Monday, April 16, 2012

ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE / Toho Studios - 1963

It's another Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. This great Toho flick was a favorite of ours in the sixties whenever it appeared on TV. American movies never got this weird! Directed by the awesome Mr. Ishirô Honda, a redo of a previous post from 2008.

We have a soundclip of the theme and the song being sung by Kumi Mizuno at the beginning. Notice that the theme sounds like it's from a HECKLE & JECKLE cartoon!! Soooo, push the big red 'GO' button there by the amp guage, now, lil' helper Ralphie The Tarantula! Here are some hallucinogenic sounds from... ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE!

Here's Kumi as entertainer Mami Sekiguchi, singing her happy song, when things were fine, before the storm hit and landed them on that mysterious foggy island! Lovely Kumi is still working today and was also in these fine films... I WANT TO BE A SHELLFISH, KILL THE KILLER!, GORATH, THE LOST WORLD OF SINBAD, FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD, INVASION OF THE ASTRO-MONSTER, GODZILLA vs THE SEA MONSTER, THE WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS, GODZILLA AGAINST MECHAGODZILLA and GODZILLA: FINAL WARS!

After making it to the island, they discover a tattered old ship in a radio-active mist. Of course, they decide to explore it...

It's nothing less than a spook joint inside, filled wif' funky atomic fungus and the like!!

Numbnuts here finds a box of rations in the hold and decides to horde it.

This pic is plain cool, and, that's why it's here! I knew a friend that could pop his jaw, he could blow smoke rings that would blow your mind!

Here's another nice pic I couldn't resist showing.

It's the creepy roaming atomic mushroom man everyone's starting to see!

Weak men cannot resist sexy dames' demands, it's in the DNA...

Here's a cool quote from Eegah!! from an earlier post... I just read that in Japan, you used to be able to buy psilocybin mushrooms in vending machines; now a lot of this (Japanese) stuff is starting to make sense!

The movie was nearly banned in Japan because the makeup the cast wore as they were turning into mushrooms was reminiscent of how some victims looked after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki!

The interior of the dark, dank old ship helps make for plenty of chilling moments! That mushroom dude knows how to fight, too.

Horror of horrors!.. Kenji finds his girl enjoying some of the radio-active 'shrooms! He has to get away and makes it back to their boat, where he's eventually rescued at sea.

What's neat about this film is that it's told in flashback, a great setup for the final scene, where, Kenji wishes he had just stayed on the island with the rest of them...

Saturday, April 14, 2012

FENOMENAL E IL TESORO DI TUTANKAMEN - Bruno Nicolai - "Wextra, Wextra, Read All About It!" (1968)

Tonight's feature is more than special, it's Phreakin' "PHENOMENAL"!!!!! If you think there's any way possible we could have got our grubby mitts on so many neat flicks without the help of some cool cats like Professor Grewbeard, Joe, and Brian Horrorwitz, then you're out of yer phreakin' mind!

That being said, Brian and The Trash Palace are the folks to thank, or blame for this action packed and truly phenomenal phlick! The man in black is not Johnny Cash, it's Fenomenal, or in English, Phenomenal, and even though in Europe he's considered a super-hero, his only real special power is that just like Lucky the Inscutable, or Batman, Fenomenal is real damn good at kickin' ass!!

So this mug is what all the commotion is about, The Treasure of Tutankamen, or Toot Uncommon, you know, something difficult to get your hands on!

The 6 foot 3 body builder and happy Gordon (Stranger That Kneels Beside the Shadow of a Corpse) Mitchell, has the role of bad guy Gregory "Go" Falk off! Gordon was born in Denver, Colorado, but appeared in scores of Italian Sword and Sandal, and Spaghetti Western movies!!

Lucretia (Go With God, Gringo) Love has the role of Mike Shevlove! No options for argument, you gotta love any woman named Bob or Mike, and there's no way possible that a toast from Falkoff is going to be headed in the right direction!

