SON OF KONG / RKO Radio Pictures - 1933

It's Monsterous Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. We gots a fun little follow up to the awesome KING KONG by RKO studios, and, with a nice budget of $250,000, filmed on Santa Catalina Island and the Channel Islands of California. The lobby card is a nice example of some of the beautiful artwork created in the thirties.

Eegah!! sent over a musical soundclip from this flick, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there behind the invisible force field, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's our audio offering for... SON OF KONG!

After King Kong's rampage in New York, Carl Denham is a shattered man, creditors are poised to put him in prison! So, he decides to join up with his pal Captain Englehorn and escape New York on his ship. On the way to the dock, Denham uses a novel disguise!

At one stop, Denham and the captain decide to see a show with a musical monkey act! You take what you can get that far away from civilization and all..

Helen Mack plays Helene Peterson, here, she follows the monkey act with her rendition of "The Runaway Blues" as heard in the soundclip!

After her father is killed, she stows away on the captain's boat, then, there's a mutiny by the less than friendly crew.

Denham, Helene, the captain, the cook and the murderous Captain Helstrom are dropped off near Skull Island in a lifeboat. They try to land on the beach but are confronted by hostile natives and forced to find another place to land.

The movie was billed as a comedy, little Kong got a boo-boo while fighting a giant bear so Denham cautiously bandages his finger for him! I remember seeing this movie on TV in the fifties, loved the fact that he befriends the humans!

Curious, he watches them while they have a tender moment near the fire.

Later, little Kong knocks down a giant door on the side of a mountain to let Denham and Helene explore the interior, and, they find many treasures inside.

In a satisfying moment, this sea creature appears and chews up Captain Helstrom after he falls into the water!

There is a cataclysmic earthquake and the entire Skull Island starts to disappear under the ocean! Just before it does, the Son Of Kong holds Denham above the water where he's able to be rescued!

In the saddest moment, you can see his bandage still on his finger before he goes under...

TEENAGE DOLL - Roger Corman - "Tempted...Tarnished...Violently Thrown Aside! (1957)

Tonight's Saturday Night Special is a tribute to the filmmaking skills of Roger Corman entitled "Teenage Doll!"

My only gripe with this Roger Corman masterpiece is the title! It's not very indicative of what the film is really about! The TV title "The Young Rebels" or something even grittier would have probably generated more box office success!

The set designer for "Teenage Doll" was Robert Kinoshita, the man who created two of the most celebrated robots in cinema history, Tobar The Great, and Robby The Robot!!

Roger Corman is responsible for bringing us some of the best titles in all of Sci-Fi and Horror film history! "Teenage Doll" was his 17th film and was preceded by the classics "Monster From The Ocean Floor," "The Beast With A Million Eyes," "Day The World Ended," "It Conquered The World," "Attack Of The Crab Monsters," "Not Of This Earth," and "The Undead," and Roger was just getting rolling!! Amazingly enough, Roger Corman still has four movies coming out this year!!!!

The music throughout "Teenage Doll" was created by Walter Greene who wrote the music for a plethora of Woody Woodpecker, Chilly Willy, and Pink Panther cartoons etc etc!

"Teenage Doll" starts off with the death of a girl gang member!

The very innocent looking new girl in town as played by June Kenney as Barbara Bonney, is the one who gets pinned with the murder, but I'm not here to describe the plot of this film to you, I want to talk about the characters in the movie!

There are four people in "Teenage Doll" that have fairly small parts who would go on to be the heart and soul of quite a few of Roger Corman's films! Ed Nelson pulls double duty in this movie, as both this blind man, and as a cop! Ed was also in the Corman classics "Attack Of The Crab Monsters," Invasion Of The Saucer Men," "Teenage Cave Man," The Cry Baby Killer," "Night Of The Blood Beast," "The Brain Eaters," and of course, one of the main reasons we made a movie and created this blog, "A Bucket Of Blood!"

Fay Spain as Helen, the leader of the girl gang called "The Black Widows" and one of the stars of the movie was not part of the Corman stable! This scene that shows her living in filth with her little sister reminded me of the dirty little kid in the meth freak's house in "Breaking Bad!" Sadly, Fay left this world at the very young age of 49 from cancer!

