DU BI QUAN WANG DA PO XUE DI ZI - NEU! - "Master Of The Flying Guillotine" (1976)

My last post of the year should be something significant, so I've decided to go with "Du Bi Quan Wang Da Po Xue Di Zi.".............

........"Master Of The Flying Guillotine,"...........

........or as it is also sometimes called, "One Armed Boxer vs. The Flying Guillotine!!!" I just made myself some egg flower soup with bok choy, and some salt and pepper chicken to get me in the mood, so let's get this egg rolling!!

This film is actually a sequel to the 1972 flick "Du Bei Chuan Wang" (One-Armed Boxer) and this is the blind Fung Sheng Wu Chi as played by Kang Chin, who has just got the word that his disciples have been killed by the One-Armed Boxer, so it's up to him to exact some revenge with his flying guillotine! Kang Chin has some 60 acting credits, some as Kang Chin, some as Kong Kam, some as Kam Kong,  and even one as King Kong!!

The music in "The Master OF The Flying Guillotine" was created by a German band called Neu! who were former members of Kraftwerk, who are the masters of what is commonly referred to as the "Motorik" (Motor Skill) beat, or as Klaus Dinger would call it, the "Apache Beat!" This "Super" Theme Song is a great example of how they would use a single minimalist 4/4 beat, repeated continuously throughout the entire track! Simply stated, it pounds the listener into oblivion! Interestingly enough, the makers of this film didn't ask permission to use the music, but I think they made it right a few years later!

There's a big mixed martial arts tournament going on that the One-Armed Boxer and his students are attending that is not a whole lot different from sticking 25 cents into a "Mortal Combat" video game, and there is a whole assortment of weird characters with different skills going up against one another mano a mano!!!

This is the Monkey Boy! He has his own set of special skills!

These two guys have to fight on top of a bunch of poles stuck in the ground, and if one of them falls off, he's apt to land on one of those strategically placed swords!

There are many no-holds barred styles of fighting, and many of them are also lethal!!

So the tournament is just getting in gear when party pooper Fung Sheng Wu Chi shows up with his flying guillotine. Since he's blind, he just starts randomly killing anybody who only has one arm, and sometimes just anybody! I guess he figures that if kills everybody, then he'll eventually kill the right guy! I'd be more than happy to listen if anybody wants to explain to me why he has a swastika on the front of his gown!!

The flying guillotine is kind of a cross between a giant yo-yo and a lampshade with teeth! He throws it very accurately, it lands on the target's head, and then when he pulls the cord for it to come back to him, it severs off the head of the individual it landed on slick as a whistle!!

When it gets to the point that he's not getting anywhere, he just destroys the whole freakin' place and prematurely ends the tournament!

The flashback scenes are always psychedelic!!

The Master Of The Flying Guillotine is not the only one pissed off at the One-Armed Boxer, and several other attendees of the tournament go after him too once he gets back to his school! This dude with the Mr. Fantastic arms that stretch out is particularly weird!

The little barefoot guy is also a real pain in the ass, so the One-Armed Boxer comes up with this plan to fight him in this shed, and then he has his students set it on fire, and block all the exits! The floor gets a little too hot for barefoot boy, and makes him a lot more vulnerable!

Yu Wang as the One-Armed Boxer gets credit for being the star of the first ever real kung-fu movie in 1970  titled "Long Hu Dou" or "The Chinese Boxer," and was the most popular movie star in China from 1965 to 1971 until Bruce Lee appeared on the scene!

The only way the One-Armed Boxer can escape the wrath of the Master Of The Guillotine is through distraction! He has to just keep faking him out, and causing him to make mistakes!

But it's not an easy task, and this final battle goes on for a long time!

I'll leave you with this great production still of the two protagonists really hacking it out to the very end! For all you fans of the genre, this film should not be missed, and can be found on Netflix! See you in 13!!

8mm MONSTER MOVIE BOX ART

Welp, it's end of the year 8mm Box Art Friday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. 8mm box art can be some of the wildest 'n' weirdest you ever saw. I've been wanting to do this post for some time, so, what better time than now?

