TANIN NO KAO - "The Face Of Another" (1966)

"Tanin No Kao"(The Face Of Another) is another fine film brought to you by writer Kôbô Abe and director Hiroshi Teshigahara, who also made "Otoshiana"(Pitfall)!

Now I could easily wax on eloquently about all the fascinating ins and outs of this movie, but that's already been done by people a lot smarter than me, so I'll just get down to the brass tacks of why this is such a cool movie just to watch for it's face of another value!

Basic concepts don't really take a lot of explaining!

Tatsuya Nakadai as Mr. Okuyama is a man who has lost his face in an industrial accident! It's fascinating that a Japanese actor like Tatsuya Nakadai has 159 acting credits without one Kaiju film amongst them!

With the help of a psychiatrist/plastic surgeon, Mr. Okuyama is going to be able to lead a normal life again! (Almost)

The role of the psychiatrist is played Mikijiro (13 Assassins) Hira! Both Tatsuya Nakadai and Mikijiro Hira have still been acting right up to the last two years!

They found a guy to volunteer to have his face used as a mold, and Mr. Okuyama is fitted with his new identity! There's only one catch, the mask can only be worn for a certain amount of hours at which time the face must be given a rest!

Mr. Okuyama has one goal, and that is to seduce his wife who would have nothing to do with him after he became horribly disfigured!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, there's a complete second subordinate story going on about this young lady who is quite attractive except for the fact that half of her face was terribly scarred from birth!

Right about here is when I fell in love with this movie! The Doctor and his patient are in this bar when this song titled "Waltz" written by Tôru Takemitsu with lyrics by Tatsuji Iwabuchi is performed by Bibari (LET'S GO, YOUNG GUY!, SON OF GODZILLA) Maeda! You can get the gist of the lyrics from the sub-titles, but the song is sung in German!! I don't know about you, but it threw me for a massive curve!!

Everything became very clear, and I found no reason to not start drinking again!

My sentiments exactly!!

After Mr. Okuyama successfully seduces his wife, and they make love again for the first time since the accident, he reveals who he is to her and calls her a slut, and she tells him she knew it was him all along!

The young lady with the scarred face makes love to her brother then commits suicide by walking out into the ocean and drowning!

All the answers come to light in the end!

As hordes of masked people pass them by, the final statement is made!

Is this one of the artiest movies you'll ever see, is this a damn good movie, is it available on Netflix, do you need to see it?? Hell Yeah!!!

HYPER SAPIEN: People From Another Star / TaliaFilm II Productions - 1986

It's People From Another Mother's Star Friday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Some personal notes, for over two weeks straight now, our traffic has fallen off like 500 hits or more a day, consistantly! It's Just Weird... Anyways, I was looking at the budget for this flick, $13,000,000, and thinking of how many better movies the Dungeon Gang could make for that amount of cash. Lastly, in 2002, we signed a contract with a new TV network to produce our 13 O'Clock Theater series but they lost all their money ($25,000,000) in the stock market and we saw only a few bucks and never completed our next movie, VOODOO CLUB...

Eegah!! sent over a soundclip for our listening enjoyment, it explains the storyline and more, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there next to the broken hyper drive, NOW, Rufus The Gnat! Here's our Eariffic Earclip for... HYPER SAPIEN: People From Another Star!

Tavy and her little sister alien decide to pay Earth a visit since they just happened to be passing by and all... *Refer to soundclip, that is all, over and out!

I agree wif' da space goilies -- What It Is!!!.. Ricky Paull (THE BLOB '88) Goldin plays love interest, Dirt!.. Looks like he's just doin' his thang!

The girls bring along their companion and protector, Kirbi. This tripod thing is the best part of the film, the contortions and positions it puts itself into will definitely amaze you!

Back in space, the Hyper Sapiens decide that the girls need to be brought back to the mother ship since they refuse to return on their own... The primped out leader gets big and lectures the Earth.

Kirbi digs getting loaded on gasoline! Can you say... WHEEEEEE!!

Dirt has to go out and find the girls some undies, so, he steals some from his female neighbor. Needless to say, one of my favorite parts!

Keenan Wynn plays grandpa, this was his 174th and last role, he died that same year. We love Keenan...

Love this shot from the big barbecue! Them there's barbecued beans, boy!

Talk about product placement!!

The last part of the soundclip has these guys playing in the background.

There are lots of chases and explosions before this 92 minute flick ends, Dirt gets to ride on a space ship but both he and Tavy decide to go back to Earth and live their lives there... Happy Ending.