Treacherous eyes and a cigarette lighter camera add up to no good, but mucho bueno payoff for Falkoff! Carla (Le Inibizioni Del Dottor Gaudenzi, Vedovo Col Complesso Della Buonanima) Romanelli is Anna Giomet!

At first, it's difficult to get used to this hero that looks like he has his shirt pulled up over his head, but after he slinks and sleazes around for awhile, you get very comfortable with his character!!

It's pretty hard to go wrong when you have things like the Eiffel Tower to use as far as shoots are concerned, not much different from us having Oildale at our disposal in the making of "The Creep!"

Honestly, I forget where Mike was going with this outfit on, it didn't really seem to matter!

Next stop, Woo Woo, the sultry steam baths!!

Director Ruggero Deodato would get his ass in real hot water for his use of animals in "Cannibal Holocaust" in 1980!

This is an awesome shot, super simple, but very effective!!

When you find yourself in a situation where you've just pulled off the biggest heist in the whole world, and suddenly your two-timing girlfriend has a headache, and wants to go home with somebody else, you can pretty well expect that your ass is toast!!

Finally, evil goes over the edge....

.....Only to come back and take matters into it's own hands again! Bad good guys don't finish last, they don't finish at all!

Mike has to jump out of the helicopter into the ocean to save the day....

Personally, I would think it would be very uncomfortable to be underwater with a sweater up over your face and head, but Fenomenal doesn't seem to be bothered at all, but the guy on the wrong side of the law seems to have a real problem with it!

Oh, it's you!!!

Friday, April 13, 2012

CRY OF THE WEREWOLF / Columbia Pictures - 1944

It's Friday the 13th with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. What we gots here is another, also MARK OF THE VAMPIRE, attempt at half-ass horror from Columbia studios. Eegah!! and I remember this one from it's rounds on the fifties TV circuit, and, we always disliked it for one oblivious reason... There's no freakin' werewolf, it's a wolf played by a German Shepherd!!.. HELLO!!!

Speak of the devil! There's a rubber band around the upper jaw and snout of the doggie to make it look like it's snarling! Anywho, we have a little soundclip for your listening enjoyment, so, push the big red 'GO' button on the wall, now, Rufus The Gnat! Here's some wails from... CRY OF THE WEREWOLF!

The movie begins at a museum that is actually a mysterious old house with a secret chamber and crypt. Some of the shots of the place during the tour are amazing. And, it's the location of our first murder by the 'werewolf.' That's Fritz Lieber there as the dead Dr. Charles Morris, owner of the museum.

Here are Osa (ROCKETSHIP X-M) Massen as Elsa Chauvet, gypsy girlfriend, and Stephen Crane as the dead doctor's son, Robert. Stephen made a very wise decision to get out of the movie business a year later and opened a restaurant!

This is the police lab trying to figure out a fingerprint conundrum.

This dude learns the hard way that you just don't mess around with a female werewolf gypsy! Nina Foch as Marie Latour is on the left.

I always like to include a shot of a newspaper, we had two of them in our lil' weirdo flick, THE CREEP.

Yes, you too can make tons of cash selling insurance!

I like this scene where Robert barely gets away from the wolf in an elevator!

Nuthin' much cuter than a little gypsy doll with a big curse on it!

Robert finds a secret passageway to a crypt that has a chained stuffed wolf on display!

Then, there's the great Barton MacLane as Lt. Lane. Barton was also in THE WALKING DEAD, DRAEGERMAN COURAGE, TORCHY GETS HER MAN, BARNACLE BILL, DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1941), THE MALTESE FALCON, THE MUMMY'S GHOST, TARZAN AND THE AMAZONS, SCARED STIFF (1945), THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE and UNKNOWN ISLAND!

**Spoiler Alert - Finally, the werewolf is revealed to be Marie!

And, Elsa knows what she must do...

Ready?.. Here's the big transformation scene!!

I dunno... I'd like to see either Nina naked or the doggie in that dress! Yeah, that'd be a lot better!

Have a funky FRIDAY THE 13th!!!

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