Saturday, August 13, 2011

THE MUNSTERS - Jack Marshall - "If A Martian Answers, Hang Up!" (1965)

One of THE greatest TV shows ever produced, "The Munsters" ran for 72 episodes from 1964 to 1966!! Tonight's episode was Season 1, Episode 18, and was titled "If A Martian Answers, Hang Up" and I think was the closest they ever got to any real science fiction!

The theme and other incidental music for "The Munsters" was created by Mr. Jack Marshall, a gifted composer and excellent guitarist! It all makes sense, since "The Munsters" theme is driven by a guitar riff! in 1959, Jack Marshall composed the music for the Dungeon Classic, "The Giant Gila Monster!" Jack worked with jazz greats Jack Sheldon, Howard Roberts, and Shelly Manne, among others, and wrote the arrangement for Peggy Lee's überclassic version of "Fever," using only percussion, bass and finger snaps!! What a talent!!

Every guy needs a hobby, and Herman Munster is no exception, so he got himself a two-way ham radio operator's license! He tries singing "My Mother's Eyes" over the airwaves to see if he can attract some attention!

Butch Patrick as the iconic Eddie doesn't have much of a role in this episode, except to introduce the friends he's become bored with! Butch put together the band called "Eddie and the Monsters" in 1983 and released the cult classic "What Ever Happened to Eddie?" with some success, but it's been a topsy-turvy world for him for quite some time!

After Eddie bugs out on them, Ronnie Dapo as Roger, and Pat Rosson as Walt, pick up a signal on their walkie talkies from Herman! Unlike Butch, both Ronnie and Pat were at the tail ends of their acting careers, and would call it quits by the following year!

Herman thinks he has made contact with Martians, and attempts to arrange another talk session as the boys have to scamper off to dinner!!

Herman is so excited he's made contact with Martians, he can't sleep, so Lily tries to console him!

Either Margaret, or Peggy Yvonne Middleton, depending on who you talk to, Miss Venice Beach 1938, changed her name to Yvonne De Carlo and haphazardly ended up as the iconic Lily Munster! It's said that Yvonne had six hobbies, spending time with her family, golfing, dancing, drinking wine, listening to music, and singing! Now that's my kind of woman!

She also does a very good job of ringing Herman's bells, if you get my drift!

Al Lewis as Grandpa has a digital divining rod that he offers up to try and find the Martian spaceship! I love the fact that the divining rod has a setting for finding "girls!"

That darned old Grandpa, he set the divining rod on water instead of flying objects, so Herman just finds himself a faceful of sewer water instead!

While out looking for the Martians, Herman and Grandpa stumble onto the kids, who just happen to now be in costume, and have a cool inflatable flying saucer, so now both Herman and Grandpa are 100% totally convinced that Martians have indeed landed on earth!

Herman takes a picture so they can report it to the authorities! Can you believe how difficult it was back then just to take a simple picture??

Grandpa tries to alert the military to the imposing danger, but imagine this, Herbert "Brewster's Millions" Rudley, as Captain Halbert, doesn't believe poor Grandpa, and thinks he's some kind of a kook!!

Dort "Wonderful Town" Clark as Mr. Andrews, knows how to take care of preverts on the phone! With a name like Dort, you've got to be tough! "I'm going to break your arm off, and shove it down your throat!"

As always, after the smoke clears, and everybody settles down, life is back to normal, and Herman is just trying to find some music by Lawrence Welk when he gets a message from a real Martian! Once bitten, twice shy Herman is not about to fall for it a second time! Along with Eddie, Pat Priest as Marilyn Munster has only a small role in this episode!

"My, those earth people are getting rude!" If the Martian looks familiar, it's because he's the same as the Helosian from season one, episode 7 of "The Outer Limits's" called "O.B.I.T." that you see in the piture below, and if you don't believe me, you can watch it for free (with commercials), on "Hulu".....

...by clicking right about HERE!

