Monday, April 23, 2012

THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES / AIP - 1971

It's Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Our weird little feature is fairly representative of the direction horror movies were going at the time, super clever ways in which to get back at the ones who done you wrong! Stars super Dungeon fave, Vincent Price, filmed in England for £300,000.

The music is old fashioned and includes some famaliar pieces. Eegah!! has given us a nice soundclip sampling from the flick, sooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there next to the little green 'STOP' lever... NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's a taste of... THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES!

The story's about Dr. Anton Phibes, a doctor, scientist, organist, and biblical scholar, and, he seeks revenge on nine doctors he considers responsible for his wife's death. The detectives on the case are baffled at every turn with the very creative murders! Bats took care of that jerk on the bed.

Here's the doc putting himself together!

Dr. Hargraves, psychiatrist, gets an assist from Phibes to latch his frog head at the masquerade ball and gets his head shrunk! Party goers watch as Hargraves dies there on the floor in front of them.

Now, it's your turn, Terry-Thomas!! He was caught watching this erotic snake dance by the doc and his helper. We love Terry, he was also in these fine flicks... SCHOOL FOR SCOUNDRELS, OPERATION SNATCH, BACHELOR FLAT, THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM, THE MOUSE ON THE MOON, IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD, THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES, TOP CRACK, MUNSTER, GO HOME!, DANGER: DIABOLIK, THE VAULT OF HORROR, SPANISH FLY, THE CHERRY PICKER, THE BAWDY ADVENTURES OF TOM JONES and THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES ('78).

After a successful murder, the doc celebrates by burning in effigy a small wax figure representing the victim!

In this case, Phibes knocks out the chaffeur and flash freezes the victim in the back seat of his own limousine with a wicked ice machine!

Just really love this pic for some reason...

This dude crashes his plane after he discovers a bunch of hungry rats inside the cockpit! Wheeee!!!

There's nothing more fun and satisfying than working in your mad lab! I oughta know, I have a mad art lab.

All the murders have Biblical implications. Obviously, locusts have something to do with this one.

Did I mention that Joseph Cotton was in this thing?

Will the real Dr. Phibes please stand up?!..

Is this picture cool or what?!

Although the doc gets embalmed with his beloved wife, don't forget!.. DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN!!

Saturday, April 21, 2012

DR. NO - "Three Blind Mice" (1962)

Tonight marks the 1400th time we've done this, and movie's like "Dr. No" are virtually impossible to find anything new to say about, so tonight's Saturday Night Special is just more of a reminder for you, that it might be a good time to check it out again, if you haven't seen it in a while! "Dr. No" was the first of the James Bond series, and one of the best!

Ian Fleming's "Dr. No" was released in 1962, and the iconic theme was written by Monty Norman! The same theme has been used in every James Bond movie ever made! The Bond character has changed many, many times, but the theme has always stayed the same! What an awesome achievement when you think about it. To show you where he was coming from, Monty only had a couple of credits before "Dr. No," and those included "Expresso Bongo" in 1959 where he wrote the music along with David Heneker for a song called "Nausea," he was the composer of the music in 1960 for the movie "The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll,' and he wrote the 'Beatnik' music in the 1961 film titled "The Day the Earth Caught Fire!" Go get yourself a shaken, not stirred martini, and we'll give a toast to Monty! Yessirree Buddy! Thank you, and ...Cheers!

"Dr No" starts off with a cool calypso version of "Three Blind Mice," that if you'll remember was also used as "The Three Stooges" theme!! There's nothing funny about these three though, that's for sure!

You know we're whatever is older than Olde Skool, so, in my book, there's really only one James Bond, and that's Sean Connery!!! All the movies after that might as well have had Ray Danton, Glenn Saxson, Tony Kendall, or Brad Harris in them as Bond, because it really didn't matter who it was if it wasn't Sean Connery!!

I started to only show pictures of all the boss cars in this film, and this '57 Chevy convertible was at the top of the heap!!

This is a really rude way to treat cases of  "Red Stripe" beer, probably one of the top 10 beers in the world!

There's lots of weird shenanigans happening over on the private island of "Dr. No," and a lot of it is radioactive, just for good measure!

This is a gorgeous shot......"Dr. No's" interrogation room!

