Friday, February 10, 2012

THE OLD DARK HOUSE / William Castle Productions - 1963

Welcome to Friday Night Drive-In with Tabonga!.. It looks like February's going to be William Castle month, here at The Dungeon. Tonite's offering stars Tom (ZOTZ!) Posten in a Castle/Hammer production. Get this... Boris Karloff, who played the butler, Morgan, in the original 1932 version of THE OLD DARK HOUSE, was offered a role in this one, but, turned it down because he didn't like the script. He considered it too much of a comedy, instead of a horror film!

The story's about an American who sells automobiles in England, he's to deliver a car to an old house in the country where the client lives with his eccentric family.

Charles Addams gets a credit for his hand, another one of Bill's little gimmicks... Anyway, the music's by Benjamin Frankel, this is his first and only time we'll feature his work. Born in London in 1906, he earned a living as a jazz fiddler, pianist and arranger from the age of seventeen! He had 72 composing credits which include the titles RADIO PARADE OF 1935, THE SEVENTH VEIL, NIGHT BEAT, DULCIMER STREET and FOOTSTEPS IN THE FOG.

Lettuce bring in our tiny lil' Dungeon helper and button pusher, Rufus The Gnat!.. Rufus always shows up on Friday to tend to his most important duty around this joint, to start our Eariffic Soundclip for your listening enjoyment! So, push the big red 'GO' button there by the atomic furnace, now, Rufus! Here's some sounds from... THE OLD DARK HOUSE!

Here's Tom Penderel, American auto dealer in London, on his way to deliver this most awesome 1962 Lincoln convertible, possibly my very favorite classic car.

The car gets stuck and Tom has to hoof it the rest of the way to the house. Once he gets there and knocks on the door, it turns into Scooby-Doo and he slides down a ramp into the basement!

He gets to meet some of the strange family members, Mervyn Johns as Potiphar Femm in top photo, then, finds out that his client, Caspar Femm, has just died! But, what the Hell, Caspar has a twin brother, Jasper! Peter Bull plays both characters, Peter can also be seen in THE LOST PEOPLE, THE LAVENDER HILL MOB, THE AFRICAN QUEEN, WHO DONE IT?, TOM THUMB, TOM JONES, DOCTOR DOLITTLE, THE EXECUTIONER and THE TEMPEST.

My personal favorite moment in this flick, when sexy Morgana Femm decends the stairs for the first time... They bounce nicely, too!

On a rainy night, dinner can be quite interesting, since they spend absolutely zilch on repairs to the house! The roof leaks like a sieve.

And, they use chamber pots to collect the rain water! The definition of eccentric. Robert Morley plays the head of the family, Roderick Femm.

Morgana's jealous hubby shows Tom just how strong he is! We used that same gag in the Dungeon flick, SILVER ANGEL vs THE DEATH ZOMBIES, where the evil Dr. Mercury grabs his doofus assistant Pluto by the neck and lifts him up over his head!

Tom accidently finds out that someone has put acid in his water bowl!

Joyce Grenfell plays the always upbeat obsessed knitter, Agatha Femm. Everything's fine, even in death, scurred by her own knitting needles even!

The stuffed pet hyena causes a big mess of trouble for Tom!

And, it doesn't get that much better for him either, it's always something!

We finally find out who the psycho is, the normal one, of course!

Tom discovers that the place is loaded with bundles of TNT and has to try and diffuse them.

Tom tosses the last lit explosive into the swamp and it lands right at the feet of Cecily, played by Janette (THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS) Scott. Then, go ka-boom!

Morgana's hubby rips the wall apart to get her out of her prison... Morgana's played by the sultry, Fenella Fielding.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

THE HELLFIRE CLUB - Clifton Parker - "Pass The Brimstone" (1961)

To tell the actual truth for once, the only reason I watched "The Hellfire Club" was because it was a second billing on a double feature with "Blood Of The Vampire," and even though it's not really technically a horror film, it sure as Hell is a movie about death, decadence and debauchery, or 3D of a completely different caliber, and you gotta admit,"The Hellfire Club" is a cool title!

I could quit right here, because this statement says it all! Things really haven't changed that much, now have they??

Time to set the stage!!!

There's some evil crap going on around here!

And it's not something young children should be allowed to witness! Evil Personified!

Oh, Hell Fire, turns out it was just a cheap act to stir up all the high roller's collective libidos! Let the orgy begin, or as Marvin would say, "Let's Get It On!"

Suddenly out of nowhere, this fuzzy braineater attacks this poor defenseless maiden!

The time machine brings us to the wagon train camp of the Dutch circus gypsies!

For being 1961, "The Hellfire Club" is filled with flesh, albeit from the perspective of a figure drawing class, and Yes, playing that prank, is one of those boys, only all growed up now!

This is the beautiful fairway on the par 4, number 5 hole on the front nine of the iconoclastic Hellfire Course! FORE!

The President and owner of the Hellfire Club is one of those boy's cousins, Peter(Atomic Man, Black Torment)Arne as Thomas, who is joined by his fair lady Adrienne(A Clockwork Orange, Vampire Circus)Corri as Isobel! My Mom always told me, never trust a woman who rides sidesaddle!

Following Shirley Thompson is another great Aussie actor, the cousin in question, Keith Michell as Jason!

Here's how these Hellfire people work, in order to reward Jason for saving a damsel in distress, they invite him over for some drinks and dinner, and the next thing he knows is they're introducing some wrassler goon buddy of theirs!

Tag your own Washington representative, and caption this picture yourself!

Thanx for joining us for dinner, just for kicks, let me rearrange your face!

The trees on the right side of the fairway really come into play on the immaculate 17th hole!

Isobel has one of those moorish Hound of the Baskerville's tans!

That's one really cool painted backdrop!

Like most people, if you have a never-ending desire to see every single picture that Peter Cushing was ever in, then "The Hellfire Club" is a must! His role here is as Merryweather, the dirty scoundrel bastard of a lawyer!

After Jason is persecuted, prosecuted, imprisoned, and escaped, he returns to pay his cousin another little visit, this time disguised as a French Marquis. Look at him, would not Leonardo DeCaprio have been perfect for this role?

Here's more skin as we sink back to the lowest levels of lust and depravity again!

It has been said that the authentic Hellfire Club was a bunch of 18th century aristocratic perverts dedicated to deflowering local virgins!

One last swashbuckling scene lands this guy right into the lap of this trio!

The music in "The Hellfire Club" was composed by the brilliant Clifton "The man who never disappoints" Parker! Among Clifton's 84 credits are "Curse Of The Demon" and "Sink The Bismarck!" As earlier stated, as a double bill on Netflix with "Blood Of The Vampire," "The Hellfire Club" is damn hard to resist!!

Monster Music

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