SANTO CONTRA EL DR. MUERTE / Cinematografica Pelimex - 1973

As promised, I'm posting another south-of-the-border thrill ride! When I looked this movie up on IMDb, it's listed as... SANTA vs DOCTOR DEATH! SANTA????.. I guess the the person who entered the info for this flick on IMDb had no idea what they were doing! This is one of the few Santo movies that was dubbed in English for US distribution.

Here's an art museum in Mexico, part of the story's about art forgeries created by art expert and restorer. Dr. Mann, aka el Dr. Muerte.

Eegah!! sent over this teriffic soundclip for our listening enjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button over there next to the pic-a-nic table, NOW, Rufus The Gnat! Here's our audio offering for... SANTO CONTRA EL DR. MUERTE!

Mann and his gang are behind the vandalism that gains him the restoration job, because of his expertise. He makes exact copies of paintings and then exposes the original painting as a fraud to the museum authorities after he has made some changes. Then, he keeps the original for his private collection! Clever, no?

The first thing Santo has to do is kick this thug's ass in the latrine after he lands at the airport!

Then, it's off to the ring to kick more ass! There's a lot of wrestling in this one.

At one point, Santo and his pal lose the brakes in their car and go on a wild ride down a hill, you gotta see this to believe it, very exciting!

In this match, Santo's opponent pulls a freakin' switchblade on him, jeez!

Dr. Mann and his pals have a basement full of women they use as guinea pigs, the doctor extracts tumors from them for a secret serum besides using them as models for his paintings!

Dick Cheney was brought in to intimidate this chained up lady with some scorpions in a jar!

Hmmm, I wonder what this switch does...

There's plenty of great fights too!!

This is a creepy part, that giant stone almost hits Santo as it falls from the ceiling!

Santo dives off a cliff to catch up with the last of the doctor's men who's trying to escape, then, he chases him in the second boat.

How many times do I have to say it, these wrestling heroes did all their own stunts, that's actually Santo riding that rope ladder attached to the helicopter! Any of you think you're tough enough to attempt a stunt like that?.. Yeah, right!

KA-EFFIN-BLEWIE!!!.. That's the bad guy, not Santo.

EOLOMEA - Günther Fischer - "Ground Control To Daniel Lagny" (1972)

"Eolomea," "Eltűnt Nyolc Űrhajó," or is it "Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe?" Hell, I don't know anymore! Just lost in space, I guess!!

"Eolomea" is a very well made East European cold war flick, but there is just one overwhelming problem! There ain't no monsters! Space movies without monsters, no matter how well made they are, are going to have a tendency to be on the boring side! Period! One thing that's not boring is the exceptionally cool music in the movie that was composed by the very talented Günther Fischer of "A Terrific Scent Of Fresh Hay" fame, with an ongoing theme that has an overwhelming feel that is highly suggestive of The Beatles' "Fool On The Hill!"

There is just something about the words simple and annihilation together that doesn't work for me! In East Germany 1972, it probably made more sense!

Great spacial effects, no doubt, but if there's not an alien hiding in that spacescape somewhere, well, I rest my point!

Space dude has got a hole in his sock, and they send up the wrong kind of patch kit! Curiously comedic and interesting, yeah, enough to base a movie on, not quite!

This shot reminds me of the time I climbed to the top of Hollister Peak and lost a chess match to Ron Le Fleur!

Tequila Sunrise in space, "Inna Gadda Da Vida," or Eyi, Eyi Oh?

I must admit, that pretty much sums it up!!

The Veronica Lake look does it for me every time!!

Very interesting concept! Do you suppose that it's safe to assume that means, "You look like shit!"

But you do have to hand it to those East Germans for their concept of what it looks like on other planets, BUT, once again, where are the freakin' monsters?

This guy is as close as they get to a monster, a bad case of weasel measles!

I find this shot intriguing!

A computerized robot that doesn't know anything, well now, that's not going to be a lot of help! They might have skimped on the design of this guy just a little bit!

Maybe it's just my dirty mind, but there's something latently sexual about this scene!

They finally find all the lost crews and they all blast off together in the grand finale!

Ivan Andonov channels Mike Nesmith of The Monkees in one of the last scenes, like, "Oh, Well, what am I supposed to do about it, and I agree completely! And just in case you haven't seen it, for a real treat, go check out The Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield's version of David Bowie's "Space Oddity!" It's a kick!

PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE In Color / Reynolds Pictures - 1959

It's time for us to post this wild 'n' weird colorized flick from the mind of low/no-budget guru, Ed Wood, Jr. PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE was part 2 of a trilogy, starting with BRIDE OF THE MONSTER and ending with NIGHT OF THE GHOULS. The film stock for NIGHT OF THE GHOULS was never developed during Ed's lifetime as he couldn't afford the cost of processing!..

Criswell leads the charge in the fun little soundclip Eegah!! sent over for our listening enjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button right there, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's our audio offering for... PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE In Color!

It all starts with our hero seeing a flying saucer near LA during a flight!

Then, he gets in a tizzy at home because he's being muzzled by the military brass! You can hear him complain in the soundclip...

Hey, it's a freakin' flying saucer over Hollywood!!

So, the military stock footage is brought in to battle the disks from outer space!

That mother ship is still one of my all-time favorite spaceships from the fifties, I've used it a few times in my artwork.

Here's a last look at the great Bela Lugosi...

And, his doctor double used to fill in for him.

That miniature caved in gravesite is sooo bad, it's very small to start with, and, those leaves!

There's Kelton, who's supposed to be in that same hole!

It's a hoot to watch Tor try and get out of the grave, he has to squirm around until he barely gets into a position to stand up! They loop it on the DVD menu page.

A comparison of military styles from two different worlds!

At one point, Bela's character attacks the gang but a ray from a saucer in the graveyard turns him into a skeleton!.. Talk about suspension of disbelief, WTF?!! And, Kelton faints!

A classic portrait of Vampira and Tor!

The Lieutenant, the Colonel and Jeff find the hidden saucer and cautiously enter...

Now, Tor has Jeff's wife!

This still shows the utter cheapness of the cruddy set, holy crap, I mean, honestly, a second grader could do just as good, maybe better!!!..

Okay, burn the saucer, cut, that's a wrap!!..

We'll end with this kitsch box art for the 8mm version of this classic fifties B-movie monster flick.