Wednesday, April 4, 2012

GIRL IN GOLD BOOTS - "I Just Want To Rest" (1968)

It's Mittwoch, and there's no monsters hanging around, so Let's Rock!! Tonight's flick is one of Ted V.Mikels pre "Astro-Zombies" features and it's called "Girl In Gold Boots," and for some reason, it's available at Netflix, and is one of the few movies that I would ever suggest that you watch the version with the Director's comments first! Ted's dialogue doesn't ever get in the way, and it's a ton of fun to listen to him describe what's going on! He gets a big kick out of it, and so will you!

"Girl In Gold Boots" is a simple tale at best! Leslie McRay is Michele Casey, deadend country girl waitress with higher aspirations in life, and Tom Pace is the loser Buz Nichols who stumbles into her life, and offers her a chance to be a big-time Go-Go dancer like his sister in Hollywood! Leslie was in some awesome cult-o-holic classics like "Hell's Bloody Devils," "Guess What Happened To Count Dracula?," Al Adamson's "The Female Bunch," "Blood Orgy Of The She-Devils," "Coffy," "Willie Dynamite," and "Death Race 2000!" She has also tackled being a director, a writer, and a producer! After being crowned Miss Fullerton, lovely Leslie went on to be Miss Hawaii and competed in the Miss World and the Miss Universe competitions! Tom Pace was also in Ted's "The Astro-Zombies," and "Blood Orgy Of The She-Devils!"

This would be bad-ass bikers Duke Graham and Jerry Ambler's only film appearances! They piss Buz off, and he pours beer on their bikes, but when it comes down to the standoff, Buz is the one with the handgun!

Here's proof that you don't need to spend a gazillion dollars to get a good shot, all you need is a good eye!!

In the commentary, Ted will tell you that they rented this six-wheeler for a day, and used the footage just to take up some time. Everybody in the cast and crew had to get a chance to fart around and drive the thing!

Bars Leaks and Blue Chip Stamps, Buz robs a gas station! I would honestly like to know how many of you actually know what Blue Chip Stamps are!!!

It just so happens that Buz's sister is the lead Go-Go dancer at the hottest spot in town, a real club that was called The Haunted House!"

Of all the clubs in town including the Whiskey A Go-Go, the one I regret the most that I never got to go to would be The Haunted House, with it's creatures, vampires, and King Kong stage! Talk about something that needs to be brought back from the dead!!

Here's Mark (8 1/2) Herron as the big bad Boss Leo McCabe, and, William (She-Freak, HEAD) Bagdad as his main stooge Marty, along with Buz enjoying his Sister's act! In the commentary, Ted relates how the 'raising one eyebrow' trick was William Bagdad's number one schtick!!

Here's Buz's sister, the swingingest act in town, Bara Byrnes as Go-Go queen Joanie Nichols! Try and find one thing in this shot that doesn't scream 1968! Good luck! In 1959, Bara was in both "The Beat Generation" and "Girls Town!"

To be perfectly honest, these two white girls, don't hardly have a lick of rhythm between the two of them, but I guess that doesn't really matter!

Here's a great shot of the girls and the stage!

"Girl In Gold Boots" is essentially a Ted V. Mikels' musical, and Ted will tell you that's there's like 17 original songs in the movie, and you know what, most of them are pretty cool! You can see where the title comes from, all the second string dancers are only good enough to wear silver boots! I think this is the scene where you see a waitress in the club, and Ted says, "That's my secretary!"

The Boss of the club is having a big party at his pad, and the entertainment is none other than Mr. Bongo Rock himself, Preston Epps! "Bongo Rock" was a bongo-driven tune that reached #14 on the Billboard Charts in 1959! Later less successful releases like "Bongo Rocket" and "Bongo In The Congo" would lead to things like being in this movie! Probably only Ted V. Mikels knows who the conga player was!

