THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS / Warner Bros. Pictures - 1946

It's another Friday Fright Halloween Countdown 2012 with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Peter Lorre is great in this little weirdie, also stars Robert (THE DEVIL'S HAND) Alda, Andrea (RED PLANET MARS) King and J. Carrol (HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN) Naish, Curt (THE WOLFMAN) Siodmak helped in the writing, Robert (MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE) Flory directs.

Eegah!! sent over a teriffic little soundclip for our enjoyment, sooooo, you can go ahead and push the big red 'GO' button located directly above the atomic slab buffer, NOW, Rufus The Gnat! Here's our audio offering for... THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS!

Lorre's maniacal laughing in the soundclip is amongst his very best!

And, the story goes like this... Locals in an Italian village think that evil has taken over the estate of a recently deceased pianist who was associated with the occult. Several murders have taken place, and, the alleged killer is believed to be the pianist's severed hand! This movie played occassionally on TV in the late fifties and it was always a fave, crawling hands are way cool!

Victor Francen plays master pianist Francis Ingram, supposedly, he has a ring that gives him supernatural powers! He's assisted by his nursemaid, Clara. He's paraylized on the right side, in a wheelchair and plays the piano with just his left hand!

Peter plays Hilary Cummins, Ingram's personal secretary. He steeps himself in occult studies.

Hilary confronts Francis about what will happen to the library after he dies, Hilary wants the books. Francis chokes Hilary with his left hand, leaving bruises on his neck!

Francis starts hallucinating, then, tumbles down the stairs in his wheelchair to his death.

There's a mysterious murder at the estate, and, Ingram's ring is found on his piano after the crime was committed.

Here are two very interesting shots of the dudes investigating the mystery. The excellent cinematography was by Wesley Anderson.

Then, they come across this weird handprint in the soil outside the mansion!

Hilary has a dirty little secret, he's gained possession of Ingram's ring!

Thing, errr, the Beast comes out of it's box and gets Hilary to put the ring on on it's finger, then, it gets away and crawls behind the books...

The next night, the hand is playing the piano, driving Hilary freakin' insane!

Hilary laughs maniacally after he tosses the hand into the fireplace, but, not when it crawls out and grabs him by the throat! The hand disappears into thin air the second Hilary passes on...

Spend The Night At THE COBWEB HOTEL - Sammy Tinberg - Sung By Jack Mercer (1936)

So here we are a little over halfway through this years Halloween Countdown, and I think it's about time to present something really scary, so here we go, from all the way back in 1936, eight minutes of sheer terror known as "The Cobweb Hotel"

Just in case that little sound clip wasn't terrifying enough for you, then you can go Here and watch the whole thing for yourself at one of the coolest sites on the whole web, The Internet Archive!!! Even cooler than that, "The Cobweb Hotel" is just one of the many wonders you can find there if you start rooting around!

It all starts off innocently enough, but the proprietor of "The Cobweb Hotel" is actually a vicious serial killer!! The voice of this evil spider is a gentleman by the name of Jack Mercer! With 442 credits to his name, Jack Mercer should have been as well known as any major star of the last century! He was responsible for so many cartoon character's voices, I can only hope there's a shrine to him somewhere! In a standard 60's Popeye cartoon, Jack would do the voice of not only Popeye, but also, Pappy and Wimpy! In the Felix the Cat cartoons, he was not just Felix, but also the Professor, and the Genie! In the 40's, in a typical cartoon like "Snow Foolin'," Jack would be called on to do the voice of the rabbit, the skunk, the mouse, the swan, and the kangaroo, so actually, his credits are probably up in the 1000's!

If this wasn't a cartoon, there would be no way any God fearing parent would allow their children to watch innocent characters like this be bound and tortured like helpless flies in a web! No wonder there's so many krazy people running around today!

A nameless and naive couple checks into the Hotel on their honeymoon expecting a night of marital bliss, not unspeakable horror! Good thing the little guy is the flyweight champion of the world, he might just stand a ghost of a chance!!

The innkeeper prepares his deadly trap!! Do you like how he keeps his web material rolled up on a reel on his back? I guess that way they didn't have to show the web shooting out of his butt! Um, web shooting out of his butt, that sounds like a good portion of  the internet today!