20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH ~ I got to see this great flick in 1957, went with my neighbors, back when you walked 2-1/2 miles to the theater without complaining or needing to text anyone to complain!

BEAST WITH 5 FINGERS ~ Saw this wild Peter Lorre flick on TV in the late fifties, we used to watch Friday Night Horror Theater on good old Channel 47 out of Fresno! Check out the misspelling of Peter's last name on the box!

CURSE OF THE DEMON ~ I was lucky enough to catch this great movie at the theater in 1957, what a treat that was! Still one of my favorites.

DOCTOR X ~ Somehow I missed this one if it ever played on TV in the fifties where I lived, but, got to enjoy the original color version on TCM recently, this flick kills!!

FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERES THE WORLD ~ Saw this one on TV in the sixties. For some reason what I remember most is when the doctors are examining the young Frankenstein, they say that he's obviously of Caucasian descent, when, he's obviously 104% Asian!

THE HIDEOUS SUN DEMON ~ Here's another fun little flick I saw at the theater, Robert's sweat stained pants kinda ruined it at the end though!

THE HUMAN MONSTER ~ This is one of the best Lugosi low budget films, from 1939, British title is DEAD EYES OF LONDON.

I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN ~ Missed this one until the sixties for some reason, I do remember seeing the poster at the theater with its double feature... I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF!

I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF ~ It's wild 'n' weird that Whit Bissell plays the evil doctor in both of these 'Teenage' flicks!!

KING KONG BATTLES THE MONSTERS ~ It doesn't take much to figure out that this 8mm film shows nothing but King Kong battling his big ol' buddies on Skull Island!

MASTER OF HORROR ~ This is a Jack H. Harris film produced in Argentina that's a trilogy of Edgar Allen Poe stories, all lead roles were played by the same actor.

MY SON THE VAMPIRE ~ If you ever want to see one whack flick, you gotta check this thing out! Arthur Lucan plays Mrs. Riley and Alan Sherman sings the theme tune, there's Bela Lugosi and a British robot, original title is VAMPIRE OVER LONDON.

NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST ~ Missed this one at the theater, the artwork here is from the Filipino flick, BEAST OF BLOOD.

NIGHTMARE IN WAX ~ Check this out! The film you will find in this box is NIGHTMARE IN WAX, but, because the people that produced these little gems could get away with murder, it's not the movie with Vincent Price you just paid for!

THE UNDEAD ~ Great artwork for this Corman flick starring Allison Hayes, Paul Blaisdell plays a corpse in a coffin. Eegah!! either has or sold his 1-sheet poster of this title!

THE WAR OF THE WORLDS ~ There were probably a ton of these little films produced over the years of this classic title!

THE WEREWOLF ~ Saw this one at the theater with TARANTULA double bill! My favorite part of this excellent film is where Duncan Marsh transforms into a werewolf in the jail cell and takes care of the people who caused his affliction!

TENSION - "Everybody's Got A Breaking Point" (1949)

For most folks, the day after X-mas is about relaxation because it's all over, but down here in The Dungeon, since we don't know how to relax, it's all about finding more subjects to torture and creating TENSION!! Time to go back to the year 1949, when life was simpler but also sometimes undeniably a lot more complicated depending how you look at it!

Great title card to go along with Barry (PYRO) Sullivan as Detective Collier Bonnabel's introductory narration! The music in "TENSION" was composed by André Previn, one of the most versatile musicians in the world, who can easily transiton from Classical to Jazz and Pop, a truly brilliant musician whose career spans eight decades!

What was he talking about? Oh, that's right, Tension and how to get people to SSNNNAPPPPP!!!!!

This is the great Richard Basehart as milquetoast pharmacist Warren Quimby! Anybody who grew up in the 60's will remember Richard for his 110 episodes of "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea" as Admiral  Harriman Nelson! He was also in the "Twilight Zone" as Adam Cook in the episode titled "Probe 7, Over And Out!" Richard also had the role of Ishmael in the classic 1956 feature "Moby Dick," and in 1962 had the starring role in a movie called "Hitler!"

