ANÓNIMA DE ASESINOS - Piero Umilani - "Man On The Spying Trapeze" (1966)

                                     

Nothing sez Christmas like a good old-fashioned Euro-Spy flick, so tonight's feature is "Anónima De Asesinos" or auf Englisch, "Man On The Spying Trapeze," interestingly enough, a title that has absolutely nothing to do with the movie at all, but it is a pretty good play on words just the same!

The music in "Man On The Spying Trapeze" was written by the outstanding composer Piero Umilani who passed away back in 2001. Besides having 147 credits for movies and TV, Piero will live forever in the hearts and minds of people everywhere because he was the man who composed the wildly popular ditty "Mah Nà Mah Nà" for the 1968 documentary "Svezia, Inferno E Paradiso" (Sweden: Heaven And Hell). Just in case you think you don't know what I'm talking about, then check out this Muppets video, and you will never wonder again! What a phenomena !!!

"Man On The Spying Trapeze" stars Wayde Preston as super spy Jerry Land, whose own story just might be more interesting than the movie itself! Before he ever spoke a line in a movie or on TV, the 6'4" Wayde played string bass with numerous bands, fought in the Korean War, was a park ranger, a rodeo cowboy and an airline pilot! From 1957 to 1960 he was the star of a popular western TV series called "Colt .45" that ran for 67 episodes, and after this movie was made, he starred in a bunch of spaghetti westerns with titles like "Vivo Per La Tua Morte" (A Long Ride From Hell) and "Dio Perdoni La Mia Pistola" (God Will Forgive My Pistol)!

I love this shot of half Mexican, half Japanese, Noé Murayama as Mr. Wong, a man always on the wong side of the law! Because of his look, Noé was in over 150 movies, almost exclusively as a villain in titles like "Dr. Satán Y La Magia Negra, "Blue Demon Contra Cerebros Infernales," and "Víbora Caliente!" (Hot Snake)

The nightlife in Beirut is swinging to say the least!!

Mr. Wong is still hiding in the shadows, and taking it all in!!

Just like all good spies, Jerry Land is quite the ladies man!!

On the plane flight to Beirut, Jerry Land met this hot rich gal who invites him to her yacht for a party, but when he arrives, he finds out these are the friends she was talking about that she wanted him to meet!

One of those good friends just also happens to be Mr. Wong!!

Mr. Wong also happens to be quite the inventor!! And you thought waterboarding was bad??

To make his escape, Jerry slips into the only clothes available. Unfortunately it was all just a setup, and Mr. Wong and his cronies are all waiting for him when he arrives back at his apartment!!

Jerry is not without some special spy tools like this powder he puts on the floor that can only be seen with some special glasses, so that he can tell if any new intruders are lurking about!

The streets of Beirut are also not safe at all, but Jerry is quite adroit at kicking ass!

Now he's getting blackmailed because he was set up to look like a murderer!!

Ah So, Chop Chop!! Jerry finds out his boss is a two faced conniving lying bastard!!

The military wraps it all up in the end, but it's pretty hard to be very effective when you literally have two left feet!! Mah Nà Mah Nà!!!

INVADERS FROM SPACE / Walter Manley Enterprises - 1965

It's... Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Eegah!! gave us frog faces last post, so, I'm bringing in the salamander men from the planet Kulimon as a follow up, and, Starman is back!..

We have a soundclip that gives the story set-up with a wild musical performance by an unusual dance troupe, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there next to the glowing atomic powered coffee grinder, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's our audio offering for... INVADERS FROM SPACE!

Like I said, Starman. Here he is on the Emerald Planet getting his orders to save the Earth from a horde of Salamander Men that plan on taking over by unleashing a lethal plague on mankind.

The Salamander Men are a mysterious lot, when they remove their mask you see why they wear the damn thing in the first place!!

After Starman arrives on Earth, he's singled out for attack by Kulimon salamander fighting fiends! Starman has little concern and kicks the thing's ass post-haste!

You hear some of this bizarre dance number in the soundclip... Packed audience!

Kids are part of the mix this time, they're targeted by the Salamander Men while out catching butterflies. Of course, there's another freakin' dance number!

