AFRITA HANEM - "The Genie Lady" - "Little Miss Devil" (1949)

WWW. Welcome to Weird Wednesday!  Tonight's feature is straight out of Egypt, and it's called "Afrita Hanem!" If you've never heard of this film, you just might be a little surprised to find out it's a very good movie, especially if you're the kind of person who enjoys 'World Music!' Here's just a small sample of what you're in for!

"Afrita Hanem" is a musical comedy, and is also known as both "The Genie Lady," and/or "Little Miss Devil," and both of those names would be quite appropriate!

Sometimes I think the sub-title translations are a little screwy. I mean that sounds kind of dirty!

The way this one translates is not much better!

No, it's not Ricky and Lucy, it's Asfour and Aleya! They perform together and he's in love with her, but she doesn't really want to have anything to do with him because he's just a commoner!

Information gets confused even when they're speaking their own language as Asfour thinks Aleya has agreed to marry him, and Asfour and his buddies whoop it up because of the good news!

Asfour meets an old man who sends him to this cave where a magic lamp is hidden, and out pops the genie who thinks Asfour is her long lost love!

The genie is played by Samia Gamal, who is also a top notch belly dancer, and it turns out she's got quite a sense of humor! In fact, it doesn't take much to figure out why the movie was also called "Little Miss Devil" because she is very mischievous, and nobody can see her except Asfour!

I still haven't figured out how the expression "No Way, José" managed to make it's way to the Mideast! This is the second flick I've seen, the other one being from Turkey, where they used that terminology!

Don't you just get the feeling that Frankie and Annette are going to show up any minute?

The genie's name is Kahramana, and she gets Asfour enough cash to open a club of his own. Along with Asfour, the star of the new club is a gal called Semsema, and if it's not confusing enough already, Semsema is also played by Samia Gamal!

Kahramana is totally full of it, and is messing with people all the time! I would not be the least bit surprised to find out that the creators of the "I Dream Of Jeannie" TV show had seen and been inspired by this film!

Asfour and Semsema do one more number! I didn't count, but there might be six or eight songs in the movie, and they are all quite entertaining!

On a danger sign or in a piano, it just doesn't seem like people are having this much fun in Egypt these days!

Looks kind of like something right out of a "Three Stooges" episode, doesn't it?

This scene looks like it came right out of  "Hellzapoppin!"

Yep, that pretty much sums it up! You would probably find it hard to believe, but "Afrita Hanem - The Genie Lady" is actually available from Netflix, so check it out if you want a different kind of good time before they're banned forever!

BLOOD ORGY OF THE SHE-DEVILS / Occult Films - 1972

It's She-Devil Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. We gots a bloody little flick from the mind of Ted V. Mikels, who also brought us... DR. SEX, THE BLACK CLANSMAN, GIRL IN GOLD BOOTS, THE ASTRO-ZOMBIES, THE CORPSE GRINDERS, CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS, THE WORM EATERS, TEN VIOLENT WOMEN and DEMON HAUNT!

Eegah!! sent over a great lil' soundclip for our listening pleasure, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there by the atomic pink elephant ride, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's our audio offering for... BLOOD ORGY OF THE SHE-DEVILS!

The story's about a coven of witches in LA led by a high priestess named Mara, played by Lila Zaborin. They occasionally sacrifice a male victim to Satan, and seek out individuals who are interested in the occult.

Two foreign agents ask Mara to kill a U.N. ambassador with her occult powers, but, she declines the request to their extreme displeasure...

Tom Pace and Leslie McRae play couple Mark and Lorraine, she's interested in the occult and talks Mark into attending one of Mara's seances. Check out her awesome outfit, wowzers!!

One of the disgruntled foreign agents comes back and fills Mara and two others with lead! What he doesn't realize, though, is that Mara cannot be killed by bullets, she awakens later and brings the others back to life.

Small time out... Nice chess set, no?!

Mara is sooo pissed off that she cannot control her anger. In my favorite part, she gets her revenge on the two foreign agents.

First, she puts this ass hole's voodoo doll in a jar of red ants and shakes it up! The itching is so intense that he hurls himself out the hotel window and plunges to his death!

Now it's this bitch's turn, she sticks needles into his knees and elbows...

And, after he's paralyzed, she steps on his head and grinds it into the flooring! A very satisfying scene for me.

Being an occultist takes a lot of discipline and coordination with cool dance moves and gestures! And, boobs.

Something weird is going on at Mara's awesome futuristic mansion!

It's Victor (THE ASTRO-ZOMBIES) Izay to the rescue as Dr. Helsford, he's the only one that can stop Mara's devious occult powers!

WHERE DANGER LIVES - "Mitchum In Action" (1950)

Welcome to "Where Danger Lives!" If that's what you're looking for, you've come to the right place!

 

"Where Danger Lives" is a classic no doubt! It's 82 minutes of tight, taut, and twisted film making!

"Where Danger Lives" stars the great Robert (Thunder Road) Mitchum as the quite successful Dr. Jeff Cameron.............

..........and co-stars Faith (This Island Earth) Domergue as rich girl nutjob femme fatale Margo Lannington! Margo has just recently failed an attempt to kill herself, and Dr. Cameron was the guy who treated her! What a way to meet just for starters!

The two of them immediately find themselves physically attracted to each other even though both of them are already in a relationship!  They meet to have drinks down at Pogo Pete's!

Jeff asks Margo to run away with him, but she tells him she has an overbearing father who turns out to really be her husband! Mr. Lannington is played by the amazing Claude (The Invisible Man)  Rains!

Mr. Lannington and Dr. Cameron have a bit of a scuffle and the good doctor gets hit in the head with a fire poker and blacks out! When he comes to, he discovers that the results of their fight has left Mr. Lannington quite dead, and so Jeff and Margo decide to make a run for it down to Mexico!

The eyes indeed have it! It's not often you find two actors with such distinctive eyes in a film together!

Jeff and Margo end up in some small hick town where they think they are in big trouble, but it just turns out to be some kind of annual local cowboy celebration!

The couple on the lam need a place to hide while arrangements are made to sneak them across the border, so they duck into the International Follies Of Guadalupe show.

The main soundtrack was written by Roy Webb, but the music in the Follies was a song performed by Maxine Gates called "I'm Living In A Great Big Way" that was written by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields, the songwriting team responsible for such classics as "I'm In The Mood For Love,""On The Sunny Side Of The Street," and "I Can't GiveYou Anything But Love!" Maxine Gates was in a couple of "Three Stooges" episodes! The guy playing the piano wasn't really an actor, but actually a composer himself, Phil Boutelje!

Master of lighting Nicholas Musuraca was the man responsible for the cinematography!

Dr. Cameron's health has been slowly degenerating because of that blow to the head, and by the end of the movie he can barely even walk.

Turns out in the end that Faith wasn't such a nice person after all, and she gets what she has coming to her............

.......and Dr. Cameron is reunited with his plain Jane girlfriend Julie, as played by Maureen O'Sullivan! Speaking of Jane, Maureen O'Sullivan had the role of Jane Parker in six different Tarzan movies! "Where Danger Lives" is a great little Film Noir flick, and as a double feature with "Tension" can be found at Amazon or on Netflix, and that's a deal that's hard to beat!