In the commentary, Ted tells you that the people at the party were mostly his neighbors, and people that included the Deputy D.A. and his wife! That concept so much reminds me of our meager attempt at filmmaking!!!

The basic soundtrack for the movie was composed by Nicholas Carras, but additional songs are provided by Chris Howard, George Eddy, Larry Cartell, co-star Jody Daniels, Jay Schlessinger, Nick Busillo, Bobby Batson, and Dave Silverstein! Whew!!!! Personally, I love the small tidbit I've given you!

Jody Daniels had the co-starring role of Finley 'Critter' Jones, the good guy!! Jody was also in Larry Buchanan's "The Eye Creatures" and his last role was in 1974's "Policewoman!" Jody not only wrote, but also performed the song, "You Gotta Come Down!" When writing about a single film, this is the first time I've ever been able to use the names Ted V. Mikels, Al Adamson, and Larry Buchanan in one review. That shows you how powerful "Girl In Gold Boots" really is!

Joanie's got a drug problem, so Michele is launched into the spotlight!

Critter cleans house on The Boss and Marty, and saves the day!!

Back to the beach and the happiest ending of all time!

This awesome lobby card shows Michele and the rest of the dancers after she becomes the brightest star in the universe! Who knew that Go-Go dancing would be so close to God!

To finish off, here's a record cover from the co-stars of the Arch Hall film "Nasty Rabbit," Pat and Lolly Vegas, performing on the world famous King Kong stage of the Haunted House themselves!

And just to prove that it's impossible to get too much of a good thing, here's a modern version by The Mermen that was suggested by an anonymous commenteer!

Monday, April 2, 2012

MAN IN OUTER SPACE / Filmové Studio Barrandov - 1962

It's Outer Space Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. What we gots here is a flick that Eegah!! and I actually saw at the Sierra Theater back in 1962, a happy place for Monster Movies when we were growing up. This is a totally obscure sci-fi adventure from Czechoslovakia where a custodian accidentally launches himself into space, he then lands on a planet and they send him back to Earth with an alien that can become invisible. They eventually arrive on Earth in the year 2447.

Of course, this one ended up in the AIP-TV library... Eegah!! made us a very cool soundclip from this futuristic iron curtain comedy, so's, push the big red 'GO' button there next to the little green Corvette, now, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here're some spacey sounds from... MAN IN OUTER SPACE!

I always love shots like this, with rockets!

Again and again in the sixties, booze was responsible for anything and everything that went wrong! Here's our custodian, Josef, just before he steps on the 'GO' button, he was retrieving something from the rocket before it launched. Josef is played by native Czech, Milos Kopecký, who had a total of 134 acting credits between 1947 to 1996 and worked up until his death in '96!

Josef calls his pasty white alien helper, Adam, who thinks in mathmatical patterns.

When they do arrive back on Earth, they cause plenty of drama as they try and land their spacecraft! The top still shows a floating transport with people whizzing by.

These controller dudes are helping them the best they can, it ain't easy.

Josef is interrogated by the supreme council of Earth. Adam has become invisible and coaches Josef with answers to their questions, and, are whack in human terms!

He's then able to choose from the latest styles of attire! Because of his obscure knowledge of things, they make him the leader, Calouník.

He decides to visit the 20th Century Museum in an airbus.

His favorite exhibit is this one, hanging bottles of beer and transistor radios!

This would be mine, rockets and missiles, these are all Russian designs naturally.

Impressive, they have a 1958 Ford on display! That's the Russian counterpart on the right.

Calouník calls this babe up on a string art contraption for a date at his place!

He tries to be suave and debonaire for his date, but, fails miserably!

So, he heads for his favorite spot, the Space Bar!..

It's a total hoot until...

I'll leave it to you as to what you think happens...

Josef makes a hasty retreat back to his spaceship and heads into outer space, where things will be a lot safer for him!

Original Czech poster.