Warren Quimby's total bitch of a wife Claire is played by Audrey (Lady In The Lake ) Totter! Almost always a bad girl in most of her roles, Audrey was the personification of a femme fatale in this film and many others! Her career waned when bad girls were no longer fashionable in the Disney world of the 60's!

Warren takes Claire to see the charming house he wants to buy her out in the suburbs, but she wants nothing to do with it, and won't even get out of the car! She likes it in the city where the sugar daddies are prevalent!

Claire leaves Warren to go live with a rich guy in his beach pad, so he takes he frustrations out on the bowling alley!

The man with the money that she so craves, Audrey's new beau is Barney Deager as played by Lloyd Gough! Lloyd's career came to a screeching halt in the early 50's for about 10 years when he and his wife were blacklisted for their left-wing political affiliations! He bounced back in the 60's and was in "The Outer Limits" episode "Cold Hands, Warm Heart" as a General Claiborne, and was in 26 episodes of "The Green Hornet" as Mike Axford!

When Warren comes around to try and stake a claim back on his wife, not only does Barney Deager kick sand in Warren's face, he knees him in the nuts for good measure, and has to think twice about not killling him!

Warren decides he's going to kill Barney, and to do that he needs to set it up perfectly, so he decides to take on a whole new look and personality! Ditching his glasses and getting some of those new high-tech contact lenses is a good place to start!. He then goes and gets himself a new apartment, and tells the people who live there that he's a traveling salesman, and that's why he's not around during the week! He plans on killing Barney as this new person, and then disappearing without a trace!

The pharmacy where Warren works provides some of the busiest looking scenes you're ever going to see. Look, there is stuff and more stuff literally everywhere!!

Growing up in California, I don't remember the California Crazy chain of gas stations, but I guess it existed!!

In his new digs, Warren meets his neighbor Cyd Charrise as the warm, pretty, and intelligent Mary Chanler! Sometimes you wonder why actors and actresses change their names, Cyd Charrise was born Tula Ellice Finklea, does that answer your question? Cyd Charrise was a brilliant classically trained dancer who was in a bunch of musicals! She was such an amazing dancer, her legs were insured for five million dollars in 1952!! Warren is so obsessed with killing Barney, he can't really even conceive of being in a new relationship!

Warren breaks into Barney's pad, and is just about ready to do him in when Barney wakes up! Warren suddenly realizes what a fool he is, changes his mind, and finally decides that he will be happier if he just lets the whole thing go, and start a new life with Mary, who, unlike his wife, is somebody who actually likes him!!

But since this isn't a love story, before Warren can get around to hooking up with Mary, Claire shows back up with her bags in hand! Somebody has killed Barney, and she needs a place to hide, she needs Warren to take her back!

Warren finally does what he should have done in the beginning of the film, he slaps the shit out of Claire, and she's not happy about it one bit!

The sweet science of boxing was particularly popular in the 40's and 50's and always makes for a good back drop for a scene! Here our narrator Barry Sullivan and his partner, William Conrad as Lieutenant Edgar Gonsales question Barney Deager's man-servant! William Conrad obviously went on to star in his own TV show "Canon" for 121 episodes, and was no slouch in the narration department himself as he narrated "Rocky And His Friends," "The Fugitive," "Tales of The Unexpected," and "Buck Rogers In The 25th Century!"

Mary Chanler in the meantime has been left on hold, and innocently goes to the police to file a missing persons report on the man she has fallen in love with! Oops! Bad move!

The cops were already trying to put the squeeze on Warren for the murder, so Detective Bonnabel takes Mary out for a cup of coffee, so she can see that her boyfriend isn't who she thinks he is! Yeah, it's starting to get a little tense!!

If you listen to the opening narration again, you'll hear Lieutenant Bonnabel say that sometimes you have to do things like romance or kiss your suspects to get them to give you the information you need. Claire really thought that her and Bonnabel were going to run off together, but boy did she have a surprise coming when that rubber band finally snapped!! Unorthodox detective work to say the least, but very effective!!