TWILIGHT ZONE / The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street - 1960

It's the last Monster Monday Halloween Countdown 2012 with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. So, what better way to end it than with this classic episode of TWILIGHT ZONE that my whole family watched when it originally aired on March 4, 1960?!.. Pretty cool, huh?

Eegah!! sent over a soundclip for our listening enjoyment, therefore, you can push the big red 'GO' button located directly under the poster of THE CREEP, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's Rod Serling filling us in on the skinny... The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street!

The nice quiet day on good old Maple Street USA is disturbed by a mysterious UFO landing nearby. Claude Akins plays neighbor Steve Brand, he and the others are very curious about what they just experienced... Kinda weird, kinda spooky!

Then, all the electricity goes off, Tommy reads lots of comics and says that he thinks it's an alien invasion from space!

And, when odd things start happening, like this guy's car starting all by itself, well, maybe there's something to Tommy's story about aliens living on the block in advance of an invasion!

Things get dangerous fast, that's Jack (THE INCREDIBLE MR. LIMPET) Weston as Charlie and Jason (CAPE CANAVERAL MONSTERS) Johnson as the old man.

Charlie overreacts, he shoots and kills their neighbor Pete, who went out on a scouting mission earlier! That is not black powder.

Charlie gets stoned by the neighbors for killing Pete!

Then, Tommy gets attacked because he knew everything from the beginning, he must be the alien!

Everybloody just starts freakin' out!

Then, the ding-dang lawn mower starts up and begins mowing the lawn all by itself!!.... Bibida, bibida, bibida!

Just in case it slipped your mind where you are.

Monsters from the Id pay a little visit to the 300 block of Maple Street!

As we pull back to a nearby hillside, we see two aliens who have just finished their work, seeing how easy it is transforming peaceful Earthlings into bloodthirsty maniacs. I swear, after watching this again, I could only think of one thing... Fox News!

The outfits worn by the aliens and this saucer are from FORBIDDEN PLANET, only, the saucer is upside down.

CURUCU, BEAST OF THE AMAZON - Raoul Krushaar - "I Don't Believe In Snakes 100 Feet Long" (1956)

Tonight's Saturday Halloween Countdown special is one of the last of the real 50's classics we haven't covered yet! It's called "CURUCU, Beast Of The Amazon," and it was written and directed by Curt Siodmak! When you consider some of Curt's other work like "Donovan's Brain," "I Walked With A Zombie," or "The Wolfman," it's pretty weak by comparison, but still a classic nonetheless!

No secrets here, the monster ain't that great so they show it to you right out of the box!! It looks kinda like a cross between a platypus, and a giant magpie on steroids!

AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!

Those giant claws are lethal, and John (REVENGE OF THE CREATURE) Bromfield as Rock Dean and Tom (LOVE SLAVES OF THE AMAZONS) Payne as Tupanico are just as confused by all the deaths as the police are! What John really has on his mind is he wants to have a cigarette, and Tupanico has got a bit of a chip on his shoulder because he doesn't like being played by a white guy!

Ah, the good olde days when you could still smoke in the Doctor's office while getting a shot!

Rock Dean asks The Doctor played by the wonderful Beverly Garland out for dinner, and smokes a couple more cigarettes while he's at it!

Hubba, hubba!! Vivian, the dancer in the club, and one of Rock's old flames of course, is played by Larri Thomas! Larri has been a dancer of some sort in at least 13 of her 37 roles! The music you'll hear from the club scene was written by Raoul Kraushaar, a man you've read about here many times before for his work on films like "Invaders from Mars," "Billy The Kid vs. Dracula," and "Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter!" Raoul had many non-horror credits too, like "Highway 13," and sometimes worked as Ralph Kraushaar or Ralph Stanley!

Not to be outdone, Larri has a smoke on her break while she explains to Bev that after smoking cigarettes, Rock's favourite pastime is sex!!

Tupanico is Rock's trustworthy guide who is going to lead him out into the jungle where he can smoke to his heart's content! He even helps Rock out by giving him a light!

The Doctor wants to go too, but Rock says no!! Of course she ends up going along anyway, otherwise there wouldn't be much of a story at all!

Curucu strikes again!!

Rock thinks you shoot a rifle the same way you smoke a cigarette, but Tupanico straightens him out!

There's lots more scary things out in the jungle too!

Not green screen, "CURUCU, The Beast Of The Amazon" was actually shot on location in Argentina and Brazil!

Well, as fate would have it, the monster is fake, and Tupanico is behind the whole thing, committing the murders to prevent further colonization of the native lands!

Rock and the Doctor manage to escape, and when she wakes up, she is safe and sound again!

Rock puts the make on the Doctor, and this time she goes along with his advances, having lived through a series of harrowing adventures! A native whose life the Doctor saved brings them a token of his appreciation!

And just what was in the basket? That lousy rotten bastard Tupanico's stinkin' shrunken head! What a happy ending!

CAPULINA CONTRA LAS MOMIAS / Estudios América - 1973

It's Friday Mexican Fright Halloween Countdown 2012 with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Our feature stars the very popular Mexican actor Gaspar Henaine aka Capulina, he even had his own comic book due to his popularity. Capulina did it all, he encountered witches, ghosts, vampires, a werewolf, the Frankenstein monster, mummies, the invisible man and went into space during his many adventures in Mexican cinema.

It's time to bring in our little helper to start our soundclip, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there next to the 3/4 scale Radar Ford, NOW, Rufus The Gnat! Here's some audio from... CAPULINA CONTRA LAS MOMIAS!

Capulina plays a bumbling taxi driver who takes a man to visit his scientist friend in Guanajuato, a town known for it's collection of Mexican mummies. The scientist is working on secret experiments, trying to bring his collections of mummies back to life. Of course, Capulina immediately gets right in the middle of things...

The first night there, Capulina witnesses some graverobbers in the nearby cemetary. He follows them...

And, finds the scientist fast at work on strange experiments in his laboratory!

Capulina's full of laffs, he pretends to be a mummy, then, after he gets the job of cleaning the place, he draws over the calculations on the blackboard.

Capulina can take a chore and turn it into fun! The look on his face sez it all.

Pretty Jacqueline Voltaire as Jackie is brought in to liven things up in the mod girlie department.

An experiment brings this guy back to life, he escapes and tries to rob a paint store. When he leaves, he's left with an hilarious, authentic Mexican prank, doused with sticky white oil based paint! The cops can easily follow the trail, too.

Funny in a way, since they're in Guanajuato, everybody thinks he's a mummy!

Near the end, the end is near for Capulina and pretty Jackie!..

Then, what else, Capulina is woken up from a dream he was having, he was only taking a nap while waiting for his passenger to come back. When he's leaveing though, he stops for Jackie who's stuck on the side of the road, needing a taxi!