Head scientists are captured and coerced into helping by threatening to dump a kid into a huge volcanic cauldron!

Shades of the TWILIGHT ZONE episode "Eye Of The Beholder!"

More action with kids, this time at home, the mean old Kulimon witch gets melted!

A shot of their flying saucer firing on the city below!

Looks like Starman is mocking them with his insulting salamander walk!

'Nuf said?!..

DER FROSCH MIT DER MASKE - Edgar Wallace - Fellowship Of The Frog (1959)

One thing I'm not even close to getting tired of is Edgar Wallace movies! I don't think I've seen a bad one yet, and "Der Frosch Mit Der Maske" is no exception!! Literally translated as "The Frog With The Mask," but that's one of the few titles it's never been released as!

The version readily available today from Sinister Cinema is called "The Fellowship Of The Frog" which is actually not a bad title since there's about 300 guys in this Frog Gang of robbers and murderers!!

The leader of the gang is called a frog for apparent reasons, and he is one mean and treacherous son of a gun, and pretty handy with a cutting torch to boot!

A Detective from Scotland Yard named Higgens tries to infiltrate the gang, but gets a little too antsy during the bust, and gets the froggy tables turned on him in no time flat!!

Betray the frog, and pay the price!! Higgens got a big dose of poison gas! What an idiot!!

Dungeon all-star Joachim Fuchsberger has the role of the American Richard Gordon, rich guy and part-time amateur sleuth! So far, I think I've seen 10 movies with Joachim in them, some day, I hope to see the other seventy-one. He's only been in three movies the last decade, but is in a TV movie scheduled for release in 2013 called "Live Is Live II: Später Geht's Nicht"

Time out to just sit back, relax and enjoy this cool shot!!

Fritz Rasp has the role of the mean old bastard boss Maitland! Fritz's career went all the way back to 1916, and in 1927 he had the role of  "The Thin Man" in the classic silent film "Metropolis," and in 1932, he was in a film called "Die Vier Vom Bob 13!"  How'd you like to work for this dour character??

If you wanted to be a member of the fellowship, it helped if you already resembled a frog a bit!!

The Lolita Club...........where men are men, and frogs are frogs, and there's no room at the bar  for little boys!

On hiatus from Andy's Gang,....... Froggy The Gremlin is the master of ceremonies at The Lolita Club!!

The main entertainment at "The Lolita Club" is none other than Lolita herself played by Eva Pflug who performs the ultra-cool "Nachts Im Nebel An Der Themse" which was written by Karl Bette, Theo M. Werner, and Hans Billian! The rest of the music in the movie was composed by Willy Mattes and an uncredited Peter Thomas!

Walter (Long Legs, Long Fingers) Wilz as Ray Bennet is being set up as the patsy by the secret frog society! The simpleton dumbass really thinks Lolita has a thing for him!

Maitland the Boss also owns The Lolita Club, although it's hard for him to enjoy anything. He's joined here by his right-hand man, Jochen (The Mysterious Magician) Brockmann as Philo Johnson!

The mysterious gentleman on the right is Carl (The Torture Chamber Of Dr. Sadism) Lange as John Bennet, stern father of dumbass Ray! He tries to get Ray to go back home with him, but Ray's not having anything to do with it! On the left is the maître d Everett as played by Ulrich (Lady Dracula) Beiger!

All the Frog members carry the mark of the frog on their wrist, so they are pretty much done for when they get busted like this!

The maître d Everett gets shot by the frog, and the rap gets pinned on Mr. Innocent Ray Bennet!!

In typical Edgar Wallace style, it's bad news for Ray Bennet when he finally finds out what his Father does for a living!!

Ray Bennet's sister Elfie von Kalckreuth as Ella has also been having her own problems with the frog!

Despite being an exceptionally tricky guy, the frog's whole world starts unraveling and spinning out of control!

The frog is such a maniac, he even fills his trusted accomplice Lolita full of holes!!

In the end, Richard Gordon and Eva Bennet stroll off together to live in his mansion happily ever after with his man-servant and best friend James, as played by Edgar Wallace stalwart Eddie Arent, trailing behind!!