EL ASESINO ENMASCARADO / Producciones Sotomayor - 1962

Welp, time to head back to Mexico with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Our story is from the popular Mexican series, EL REY DE LA PISTOLA, where lawlessness rules in a forsaken part of the land, and, plagued by a mysterious Masked Assassin!

Eegah!! sent over a soundclip of the excellent theme from this flick for our earjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there by the loaded atomic pistol, NOW, Rufus The Gnat! Here's an earfull of... EL ASESINO ENMASCARADO!

A lot of the action takes place in the local cantina. The very talented Miguel Aceves Mejía plays Comisario Miguel, who's in charge of keeping peace and occasionally belting out a classic tune!

The stage coach drivers check out these scarecrow decoys when the Masked Assassin rides up and makes off with all the traveler's money and jewelry, plus the loot in the strongbox!

I like this still, the little cantina helper's always flirting with the lovely ladies!

This just wouldn't be a Mexican movie if there weren't a few featured songs...

You win some money playing poker at the cantina and get a knife in the back (with a note) on the way back to your place!

In a clever attempt to try and expose the Masked Assassin and his accomplices, the Comisario fakes his death and his friend takes over his position of authority.

Things start going afoul for the greedy gang, and, we finally get to see who the assassin is. The great Joaquín Cordero plays the scar faced Masked Assassin, Joaquín had 205 acting credits, he was DR. SATAN and starred in numerous other Mexican monster movies. He just recently died in Mexico at age 89.

At the end, Comisario Miguel shows up to battle the assassin in one last gunfight, and, is shot a number of times before...

Our little friend, tired of being abused by his evil boss, steers the stagecoach into him, spearing him right through his spine!

GOONLAND - Sammy Tinberg - Lou Fleischer - "Goon Squad" (1938)

Not only is "Goonland" one of my favourite Popeye cartoons, it's one of my favourite cartoons period!

I will never ever get over the fact that they were able to create cartoons this amazing and there's only credits for four guys! Today with computers and all the extra gizmos at their disposal, it still takes a minimum of 100 people!

Popeye is off at sea merrily, merrily sailing around with no attachments and no real problems! He's on the way to try and locate his lost Pappy!

Next stop, "Goon Island" where it's all work, and no play, and humans aren't welcome!

It's at this point that the insidiously twisted Goon theme song kicks in, and if you get this sucker stuck in your head, you might just turn into a goon yourself! Popeye's muttering to himself the whole time is hilarious! The only song worse than this to get stuck in your head is Glen Armstrong's "When The Lion Lies Down With The Lamborghini!" The music was created by Lou Fleischer and Sammy Timberg who between the two of them have something like 543 credits! What a bunch of slackers!

In an an attempt to blend in, Popeye elongates his face to look like one of the goons!

Pappy is being held captive and whiles away the hours by playing checkers with himself! He doesn't really want to be rescued, because he doesn't like people anyway! Jack Mercer does the voices for both Popeye and Pappy!!

Popeye gets captured by the goons, and looks like a goner for sure!

During the tussle with the goons, Popeye's can of spinach gets dislodged and rolls over toward Pappy's cell! If he can just gets his hands on it, he might be able to save his baby boy! I love the details on Goon Island like the trim around that doorway!

The goons are pretty upset with Popeye, so they're going to drop a ginormous boulder on him!

Pappy gets the spinach just in time to rescue Popeye, but the goons are not amused!

 

After 40 years of not seeing each other, could this possibly be the end? Oh, Hell no!

Just in the nick of time, the film breaks, leaving Popeye and Pappy dangling precariously!

 

The film editor has to piece it back together again!

The show must go on, so he clips it together with a safety pin!

Just like a buttload of other cool stuff, "Goonland" can be downloaded for free over at the always amazing Internet Archive, and that's an order!!

THE DAY IT CAME TO EARTH / Rainbow Productions - 1979

Welcome to Meteor Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Here's a little story about a meteor that falls into a pond where Mafia hitmen have dumped the body of one of their victims, then, students from the local college go swimming there and find the object from space, which has weird, unearthly powers. That poster is pathetic!

Eegah!! sent over a soundclip with the rockin' theme from this flick, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there next to our big old glowing meteor, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's our audio offering for... THE DAY IT CAME TO EARTH!

After the mafia dudes throw the dead guy into a secluded pond, a meteor falls out of the sky and into the pool a few weeks later. It activates the corpse, which then lumbers out of the pond and into town, where it locates the two murderers and returns the favor in spades! (they were playing cards) The police are totally baffled at the crime scene.

Here's a guy Eegah!! and I grew up with on TV, George Gobel, who plays science teacher, Prof. Bartholomew. George had his own show in 1956 and could be seen on a number of other programs including WAGON TRAIN, CANDID CAMERA, THE BING CROSBY SHOW, F TROOP, THE BOB HOPE SHOW, ROWAN AND MARTIN'S LAUGH IN, THE RED SKELTON HOUR and more.

Eddie and Ronnie are trying to impress Sally (the blonde) and Debbie at school! It works and the girls agree to go with them to the local pond to go skinny... err, swimming. Debbie's played by the beautiful Rita Wilson.

The animated corpse is awakened by Sally as she swims near the thing and it grabs at her! It only leaves the pool at night.

Eddie finds some strange crystals near where the meteor landed, so, the boys go to Prof. Bartholomew to show him what they found. The professor is very interested, they go back to the pool, locate the meteor and take it back to the school.

Cool shot as Prof. Bartholomew checks out the crystal structure under a microscope! Later that night, the corpse breaks into the lab and takes the meteor back to the pond for safe keeping.

Eddie made Sally a necklace out of one small crystal, they have an encounter with the thing because it's attracted to the rock.

Of all things, a few girls from school, including Sally and Debbie, decide to have a slumber party at a creepy old house in the country!! The boys sneak into the place to scare them, but, the tables are turned when the meteor monster shows up! Everyone scrambles out of the house, including the cops, at the sight of the gruesome thing.

If you ever wondered what a tear gas cartridge from 1979 looks like, well, here ya go!

Another meteor comes to Earth, but, it's too late for the thing as it holds onto Sally's necklace while a fire in the theater burns it to a crisp!