In 1957, this shot  was probably almost grounds to get an X rating, if they would have had ratings back then!

A 25 year old  Barboura Morris had the small  role of Janet, one of the gang girl's sister! Barboura was also in Corman's "Teenage Cave Man," "A Bucket Of Blood," "The Wasp Woman," "X: The Man With The X-Ray Eyes," "The Haunted Palace," "The Wild Angels," "The Trip," and "The Dunwich Horror!" Barboura also checked out way too early from cancer at the age of 43!

The dubiously coiffed Dorothy Neumann, as Barbara's Mom, Estelle Bonney, was also not part of the Corman crew, but did have the role of Anastasia Abernathy in "The Ghost Of Dragstrip Hollow," and was 'the landlady' in the "Twilight Zone" episode titled "The Landlady!"

Paul Bryar as Helen's scumbag Dad was also not part of the Corman troop, but had been acting since 1937 with some 357 credits to his name, everything from "Twilight Zone," and "The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis" to "Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid!"

This is the reason why Paul had his face in his hands, and she's not his daughter! You figure it out!

 After this film June Kenney went on to be in Roger Corman's "The Saga Of The Viking Women And Their Voyage To The Waters Of The Great Sea Serpent," and "Hot Car Girl," and also in Bert I Gordon's "Attack Of The Puppet People" and "Earth Vs. The Spider!"

Richard Devon as Detective Dunst has a discussion with Ed Nelson in his other role in this film as a police officer! Richard Devon had the role of Satan in Corman's "The Undead," and was also in Roger's "The Saga Of The  Viking Women And TVTTWOTGSS," and "War Of The Satellites!" Awesome non-Corman appearances were in "Blood Of Dracula," and the "Twilight Zone" episode called "Dead Man's Shoes!"

That brings us to the big man in a small role, the always amazing Bruno VeSota as the 'fat witness!" Besides being in non-Corman greats like "Dementia," and  "Daddy-O," Bruno was also in numerous Corman classics like "The Undead," "War Of The Satellites," "A Bucket Of Blood," "The Wasp Woman," and  "Attack Of The Giant Leeches!"

"Teenage Doll" is a great little film available from Netflix that clocks in at just a little over an hour! When a movie has a girl gang named "The Black Widows," and a guy gang named "The Tarantulas" vs "The Vandals" and "The Vandalettes" and all the aforementioned talent, you know there is no possible way to go wrong!

OUTER LIMITS: The Zanti Misfits / Daystar Productions - 1963

It's Outer Limits Friday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. I saw this one when it aired in 1963, the story's about the rulers of the planet Zanti, they're incapable of executing their own species so they have exiled some Misfits to the planet Earth, where Earthlings have no problem with killing. At a secret Military base in the ghost town of Morgue, California, a group of Air Force officers and guards is awaiting the landing of the Zanti penal ship...

Eegah!! sent over an excellent soundclip from this classic TV series, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there across from your tuna salad, NOW, Rufus The Gnat! Here's our audio offering for... THE ZANTI MISFITS!

Here's comes the Zanti ship, full of them there Misfits!.. A lot of times, the spaceships created for this series were just plain weak, this one's no exception.

Bruce Dern plays on-the-run jerk, Ben Garth. He just ran over an Air Force guard and drove into a restricted desert area. Bruce already had a bad guy reputation from the 1960 western, WILD RIVER, and appeared on many TV series. He was also in THE WILD ANGELS, THE TRIP, HANG 'EM HIGH, THE INCREDIBLE 2-HEADED TRANSPLANT, SILENT RUNNING, FAMILY PLOT, TATTOO and THE 'BURBS.

Ben notices something up on the hill and out of curiousity, goes up to check it out...

HUH, WHAT THE EFF??!..

The Misfits storm out of the ship and attack Ben, killing him! Then, they go after his girlfriend.

Michael Tolan plays Professor Graves, there as part of the military team. He goes out to rescue the girl before she gets bitten by a Misfit.

The ship flys over to the military headquarters and land on the roof of the building. Check it out, the prop department had to add that long strip of wood sticking out so that the ship wouldn't just fall off!.. Unbelievable!!

What else, the Misfits attack... Hey-Yo!!

One Misfit goes up this guy's pants leg and bites him a goodern!

Good old Morgue lives up to it's name!!