Saturday, March 31, 2012

SUPERARGO CONTRO DIABOLIKUS - Franco Pisano - "SUPEREXCITEMENT" (1966)

"Good evening everyone! It is of considerable pleasure that I present the most stupendous and unique event of the season", "Superargo Vs Diabolicus!" This film was made in what some people consider to be the best year ever in history, 1966! It's also time to give another shout out to "The Trash Palace" for providing us with this tasty bit of killer tiramisu! Thanx Brian!!!

Here he is in all his glory, Giovanni Cianfriglia as the amazing Invincible Superman, the masked wrasslin' champion of the world, Superargo!! In this, and many of his other films, Giovanni chose to be credited as Ken Wood! Ken has had the role of an uncredited thug in more movies than most actors ever appeared in! Quite the athlete, Giovanni has worked as a stunt man in a number of movies too!

In this opening scene Superargo is putting his undefeated record on the line against another undefeated wrassler named El Tigre, but something goes horribly wrong in the script, and El Tigre dies after being tossed out of the ring and cracks his head open on the hard concrete floor!

That series of events throws Superago into a mental tailspin, because El Tigre was his friend!

Superargo has an array of interesting powers, he can hold his breath underwater for at least 7 minutes, and swim down to a depth of 300 feet, and he also drinks like a fish!!

Aha, The Argophone, and to think I thought I was the only one with a two-tone phone!!

This is Gérard (Baraka sur X 13) Tichy as master henchman Diabolicus! Unlike a lot of European actors, Gérard was able to make the international crossover, and had roles in some major movies like "Doctor Zhivago" and "El Cid!" Diabolicus has his own island, and big plans to take over the whole world!

Diabolicus basically kills Superargo a number of times, but one of his powers is that Superargo is tough as Hell! He can take a lot of heat, and in this case, get frozen, but it doesn't have any effect on him. You also can't stab him, and the secret service provided him with a costume that is bulletproof, so it's pretty difficult to dispose of him!

Diabolicus's posse kidnaps Superargo's girlfriend, Mónica Randall as Lidia and takes her to the island! Mónica's God-given name was Aurora Julià Sarasa and she made most of her films in Italy and Spain in titles that translated into things like "Ringo and Gringo Against All" or "A Fistful Of Knuckles!"

Superargo is hot on the trail! Never once does he take off his mask during the course of the film. With his back to the camera, he does have it yanked off by Diabolicus, and him and his girlfriend gasp, put the mask back on and say something like, "I don't get it, he looks normal enough to me!"

The action is continuous except for a series of underwater scenes, and the music is fantastic through the whole movie. One of the coolest themes ever was composed by a guy we've never mentioned before, Maestro Franco Pisano! Franco has only 16 credits, but one of them is the even rarer superhuman flick, "Goldface, Il Fantastico Superman" made in 1969!

Diabolicus and his crew try to stall off Superargo's imminent attack with an attempted barbecue of Lidia. Diabolicus's main squeeze is portrayed by the dynamic Loredana Nusciak! Loredana was in some whack titles including "Revenge For Revenge," "God Will Forgive My Pistol" and "Something Is Crawling In The Dark," and she fleshed out her career in sword and sandal epics!


Nothing is going to keep Superargo from his love, as he fights fire with fire, and freakin' melts the house down!!

Despite all the carnage, there's always time for a short, but tender moment!

Diabolicus's mistress shows her true colours! Can't anybody be trusted anymore??

They really thought they got him this time, but another thing that Superargo can do is take a tremendous electrical licking, and still come out ticking!! That Superargo is one tough cookie!

Superargo was given a set amount of time to save his girl, and get off the island before the military comes in and blows the living Hell out of the whole damn place! Aloha Muthafuckahs!!!

Most heroes could only hope to be half as cool as Superargo, and even though it's over for now, Superargo comes back again in 1968 and another earth shaking battle with a different mad man and his army of robots, in "L'Invincibile Superman"

Monster Music

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