2010 / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 1984

It's Space Mission Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. We gots the excellent $28,000,000 follow up to the 1968 special effects trend setting 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY by the great sci-fi author, Arthur C. Clarke. I got to see 2001 at the new Cinerama theater in Seattle in 1968, whotta trip that was, nudge nudge, wink wink!!..

Eegah!! sent over a soundclip featuring the HAL computer being brought back to the land of the living, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there next to the mini flying saucer, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's our audio offering for... 2010!

Roy Scheider plays American astro scientist, Dr. Heywood Floyd. He consoles his wife in their very cool bedroom (Forry called it 'the badroom') before the next thing he knows, he's being brought out of hybernation inside the giant soviet spaceship, Leonov.

Then, he has to console a frightened female Russian crew member as they have to inflate huge reentry balloons to escape disaster when they're forced to fly close to Jupiter to save fuel and assure their return to Earth!.. And, it's one Hell of a ride!

Dr. Floyd assists Dr. Curnow (John Lithgow) before his spine chilling space walk over to the 2001 spaceship, Discovery One.

Curnow and a Russian finally make it over to the spinning Discovery and turn the light on!

A space gateway is put up between the two ships, then, Dr. Chandra (Bob Balaban) goes over and brings HAL back to life, part of that process is heard in our soundclip.

The monolith appears, and, when a manned probe is sent over to investigate, it zaps the craft, killing the Russian inside!

Mysteriously, Dave Bowman (Kier Dullea) broadcasts a message to all the people of Earth, who are on the verge of nuclear war. Then, he appears in the Discovery with Dr. Floyd.

Dave tells Dr. Floyd about an amazing event that is about to happen, then, millions of monoliths start pouring out of Jupiter!!

They hook up Discovery to the Leonov for the extra propulsion they need to escape before freakin' Jupiter collapses in on itself and becomes another sun! Discovery is destroyed after it's unharnessed from the Russian ship, that barely makes it to safety!

One last message is transmitted to the lowly Earthlings...

Now, there are two suns in the sky! I have to do a painting of this scene for myself, it strikes a primordial nerve with me.

NEW YORK CHIAMA SUPERDRAGO - Benedetto Ghiglia - "Secret Agent, Super Dragon" (1966)

Hey everybody, welcome to The Dungeon Secret Agent Super Dragon Saturday Night Special! Most folks have a tendency to poke fun at movies like this and "Agent For H.A.R.M."  but I don't get it! "Secret Agent Super Dragon" is a great movie, and I'm here to tell you why! Okay, maybe it's a little ridiculous, but what the Hell? It's a movie, it's fun and it's very entertaining!

First off, let's thank the people over at "Sinister Cinema" for keeping movies like this alive! There have been so many that have slipped through the cracks, and are all but impossible to find, thank goodness somebody makes these funky old movies available at a very affordable price! "Sinister Cinema" rocks!!

Super Dragon is played by Ray Danton, one of the weirdest actors you'll ever see on the big screen! The last time we saw Ray, he was playing the character of "Lucky, The Inscrutable!"  There's just something about the way he delivers his lines that makes him hard to take serious, but you gotta love him just the same!  Super Dragon is able to go into a deep meditative sleep where he cuts off all outside influences, a talent that will come to good use later on in the movie!

I would have given Tabonga's left root to be able to interview Ray Danton, but he passed away way too early at the age of 60 back in 1992! Super Dragon's cell phone was obviously ahead of it's time!

Time to head on over to the bowling alley in the little college town of Fremont, Michigan. There's been some weird shenanigans going on there, and all the agents that have gone there to investigate have ended up in the local morgue! They need Super Dragon to come out of retirement and get to the bottom of this mess!

Here's about two minutes and one second of some toe tapping music from the bowling alley scene that proves that white girls can actually dance! Composer Benedetto Ghiglia just passed away last year at the age of 90! Benedetto was also responsible for the music in some swell flicks like "Adiós Gringo," "Psychout For Murder," and "Pigpen!"

Ray, what are you doing, man? The first thing you learn in film class is don't wave at the camera!

CATFIGHT!!!

That guy to Ray's left, your right, is obviously double F'd big time!!

Super Dragon can't pursue this case any further without some technical assistance, so he arranges for his old pal "Baby Face" to be sprung from Sing Sing prison temporarily! Baby Face was played by American born Jess Hahn, who was basically never in any films made in the U.S. but was revered in France and Italy for his film and TV work!

Super Dragon has a weird habit of taking cigarettes from people around him, taking a drag or two, and then putting them out!

Super Dragon does some major ass kicking when it is necessary! This set might just possibly be the grungiest looking place I've ever seen in a movie!

Seems to me that Cinematographer Antonio Secchi had an incredible sense of humor!

The evil henchmen seal up Super Dragon in a coffin and sink it to the bottom of the sea, but thanks to that meditative state I spoke about earlier, he is able to maintain long enough for Baby Face to find him with the aid of a miniature submarine, and get the coffin back to the surface safely!

Here's a couple of beauties for you, Margaret (Venus In Furs) Lee as Cynthia Fulton, and Marisa (Danger: Diabolik) Mell as Charity Farrel!

It's a big masked charity auction, and nobody suspects Super Dragon will be there, because they all think he's dead!!

Cynthia is almost forced to take an electric bath, but Super Dragon shows up just in the nick of time and turns the tables on the evil bastards!

Just simply a fine portrait of the man of the hour, Ray Danton!!!

Always the lady's man, after the case is over, Super Dragon decides to remain in Amsterdam and familiarize himself a little better with some of the local colour!!

GHOST CHASERS / Monogram Pictures - 1951

Welcome to Friday the 14th with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. We gots another in a long line of Bowery Boys adventures, this time they're chasing ghosts, not to be confused with SPOOK BUSTERS from 1946. I collected some good Bowery Boys titles off TCM recently.

Eegah!! sent over this fun lil' soundclip from the flick, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there next to the atomic glowing skeleton, NOW, Rufus The Gnat! Here's our audio offering for... GHOST CHASERS!

In this story, Whitey decides to become a fake medium and the boys almost give Louie a heart attack while trying to chisel some money out of him. Louie's last name is... Dumbrowsky!

Slip gives Louie's waitress a lesson in diction, as heard in the soundclip!

There's the guest ghost on the chandelier, Edgar Alden Franklin Smith, played by the very popular actor, Lloyd Corrigan. He also has 27 writing credits and 13 directing credits, and can be seen in THE GHOST BREAKERS, MEXICAN SPITFIRE'S BABY, CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN, TARZAN'S DESERT MYSTERY, SHE-WOLF OF LONDON, THE GHOST GOES WILD, THE BRIDE GOES WILD, SON OF PALEFACE and my favorite, THE BOWERY BOYS MEET THE MONSTERS.

Slip and the gang put the screws to this old hag fake medium who's trying to bilk some big bucks out of their neighbor, Mrs. Parelli, who lost her loving son in Korea.

Sach hooks up with the pilgrim ghost for a few rounds of laffs!

Everyone except Sach is told to go down the ladder into a small room and wait there. Then, the bad guys start filling it with water, to drown them like rats!!

Edgar drives Sach to a telephone booth in the jalopy, he calls Louie's waitress to bring help. Luckily, that's a cop there, so, they head out to the spooky old location to assist the gang.

The bad guys use hypnotism to stop the gang dead in their tracks after they go on the attack!

Thing is though, Sach has Edgar on his side and is actually too stupid to be hypnotized!