alfonso G. Santisteban, he had a total of 56 composing credits which includes THE MUMMY'S REVENGE, I HATE MY BODY, FORBIDDEN LOVE GAME and TAXI LOVE. The theme is about as cool as they come, you'll hear it in a matter of seconds, sooo...

To keep that promise, here's our fuzzy lil' Dungeon fiend and 'GO' button pusher, Ralphie The Tarantula! Get ready for the... GRAVEYARD OF HORROR!

Here's Bill Curran as Michael Sherrington, Harmonicat wantabe, going back home after a disasterous try-out session with them, you'll hear how crappy he is in the soundclip! Seriously, the plot is all over the place in this crazy flick, so, Tabonga's not into es'plainin' it, headache city, rent it!

In fact, just sit back and enjoy the stills... This looks like a good place to start!

Great cast of oddballs! There's Dr. Lexter, can't miss him, and, Inspector Harrison.

I love this, where Michael tries to get some info out of Mr. Fowles, you can watch the snow pile up on Fowles' hair as the scene plods along. It looks pretty funny since it doesn't stick to his jacket or noggin. Actually, it looks like he spends too much time in the pigeon coop!

Víctor Israel plays Fowles, he had 167 acting credits which include THE SAVAGE GUNS, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, DYNAMITE JIM, HALLUCINATION GENERATION, SUGAR COLT, RIO HONDO, THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED, THE LIGHT AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD, MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE, KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL!, HORROR EXPRESS, EXORCISM'S DAUGHTER, NIGHT OF THE HOWLING BEAST, NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES, THE SEA SERPENT and THE NEON MAN to name a few! Vic passed away in 2009 at the age of 80.

Now, that's a great looking shot!

Inside one of the underground crypts, there's something that likes to come out of it's grave!! The eyes can really goof up a monster, these definitely don't say 'horror' at all, they say more like... "Hello, der!"

There was a man from Nantucket, who had had enough and finally said..... Wait, wrong sonnet!

These damn dames don't mess around, high-octane anger abounds!

Okay boys, this is as close as you'll get to seeing the stuff you wanna see!

It's a fact, women are more complicated than men. They're like men, except that they generally want to kill each other!

This is a pretty interesting still...

I like this one, too!

Okay, fine, if you're not going to put a bag over your head, I'm outta here!..

Ahhh... Sweet double-crossed buns!

Let's not forget these mysterious dudes in masks that assist by bringing in bodies for the thing!

The creature finally turns on it's master and escapes with the girl!

At the end, the misunderstood monster is gunned down by the police after all the pleas to surrender fail.

Ghoulnight Everbloody!!..

Monster Music

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