........And this is a gorgeous shot too!! The exotic Zena Marshall is the treacherous Miss Taro, and no matter how she's served, roasted, baked, or boiled, her natural sugars give a sweet, nutty flavour!!

For all of you under the age of 30, this is what was commonly referred to as a record player, and James Bond is about to play a 7" 45 Revolution Per Minute single song, kind of like pushing the play button on your iPhone!

How stupid do you have to be to try and sneak up on James Bond?

This shot really makes me want to get up off my ass and go somewhere!!

The ravishing Ursula (Slave Of The Cannibal God) Andress is Honeychile "Honey" Ryder trespassing on "Dr. No's" private beach! How dare SHE, what a beach!


The dragon that scares off all the locals is nothing more than an amphibious tank and flame thrower!

Terence Young was the director of "Dr. No," and the killer cinematography was the result of the talents of  Ted Moore! Terence Young also directed Bond's "From Russia With Love," and "Thunderball!" Ted Moore  worked on those two and more Bond, and also was directory of photography on "The Gamma People," and "Day Of The Triffids!"

The all powerful and mysterious Dr. Julius No was played by a Canadian, Joseph Wiseman! The same year as "Dr. No," Joseph was in the "Twilight Zone" episode titled "One More Pallbearer!" Joseph continued to work until 1996, and just passed away in 2009 at the age of 91!

The Doctor's underwater pad is the ginchiest! Spellcheck isn't hip enough to know what I'm talkin' about, and wants to know if I mean Munchies, Winchester, Gilchrist, or Ginkoes!

James Bond stages a daring escape through the vent system on the island!

This is the big red "GO" button that Tabonga is always talking about!!

Blogger has really thrown us a curve ball with their new and better technology, bear with us til we get all the wrinkles ironed out! So that's it, and what a fantastic shot to end it all with! Maybe I'll use this shot when we ever get around to The End of this journey!

Friday, April 20, 2012

BELL FROM HELL / Hesperia Films S.A. - 1973

Welcome to Friday Night Drive-In with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Tonite's offering is a Spanish flick about a young man released from an asylum and returns home for revenge on his aunt and three cousins, who had him declared insane in order to get his inheritance.

Here's our young man, John, making a plaster cast of his face in his room at the asylum... Why, you ask!

Today's the day John gets to leave the asylum... Shades of PSYCHO and TWISTED NERVE.

For what was available, Eegah!! sure made a swell soundclip from this obscure little Euro horror, sooo, wif'aus further adieu and adulations, you can push the big red 'GO' button located there adjacent from the DNA flask, now, Rufus The Gnat! Here's some noise from a BELL FROM HELL!

John rides his motorcycle all the way home and is greeted by his Aunt Marta and lovely cousins, Esther, Teresa and Maria. Please don't ask me to figure out who's who, der!.. Anyway, an estrogen enriched greeting...

Since it's Euro '73, it gots some gratuitous nudie photography goin' on, natcherly, of course, what else, hello, etc...

The possessed Bell is being installed in the bell tower at the local cathedral fixer-upper! It makes you wonder... Is John being controlled by the Bell or is he just plain nuts?.. That is the ringing question!

John freaks out one cousin by pretending to pull his eyeballs out of their sockets in front of her! He then tries to show her that it was just a harmless prank, but, she tells him to go to freakin' Hell!

At one point, he fakes an injury where he wears all the accessories associated with such discomfiture. That dude he hates there has to help him go! Lousy damn job!

And, by the way, there's an elaborate control panel in the house for all sorts of entertainment!

Aunt Marta's one hot old dame when she wants to be!

One thing the control panel can do is show their old photographs on the wall...

Another thing it can do is help John be a total pervert!

Back at the cathedral, the Bell has been installed and the bell ringers do their thang, clang in some Hell on Earth!.. I guess, it's hard to follow the story a lot.

The Bell causes this pathetic old dude to go bananas, I think.

He thinks he sees John (who's now dead) playing the harpsicord, so, drowns himself in the fish tank! Or, maybe he was bobbing for electric eels and swallowed one!

Here's what that plaster cast was for, from the start of the movie. Don't ask me! If you want to try and figure all this stuff out, go watch the movie! This one's off a 'Chilling Classics' 50-Movie Collection disc.

Monster Music

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