I'll leave you with this great poster where it looks like Fred's waving you a fond farewell, from the 1966 Munsters full length movie called "Munster, Go Home!"

Friday, August 12, 2011

ISLAND OF LOST WOMEN / Jaguar Productions - 1959

Welcome to Friday Night Drive-In with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Tonite's offering is a nearly unknown 71 minute flick featuring the atomic-flamethrower wielding, Alan Napier!

The Turkish poster was soooo bad that I decided to show this 100% WEIRD logo instead! Back in the early nineties, I recorded about 200 movies during it's run, this feature is one of them! I loved that crazy program that aired on TNT.

The music is by Raoul Kraushaar and Dave Kahn. Raoul composed music for UNKNOWN ISLAND, PREHISTORIC WOMEN, BRIDE OF THE GORILLA, UNTAMED WOMEN, BOMBA AND THE JUNGLE GIRL, ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET CAPTAIN KIDD and the movie with my all time favorite sci-fi theme... INVADERS FROM MARS!! Dave Kahn worked in various music department capacities on these TV shows... JOHNNY RINGO, MISTER ED, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, PETTICOAT JUNCTION, GREEN ACRES and THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES!

Since it's Friday, that means our littlest Dungeon Helper and officially certified button pusher is none other than... The one and only, Rufus The Gnat!! Yay '4' Rufus!.. So, let's get things going with our soundclip, push the big red 'GO' button, now, Rufus!! Here's... ISLAND OF LOST WOMEN!

The story goes like this... While flying to an international news conference, radio commentator Mark Bradley and his pilot, Joe Walker, are forced to make an emergency landing in their Beechcraft 18 on an unchartered island in the Pacific. They find the island is inhabited by Dr. Paul Lujan and his three scantily clad daughters: Venus, Mercuria, and Urana. Dr. Lujan is a nuclear scientist who has dropped out of society because he thinks that man is on the path to total annihilation, and, is the reason why he and his daughters live on the deserted island.

I wonder what happens when you 'push' those buttons, or, even just one of them?

Alan Napier will always be known as the butler, Alfred, in the classic 1960s BATMAN TV series with Adam West and Burt Ward. He also played The High Priest in THE MOLE PEOPLE and the very clever, Dr. Druzik, in Dungeon favorite, MASTERMINDS.

Mark and Joe meet the inhabitants of the island... The girls, this time from left to right, there's Urana, Venus and Mercuria.

It doesn't take long for Mark to figure things out!..

Now, wait a second... Three girls!.. Two guys!..

Mark learns about pops' little atomic flamethrower, the hard way!

And, he destroys their airplane with the weapon! Actually, the doctor just doesn't want the boys to leave and then tell authorities of his whereabouts.

Looks like the girls are going to turn in their chess pieces for some... Wait, are they in the Batcave?!

In most sci-fi movies, there's a time when the 'mad' scientist tells the interested intruder all about what he's up to, which is only meant to clarify things for the viewer and set up the 'you know too much' scenerio.

That's right, Bunky, fooling around with atomic crap is both complicated and nutty, so, don't you ever forget it!

There's an exciting part where Mark has to protect Venus from a shark!.. The dude (stuntman) kills this big shark with a freakin' knife, for real!

You hear in the soundclip where Joe explains over the loud speaker that he's now the doctor's prisoner. Joe and Mark have built a raft and are planning another departure, so again, the doc simply ain't gonna let it happen.

They probably didn't plan this panty shot...

When the girls finally turn against dad, one thing quickly leads to another!

See the one big white circle back there with the smaller ones? Well, it's in the wrong place!

Sooo...

Run like Hell, the whole damn place is gonna blow!!..

KA-EF'FIN-BLOOIE!!!

The lighting looks good here, has an authentic 'blast' appearance!

"All I wanted to do is bust some little old atoms!" ~ Quote by Omar in THE FLESH EATERS.

Monster Music

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