HAND OF DEATH / Associated Producers - 1962

This is Monster Monday with Tabonga... Tonite's little 'lost' movie is a personal favorite of mine, it features a unique monster played by Dungeon fave, John Agar. This was John's next gig after doing JOURNEY TO THE SEVENTH PLANET. Then, the next monster movies he would do are Larry Buchanan's ZONTAR: THE THING FROM VENUS and CURSE OF THE SWAMP CREATURE in 1966. This is a redo of a post we did back in 2008.

A decent looking poster, but, white backgrounds just don't make it for monster flicks!

The cool music (especially the atomic 'gear shifting' theme) is by Sonny Burke, Sonny has 25 soundtrack credits and wrote "He's a Tramp," "The Siamese Cat Song" and "Bella Notte This Is the Night" for LADY AND THE TRAMP!

Letz bring in our fuzzy little Dungeon helper and button pusher, what else, Ralphie The Tarantula!.. Good old Ralphie is here to start the show, so, push the big red 'GO' button located directly behind you, now, Ralphie! Here's our Eariffic Soundclip for... HAND OF DEATH!

It's about an experimental nerve gas being developed for a top-secret government project. John plays obsessed workaholic scientist, Alex Marsh. Working on weird chemical formulas when you're tired can lead to very dangerous situations!

Alex accidently gets some of the substance on his hand and it's quickly absorbed into his skin, causing a real nightmare!!

Alex's skin has darkened, and, when he touches his colleague, Carlos...

Carlos ends up dead on the floor with a big burn mark on his arm where Alex grabbed him. Alex panics and starts the place on fire to make it look like an accidental lab explosion!

Alex has to stop for gas, where, Joe Besser delivers some strange sounding lines, as heard in the soundclip. But, you have to understand, in 1962, if you were a gas station attendant, there was nothing worse than feeling unappreciated!

Once he's at Dr. Ramsey's house, the one who's trying to help him, his girlfriend shows up unannounced and almost touches him when she comes in his room!

Then, before long, Alex mutates into this hideous, puffed up, life-sucking hulk!..

The doctor accidently grabs Alex out of shock and also ends up on the floor. Again, excellent make-up work! Roy Gordon plays the doc, we remember Roy from WAR OF THE SATELLITES, ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN, WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST and THE WASP WOMAN.

Paula (BLOOD OF DRACULA'S CASTLE) Raymond plays girlfriend, Carol. Here, she gets a double dose of horror, the doc with an Alex chaser!

Damn, he looks a lot like Ben Grimm with that hat!

I love the expression on that lady's face!!

Al Jolson takes a nap on the sidewalk after a few too many Kamikazes at lunch.

After stealing a cab, Alex has to ditch it on Pacific Coast Highway. The police seem to be stopping any Plymouth taxi they see, they're obviously looking for him.

Here's lil' Butch Patrick in his 3rd role as Davey, the kid on the beach that nearly touches Alex out of curiosity before going to his mom, who's calling him. Butch is currently in a flick in post production, ZOMBIE DREAM.

Alex kinda freaks Carol out!

One last look at this teriffic creation by master make-up artist, Bob Mark! Bob had 455 make-up department credits which includes movies like THE PURPLE MONSTER STRIKES, VALLEY OF THE ZOMBIES, KING OF THE ROCKET MEN, THE INVISIBLE MONSTER, SATAN'S SATELLITES, A BUCKET OF BLOOD, HOUSE OF THE DAMNED and THE HUMAN DUPLICATORS.

Coming in at just 58 minutes, it's time to end this flick, so, the cops quickly move in and fill Alex full of lead. We get to watch his dead body slosh around in the waves.

I used to have a complete mint set of HAND OF DEATH lobby cards.

SHIRLEY THOMPSON VS THE ALIENS - Ralph Tyrell-Jean Lewis-Johnny O'Keefe - "Space Jubilee" (1972)

Saturday night's supposed to be Special, right, so Let's Rock with this all but forgotten little jewel from down under, it's my plowed pressure to bring you a story like no other, from 1972, "Shirley Thompson versus The Aliens!" Three years later, director Jim Sharman would bring us "The Rocky Horror Picture Show!"

Jane Harders is Shirley Thompson, and you're probably wondering how she's going to take on those aliens while in the nut house, well, it's just a little bit more complicated than that!

Here's the deal! This is the present, the encounters with the aliens were in the past, and Shirley's current condition is because of what happened!

It goes on for awhile, and gets pretty gnarly in the institution!

After the setup, Shirley finally gets to tell her story.......

Personally I find Jane Harders fascinating, the gal has a look! "Shirley Thompson" was her first role, and she has been working steady ever since! Currently, she has a recurring role as a character called Rita on an Australian TV show called "Spirited," a ghost story about a dentist and a dead 80's rock star!

Even if she didn't have an alien encounter, the fact that these are Shirley's obnoxious parents, probably would have pushed her over the edge anyway!!

The original music score is attributed to Ralph Tyrell, and the haunting opening vocal theme was performed by the dynamic Australian musician and stage performer Jean Lewis and Gypsy Train, but now the joint is jumpin' and the music is hot! After 20 minutes or so of that other stuff, it suddenly all makes sense when the club music kicks in!

It's balls to the Coke lined walls and the rockin' sounds of Johnny O'Keefe and the Dee Jays blasting from the jukebox. The "Wild Child" Johnny O'Keefe is a story unto himself! Johnny O'Keefe was the first Australian rock performer to tour the United States, and to this day still holds the record in Australia for top 40 hits with 29 between the years of 1959 and 1974! He died at the age of 43 in 1978 from a heart attack largely brought on by his copious appetite for various pharmaceuticals!

This is a great "Biker" shot!

The sign says it all, "Have Fun!"

This is the part where Shirley makes contact with the aliens!!

The aliens explain to Shirley what's going to happen to the Earth....

......and she takes it all in!

Shirley comes back and tells all her friends about everything she learned from the aliens!

Some of Shirley's wild tales are not accepted so well, and that's when her downward spiral starts to accelerate!

It gets a little hard to explain, but......

....the aliens with the help of Shirley and her boyfriend, animate this wax figure of H.R.H Prince Phillip, in order that he can deliver their message to the world!!!

Shirley tries to escape........

.....But ends up happily married....

...A Go-Go!!

....NOT!!!!!

Tonight's feature was sponsored by "The Web of Mystery," do them, and yourself a favor, and go HERE, and show 'em some love!