Saturday, January 21, 2012

LORD SHANGO - Howard A. Roberts - "The Color Of Love" (1975)

This one's for Joe, wherever the Hell he is! It's called "Lord Shango" and it's not a comedy, a parody, or a satire, it's a tale of traditional African religion and it's clash with Christian religion! "The Color Of Love" was the video release title! I think this just might be the cheapest lookin' title card I've ever had the pleasure to present to you!

The reason I wanted to see "Lord Shango" was because I read on IMDB that guitarist extraordinaire Howard A. Roberts composed the soundtrack, you know, the same Howard A. Roberts that played the guitar riff in "The Twilight Zone" theme, and Howard A. Roberts DID compose the soundtrack, it's just that it's a completely DIFFERENT Howard A. Roberts! The music is still cool, because this is an equally talented Howard A. Roberts, who not only was the music director for the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, he was also a dynamic musician and record producer who worked with amazing talents like Aretha Franklin and Miles Davis!

The movie itself is a completely different story! Mr. Cool, Lawrence Cook is Jabo, and as you might guess, he's also Lord Shango! Lawrence was all over the TV in the 70's and 80's, and he was the star of a weird flick in 1973, "The Spook Who Sat By The Door," where he plays a token black CIA agent, who gets fed up and starts a revolutionary race war!

They're getting ready to baptize Avis McCarther as Billie, but her boyfriend Bill Overton as Femi doesn't want it to happen, so he disrupts the service!

The next thing you know these two priests are holding on to Femi like they're going to baptize him instead....

.....and then Wally Taylor as Memphis jumps into the fray.......

Damn! They drowned the kid!! WTF!?

Billie and her Mother act as would be expected under the circumstances! This is a very unsettling sequence of events, and guess what, it's going to get even worse! Lots worse!

Billie and her Mom, Marlene Clark as Jenny, attend Femi's funeral! You might remember Marlene from "The Beast Must Die," or "Beware!The Blob" for starters!

Jenny works at the Hurricane Club! Yep, that's Jabo hanging out on the front porch! The omnipotent Jabo is everywhere, even though he's a washed up drunkard musician, he seems to know all, and see all!!

Inside the club, the drinks are cool and the music is hot! Actually, this little old dude bipping around to the music, and just chillin' in general is my favourite part of the movie! That's how cool I want to be in a couple more years!

Here's where it gets REAL strange! After Femi's death, Billie breaks out in a cold sweat, and has a dream that Femi comes back and enters her!! Unfortunately it was Memphis, Jenny's boyfriend who was doing the entering! Now Billie is pregnant by one of the killers of her boyfriend and her Mom's boyfriend, and Jenny IS pissed!!!

Wally Taylor should look pretty familiar to you, besides a lot of 70's TV, he was in some big films like "Escape From New York," "Rocky III," "Crossroads," "Night Of The Creeps," and "The Golden Child!"

Well, you sure can't blame Billie for wanting a change of scenery after all she's been through!

It just gets worse for Memphis, as the priests involved in Femi's death start dying off one by one! The sacrificial ceremonies include chickens and dogs, and are not for the weak of heart!

Jenny has an encounter with the spirit of Femi! I'd be willing to bet that out of the 92 minute run time for "Lord Shango," a good 37 minutes or more is ceremony, ritual and drums, aka filler!

Meanwhile, back at the club, the old dude is still rockin' the joint!

Jabo is keeping tabs on every detail!

Jenny told Memphis he had to marry Billie who has returned and is now quite pregnant! Jabo cuts in and starts slow dancing with Billie, and then starts twirling her around in circles like a whirling dervish and Billie passes out!

Femi reappears again!

This is a great shot of Jenny with Billie's baby!

In the end, Memphis is almost killed on the job, Billie and Femi go off dancing together, Jenny finally smiles, and her and Jabo/Shango walk off into the sunset with an amazing gospel choir wailing in the background! Any questions, go find Shango and I'm sure he'll be glad to explain it all to you!

Friday, January 20, 2012

THE CURSE OF THE CRYING WOMAN / Cinematográfica ABSA - 1963

Hello everbloody, Tabonga here, tonite we have a great little horror flick from south of the border with the original 1963 title of "La maldición de la Llorona." This is the K. Gordon Murray, Englishified version, and, it stars Abel (THE BRAINIAC) Salazar and is directed by Rafael (THE HELL OF FRANKENSTEIN) Baledón. Abel was also producer.

The story's about a young woman who inherits a mansion, only to discover that it's haunted by a witch and evil spirits after she arrives there. This really is an above average, hair-raising production. Written by Rafael Baledón and Fernando Galiana.

The music is by the fantastical Mexican composer, the great Gustavo César Carrión, who we've featured many times before, here at The Dungeon!

Lettuce bring in our puny litle Dungeon helper and button pusher, what ellus, Rufus The Gnat! How ya doin' Rufus!.. We can start the show, so... Push the big red 'GO' button there by the escape hatch, now, Rufus! Here's our Eariffic Soundclip for... THE CURSE OF THE CRYING WOMAN!

The woods are haunted by night is how the legend goes... Jaime and Amelia are glad to finally get to their destination, Amelia's recently inherited haunted mansion!

It doesn't take long before Amelia starts seeing some pretty freaky stuff! That's what appears in the mirror while she's looking into it.

Then, she has to deal with this bitch.. err, witch!

Jaime goes exploring the creepy place, looking for some clues to the strange goings-on that are taking place...

Only to get grabbed by some infernal hands, then, fall through the railing and get knocked unconscious!.. Sheesh!!

The witch conjures up some evil spirits to do her bidding... Killer sets and props!

Then, the bitch.. err, witch, well, she hypnotizes Jaime with one of her hallucinogenic spells!..

And, he goes on a bad trip, big time!

Let's give a shout out to Carlos Grandjean for the awesome sets he created for this film!

This is the crazy thing in the dungeon cell that attacked Jaime. The witch's big brute helper likes to mess with it.

It escapes from it's cell, jumps off the upstairs railing and lands standing up on the floor below!! Wowzers!!!

The police show up to find out what's going on only to be attacked by the large killer dogs!

This dirty son of a bitch, the witch's helper, totally rivals Leo Gordon for being big, mean and scary!

The mansion begins to crumble under it's own evilness!

The huge bell in the tower breaks loose and falls directly on the witch's trapped helper, finally putting an end to his evil existence! The still shows the heavy bell on it's way down.

The thing then attacks the witch and the metal chandelier also breaks free and scores a direct hit.

The bitch decomposes right before our very eyes!..

Monster Music

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