Wednesday, September 7, 2011

RED ZONE CUBA - Ray Gregory/John Carradine - "Night Train To Mundo Fine" (1966)

Coleman Francis is one of those special D.I.Y. filmmakers we hold near and dear down here! What drove this man to make movies? I'm sure we could discuss it for hours, but for whatever reason, Coleman did it, and tonight's feature "Red Zone Cuba" is the third film in the trilogy that included "The Beast Of Yucca Flats," and "Skydivers!" No, it's not a monster movie, even better, it's a Coleman Francis movie, a night train to a fine world, and the only place I know where you can get a copy is over at the most mysterious place I know of, The Web of Mystery!

Special guest star John Carradine not only gets to do the introductory scenes, he also gets to sing the theme song too! I can't believe how excited I am, after all this time, to present to you "Night Train to Mundo Fine", the original title of the movie, sung by John Carradine with music by the amazing Ray Gregory and the Melmen! Trust me, you haven't lived until you've heard this one!

This guy just came to interview John Carradine!

They paid to have John there a certain amount of time, and with no more lines, what's he supposed to do but 'Puff, puff, puff that cigarette."

The other two guys in this 'buddy' movie are Harold Saunders as Cook, and Anthony Cardoza as Landis. Anthony and Harold were also in "Skydivers!"

Coleman Francis is Griffin (and The Narrator too), a man who has just escaped from prison for a crime too nefarious to even be known! I find it amusing that Coleman does the narration, but his character has a very limited amount of lines, almost to the point of being mute at times!

Man, good thing they left the tailgate down, or Griffin would have never been able to sneak into the bed of that pickup truck and complete the escape!

Now that's the perfect Sheriff circa 1966!!

Anthony Cardoza was the guy behind the scenes that made Coleman's trilogy a reality. Anthony Cardoza had a full-time day job as a welder, but he was the guy who came up with all the money, and ended up editing the movies! Once they were shot, Anthony said that Coleman thought his part was done! That's the reason this was the last movie they would do together! Two years later, all his efforts finally paid off for him when Anthony produced the female biker flick "The Hellcats," and finally made some money!

If Curly had smoked, N'Yuk, N'Yuk, N'Yuk!!!

Fly out of Lancaster, next stop Cuba! In Coleman Francis's world, Cuba was only like 7 minutes from somewhere, anywhere!

Okay, Tony, put on the fake beard, no shit, now this looks like Cuba for sure, I mean, where else could they possibly be? Tijuana, Haight Ashbury, Greenwich Village?

In 1966, Malibu Beach looked as much like Cuba as anywhere else! At least they got out of Palmdale for a day!

Palm trees and what appear to be abandoned migrant farm worker buildings in Santa Paula look like Cuba, that's for sure!

This must have been some kind of re-occurring nightmare that Coleman had. Freedom fighting Yanks in Cuban prisoner of war camps sweating it out, and waiting for just the right moment to attempt an escape! Just for the record, they still have no real clue why they are even in Cuba!

How to look like it's the last straw in Cuba, have another smoke!! When Coleman couldn't come up with any lines to write, smoking a cigarette was always a surefire way to kill some time!

The boys commandeer this plane, and are just barely able to flee Cuba amidst a hail of bullets!!

I don't know, this is one of those, "I just like this shot for some unexplained reason" deals!

Back in the U.S.A, broke and hungry, Coleman's character finally comes alive only to kill and rape the only two people that have been nice to him in the whole movie!!

Associate Producer Charles Harter is the store owner Cliff Weismeyer! Charles had one other role as Chuck in "Bigfoot!"

Cliff's musically inclined daughter and rape victim is Elaine Gibford in her only role ever!

All that and the till is empty! Before Griffin cleaned it out, there was a quarter!

Okay, enough diversions, now it's time to head on over and see the wife of the dying guy they met in the Cuban prison cell, who told them there were riches on his property!! Lanell Cado's only other credit is a good one! She was the gal who was strangled in the opening scenes of "The Beast Of Yucca Flats!"

Hey man, that's a cool shot! So what am I supposed to do? I don't know, light another cigarette or something!

Only movie I've ever seen where one of the cops drives a Buick!