MURDER WITH MUSIC - "Mistaken Identity" (1941)

Tonight's feature is a tasty little morsel from 1941, and a great way for us to help celebrate "Black History Month" called "Murder With Music!" I bought my copy, but once again as I was writing this I found out you can download or watch it for free right "HERE" at the good old Internet Archive, so if you like music as much as I do, then head on over and check it out!

"Murder With Music" probably should have been called "Music With Murder" because it is approximately 85% music with just a thread of a plot to kind of tie it all together!

It starts off with this dude Milton (THE COOL WORLD) Williams as Ted Simmonds asking for a job as a reporter. The editor behind the desk is Bob (JUNCTION 88) Howard!  Bob is relating to Ted the story of the last reporter he hired, a loser named Hal!

Now Hal instead of being focused on his job, was more concerned with trying to make whoopee with this nightclub singer named Lola! Lovely Lola was played by a popular nightclub entertainer of the time named Nellie Hill! Nellie was only ever in one other movie called "Killer Diller," and in it she played a gal by the name of Lola! Hal was played by an actor named George Oliver!

Hal's lovemaking ideas get interrupted when Lola's attention is turned to this unnamed act on the televison doing a number by the name of "I'm A Cute Little Bangi From Ubangi" that really needs to be seen and heard to believed!! Lola must do pretty well, my parents never had a TV until the 50's!

That's the TV there in the flip-top box! The next thing you know Mike shows up but she thinks it's her boyfriend Lewis, and Hal has to hide in the closet! Mike has just escaped from a two year stint in prison and he thinks the smokes and drinks he sees are that of Lola and Lewis, he knows nothing about Hal!

If you ask my humble opinion, if they remade "Murder With Music," Mike's role would be perfect for Snoop Dogg as he's almost a dead ringer for Mike! Mike was played by Bill (HOUSE-RENT PARTY) Dillard! So Mike needs some new duds, so Lola suggests they go to the pad of the guy who owns the club she works at, a fellow named Bill Smith. She said Bill likes her so much, he'd gladly give Mike one of his suits!

There's only one problem, and that is that Bill Smith is at this party! Now why Bill and his wife who you can't see in this shot, are the only two people with masks on at the party is anybody's guess! As you can see, Bill Smith is quite popular with all the ladies! Bill Smith was played by Ken Renard and is one of the few characters in this film that had much of an acting career! Ken went on to be in "True Grit," Sparkle," "Exorcist II: The Herectic," and was even in an "Outer Limits" episode called "Corpus Earthling!" He was also in "Killer Diller" with Nellie Hill!

The band at the party is Nobel Sissle and His Orchestra, and they swing hard!

When Bill Smith and his wife return to their apartment, they have no idea that Hal the reporter is hiding behind a chair listening to their conversation!

Right about here it gets a little confusing! Bill Smith and his wife leave via the window, and then this police officer comes in through the window!

Lola and Mike show up at Bill's apartment, and tell the cop that they live there! Hal is still hiding behind the chair!

Meanwhile, back at the party the joint is still jumpin' with entertainment by  these tap dancers known as Alston and Young! Noble Sissle there in the middle keeps the music flowing! Noble Sissle wrote the song "I'm Just Wild About Harry" in 1921, and that song was used in like 27 different cartoons, movies and TV shows including "Harry And The Hendersons," and "The Muppet Show!"

Then it's time for the editor Bob Howard to join Noble's orchestra and sing "Too Late Baby!" The music refuses to stop!

Time for Nellie to break into her standout number called "Can't Help It" that was written by Skippy Williams. The uncredited policeman on the keys also does an outstanding job! 

Then there's this uncredited cat who breaks in on the editor 3 or 4 times talking in German, and then leaving post haste! A real honest to goodness case of WTF?! Weirdsville!!

The final moments include a stunner of an audition by Johnson and Johnson called "That's The Cheese you Got To Squeeze!" This piano and tap dancing boogie-woogie is so hot that it causes Bill Smith to say, "I'll buy that number!" The Skippy Williams Orchestra comes in on the end of the song to wrap it up tight!

Nellie reprises "Can't Help It" at the end of the film with Skippy's orchestra accompanying!

And then, just like the title suggests, somebody does indeed get murdered!! Best news of the year so far, I just found out that "Killer Diller" can also be downloaded for free at the Internet Archive! What a way to go!!