Monday, December 26, 2011

THE 27th DAY / Romson Productions - 1957

Welcome to Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Tonite's feature reuses the saucers from EARTH vs THE FLYING SAUCERS to their benefit! And, there are no real monsters.

It's a fairly complicated story... Five Earthlings are abducted by aliens and are each given a capsule which can release a weapon so deadly that all of mankind will be destroyed! It's actually a test, if the five can resist using the weapon for 27 days, man will continue to live on Earth. Should any one of them release the weapon, all human life will be destroyed and the aliens will take over the Earth as their new home. When their alien abductor makes the identities of the five known in a world-wide broadcast, government leaders and criminals try and get their hands on the devices for their own use.

The music is by one of our favorite composers, Mischa Bakaleinikoff. His awesome career consisted of 68 composing credits and an unbelievable 459 music department credits!! All hail Mischa!

Letz bring in our fuzzy little fiend and button pusher, Ralphie The Tarantula! Howdy, Ralphie! He's here to start our show, so, push the big red 'GO' button located there by the little green 'STOP' button, now, Ralphie! Here's... THE 27th DAY!

It all starts when mysterious strangers kidnap five poeple from around the world, mainly from super-power nations.

They find themselves out in space in a cool Harryhausen flying saucer!

The Alien informs them of their unearthly situation. The Alien is played by the aristocratic sounding Arnold Moss, who I just confused with James (THE AMAZING TRANSPARENT MAN) Griffith.

It's time for breakfast, so, the Alien fixed his guests ostrich eggs with English muffins.

Not really, those are the the total destruction capsules. Get this, during the height of the cold war with the USSR, Nikita Khrushchev had plans created for his doomsday machine, an atomic bomb built into and the size of a giant ship. The plan was to set it off if they lost the war with the US, that way, no one wins!!!

The Alien spills the beans on the capsule holders by taking over the TV broadcast and telling the whole world who the five people are!

Of course, this is how it goes down in the USSR... Stefan Schnabel plays the Soviet General, Stefan was also in TOWN WITHOUT PITY, NO SURVIVORS, PLEASE, BLOOD BATH and DRACULA'S WIDOW.

Gene Barry plays reporter, Jonathan Clark. We remember Gene from ATOMIC CITY, THE WAR OF THE WORLDS and WAR OF THE WORLDS, and, he was TV's Bat Masterson from 1958-61! Gene died at age 90 in 2009 in Woodland Hills.

He befriends Eve Wingate, who also has a capsule. Eve's played by Valerie French, she did a lot of TV and was in THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE.

American scientists recover one of the capsules and try to figure out how it works. That's Friedrich von Ledebur as Dr. Neuhaus, Friedrich was in VOODOO ISLAND and THE MAN WHO TURNED TO STONE.

Back in the USSR, things get done the hard way.

American hoodlums try to find out where Professor Bechner's capsule is.

The US government has to get involved in this end-of-the-world drama.

Paul Birch plays the Admiral. We love Paul for all his roles, like in BONZO GOES TO COLLEGE, THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, THE BEAST WITH A MILLION EYES, DAY THE WORLD ENDED, NOT OF THIS EARTH, QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE and IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD!

Dr. Neuhaus gives his life to make sure the capsule he has cannot be recovered!

The General drops the capsule out a window before he can implement the Houston, Texas coordinates for detonation, and, it will not work now.

It's time to go in front of The United Nations and inform the world that the ultimate danger has been averted!

Saturday, December 24, 2011

SANTA CLAUS - Antonio Diaz Conde - "The Fabulous Realm of the Candy-Stick Palaces!" (1959)

I'm not kidding, "SANTA CLAUS" just might be THE creepiest movie I saw this year. If you have thought that there was some kind of weird correlation between Santa and Satan, well, then this is the film that's going to push you over the edge of disbelief!

First off, Santa doesn't live at the North Pole, Santa lives in heaven!

Santa has a Nativity Scene! Those people who made the Post Man up in Washington state stop wearing a Santa Claus suit because it offended them, should be mandated to watch this film 5 or 6 times in a row while subsiding on a diet of nothing but churros and horchatas!

It looks like the designer's of Santa'a pad were from some place like Istanbul or Baghdad!

Get thee behind me K. Gordon Murray!! The music for "Santa Claus" was composed by the brilliant Antonio Díaz Conde, with a big tip of the hat to James Pierpont, the composer of the original "Jingle Bells." Antonio has at least 269 composing credits to his name! We've written about him many times before because of movies like "Neutron Battles The Karate Assassins," "The Robot Versus The Aztec Mummy," and "El Planeta De Las Mujeres Invasoras" etc, etc forever! K. Gordon Murray himself does the narration!

I'd like to focus on one thing, all the childrens of the world are up there too, helping Santa do his thing, kind of like Disneyland's agonizing "It's A Small World" ride! But.......

Isn't all this just too cute? Cute kids, cute sets, but........

......then, WTF!? All the kids are now packing heat!! I really got a little mixed-up at this point, but I guess that's because too many things go smashing into each other all at the same time, and maybe something got a little confused in the translation!!

For some reason, the brats from America are little redneck geeks singing way out of tune!! I could explain all this, but it would obviously be a waste of time.

José Luis Aguirre 'Trotsky' is El Diablo! So, just what the Hell is the Devil doing in a Santa Claus Christmas story? I told you it was an effed up mess!

Is this plastic Santa a dig at commercial values, or just freakin' weird?

"Steal the doll, Lupita, take the doll, it's what you want, and what you need, take the doll Lupita!" Yep, that's right! This innocent child is being tempted and tormented by The Devil himself! Like he doesn't have anything better to do!

Here's how Santa Claus keeps track of who is naughty and who is nice, with a gigantic freakin' telescope!! Can you spell "Big Brother?"

It's hard for me to imagine what life is like in a house that has lighting like this 24/7!! What's in the box Pops, a giant magnum of champagne or a refrigerator?

Satan comes back to torture Lupita in her dreams, this poor girl doesn't stand a chance!

Just when you thought it couldn't get any weirder!!

This shot of Lupita just screams Merry Christmas, doesn't it!! If you can imagine it, this film would be Lupita Quezadas's only appearance on celluloid! Do you think she was possibly emotionally scarred by the whole process?

I like that fact that the people who made this movie seem like they had never heard of Santa Claus, Rudolph and the other reindeer, or "The Night Before Christmas" before! They just made up their own rules as they went along!!

If you really want to, you can find "Santa Claus" streaming on Netflix, or if you just want to watch the trailer, head on over to The Professor's place, "Magic Carpet Burnout!" Merry Christmas to all and to all a freakin' good night!!!

Late Breaking News: "Santa Claus" can be had as a free download at the Internet Archive........Go and get your love right HERE!!!

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