Okay Coleman, come out with your hands up! Tony's out of money and everybody's tired, let's wrap this thing up and get the Hell out of here!!!

That's it! That's all they got out of it, a broken cigarette and a quarter, which for 1966 wasn't that bad, but still.............

Monday, September 5, 2011

WORLD WITHOUT END / Allied Artists - 1956

Hello everbloody, welcome to Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Our featured flick is a classic from 1956, brought to us by Allied Artists and the awesome director, Edward Bernds. This is an updated version of a previous post.

We love Ed Bernds. Besides all The Three Stooges shorts, he directed these fan favorites... THE BOWERY BOYS MEET THE MONSTERS, REFORM SCHOOL GIRL, SPACE MASTER X-7 (with Moe Howard), QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE, RETURN OF THE FLY, VALLEY OF THE DRAGONS, THE THREE STOOGES MEET HERCULES and THE THREE STOOGES IN ORBIT! He died in Van Nuys at the ripe old age of 94... in the year 2000.

Here's a photo of Ed directing Zsa Zsa Gabor and Eric Fleming on the set of QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE.

The music we hear in the soundclip is my second favorite sci-fi theme from the fifties, INVADERS FROM MARS is number one. What this theme says best though, is, 'being in outer space with all it's wonders.' You'll hear this music reused in the 1961 space opera, THE PHANTOM PLANET.

Monday means that Ralphie The Tarantula is waiting on the sideline, warmed up and ready to go! So, wif'out further adieu, lettuce get this salad started! Press the big red 'GO' button there to your left, NOW, Ralphie! Here's... WORLD WITHOUT END!

Look at the great spaceship created by the Allied Artists' prop department. This beauty was also used in QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE and IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE.

The ship and crew go into a time warp in space and luckily end up on a cushion of snow when they crash land on some unknown planet.

Eegah!!.. 'Planet Of The Freakin' Future!'

I'm pretty sure that people smell like fried chicken to giant, hungry, mutant spiders! Ralphie's distant relative was reused in QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE.

Check this out, they shoot the creepy thing in the head and it's brain (?) splatters all over the place!!

Things don't get any better for them that night, when, they're attacked by a gang of big, mean, ugly, mutant cavemen! They had to shoot this poor devil in the eyeball to stop him!

I remember seeing this still in FM, a frightful sight for a 12 year old in 1960! On one of the science channels a few years ago, I was watching a program on child development, when, they had this part about recognition of faces by babies at a very early age. For 'fun' they showed babies a drawing of a person with just one eye in the middle. The infants would instantly become upset and very uncomfortable!!

Then, the space jockeys discover the horrible truth, they're... on... Earth!

They explore a cave and find a door, and, it looks like it was made by intelligent beings! They knock... What the Hell?!

Yes, I designed this costume myself! Do you like it?..

Let's face it, Rod Taylor was a hunk. I think he was the perfect H. G. Wells for George Pal's THE TIME MACHINE.

Enjoy the still, that is all, over and out.

I'm soooo lucky to get off work early, now I can watch my favorite soap, As The World Without End Turns!.. Hmmm, I wonder what Mike and Tony are talking about?..

The Doof is caught blackmailing the time travelers, so, tries to escape outdoors and runs into some of his old friends!

Yeah, yeah, we all know, you call this a 'fipromodulator 6c'... Where I come from, we just call it a 'pipe.' Man, you're really getting on my nerves...

The boys go out looking for some stray mutants to test their super bazooka on. Here's some interesting info... Ed Bernds first sought Sterling Hayden for the lead of Commander Borden, then, Frank Lovejoy. Can you imagine that, Frank Lovejoy!! Anyway, producer Richard Heermance eventually hired Hugh Marlowe because he got him for a quarter of the other actors' salaries. According to Bernds, Marlowe was often lazy and unprepared.

You can have all the firepower in the world, but...

Watch out for them spears!

The cavegirl who was raised by the underground race calls out the leader of the mutants to come and fight Commander Borden, mano-a-mano, no guns...

Believe it, or, don't!.. This is the very first incarnation of The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders!!

Since our group of time travelers are stuck in the future, they make the best of it. Here, the cave kids are taught The Three Rs.

Here's a nice Euro poster to end the show with...

Monster Music

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