Oh, No, it's Room 13!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And while we're on the subject of of "Zimmer 13," we'll take a break to let you know that the wonderful music throughout this whole ghastly ordeal was composed by Mr. Sammy Tinberg, the man who wrote such classics as "Don't Take My Boop-Oop-A-Doop Away," "Strike Up The Band For Popeye The Sailor," "Sinbad The Sailor," and "Christmas Comes But Once A Year!" What a guy!

Suddenly it becomes apparent to the unwitting couple that their life is about to turn into a living Hell as they hear the agonizing screams coming from some of the other rooms!! Omigod, the evil spider is not only a cruel killer, he's also a cannibal!!!!

The little missus gets trapped in the web bed, and the flyweight champ comes out throwing haymakers to little effect!

Mean Mr. Spider pins the champ's wings together to render his offense useless, and proceeds to do a shoeshine on his face with all eight legs!

A swordfight backs the hapless champ into one of the many webs Mr. Spider has positioned around the room!

While this all was going on, the champ's wife wiggles free from her bindings, finds a razor blade, and cuts loose all the other trapped residents of the hotel, who come back with a massive attack that includes sharp objects of all ilks! Mr. Spider gets poked in the butt more than once!!

In the end the heinous arachnid gets dropped into a jar of paste and put out of business for good! The Fleischer brothers strike again!

ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE / Alta Vista Productions - 1958

It's another Monster Monday Halloween Countdown 2012 with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Tonite's little thriller features John Agar in a Mr. BIG production that I actually saw at the time it came out! Bert had produced THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN before this one and produced WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST next. This is a redo post from a few years ago...

Eegah!! sent over a swingin' soundclip from the flick by one of our favorite monster movie composers, the amazing Albert Glasser, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button located across from the big stuffed bat that's next to the crosswalk, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's our audio offering for... ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE!

The story's about a deranged elderly doll-maker who doesn't like being alone, so, he creates a machine that can shrink humans down to a few inches tall! He has a small troupe of shrunken prisoners to entertain him when he's lonely, but, when he shrinks his new secretary and her fiance, they decide to try and find a way to escape and re-enlarge themselves. Here's John (CURSE OF THE UNDEAD) Hoyt as crazy old Mr. Franz, he has just hired Sally Reynolds, played by June (EARTH vs THE SPIDER) Kenney, to replace the secretary he just recently shrunk down and added to his collection.

Enter John as Bob Westley, a buyer who frenquents the establishment. He puts the make on Sally first thing!

This is great! They go to the drive-in and watch THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN, well, kinda watch...

When Sally gets a gander of the new doll line created by Mr. Franz, well, she puts two and two together!

So, Mr. Franz pulls out his shrinking ray and pushes the big red 'GO' button!

She wakes up in terror, aparently undressed and redressed by the old pervert. Gee, I wonder if he inspected her while he was at it! By the way, that rotary telephone prop looks effin' for real!

Alright, the gang's all here! That's Laurie (QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE) Mitchell, Ken (I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF) Miller and Jack (CAPE CANAVERAL MONSTERS) Kosslyn as the other victims. Mr. Franz serves them champagne and makes them perform and dance to the swinging music heard in the soundclip!

While the doll maker is distracted, Bob tries to enlarge himself back to normal size before he comes back...

Stan watches through the key hole to warn Bob if Mr. Franz returns. Unfortunately, Franz returns too quickly for Bob to re-enlarge. The doll makers only friend is the distracting Micheal (THE WASP WOMAN / RETURN OF THE FLY) Marks, we love Michael, here at The Dungeon!

There are the pesky detective and the little girl who saw a mini kitty that really bug him, always asking too many questions. The girl is played by Bert's daughter, Susan, who was also in TORMENTED.

At one point, Mr. Franz gives the gang a marionette show, but, Bob comes in and beats the crap out of the puppet!

Bob and Sally escape into the streets, where everything's your enemy!

Bob figures out a clever plan, get inside a box to be delivered to Mr. Franz, and, the rest is just gravy! Mr. Franz quietly stands there and waits for the police to arrive!