Monday, February 17, 2014

OUR GANG In Color - Hide And Shriek / Hal Roach Studios - 1938

It's Haunted Funhouse Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. I grew up watching THE LITTLE RASCALS and OUR GANG on TV, this one was always one of my favorites, now in color. This is the last of 169 OUR GANG shorts produced by Hal Roach Studios before selling the rights to MGM studios. Get ready, Hal produced 1,200 features before he died in LA at age 100, what a guy!!

Eegah!! sent over a fun little soundclip from this short, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there next to the goofy disguise kit, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's our audio offering for... HIDE AND SHRIEK!

Billy Bletcher provides the scary, manical Haunted House voice!

Buckwheat and Porky show up at Detective Alfalfa's place and want to join up.

After swearing the boys in, Alfalfa reads about the finer points of being a junior detective.

Darla has a mystery for the boys to solve, someone has stolen her box of chocolates! Alfalfa asks Darla if they can share the chocolates with her if they sovle the crime, and, she agrees.

Alfalfa interrogates the suspects, but, they won't talk. He gets a bright idea and lets them go.

The boys put on disguises and follow the suspects, who climb into a truck parked on the street.

Alfalfa decides they should hide in a box in the back of the truck, then, they could go directly to where the chocolates are being stashed. Of course, the suspects get out of the truck on the driver's side and leave the scene! The truck takes off and arrives at its destination, the new Haunted House exhibit at the Long Beach amusement park.

The boys get a big surprise when they finally exit the box... What the heck?!!

Alfalfa throws a 'light' switch and starts the show, including the record player, as heard in the soundclip. I can't help but notice how modern the arm of the stylus looks, hey, Pioneer 1985!

Buckwheat gets separated from Alfalfa and Porky, who are stuck running on a moving floor, chased by a smoking demon!

Buckwheat has a fun encounter with an organ playing skeleton! As a little kid in the early fifties, nothing was much more frightening to me than a freaking skeleton, they really creeped me out for some reason.

Buckwheat joins the boys again and get sucked down a slide into another dark room. Eugene 'Porky' Lee later recalled being genuinely frightened during the filming!

They're attacked by a skeleton wearing a devil mask and then they're nearly decapitated!

The ride is over and the boys beat a hasty retreat, surprising the crap out of the owner!

The boys run past Darla, who found her chocolates and is sharing them with the suspects!

Needless to say, this place is.. "Out of bizzness!" Tune in Wednesday for more Eegah!!

Saturday, February 15, 2014

BLACK MOON - "And The Drums Play On" (1934)

Welcome to Jungle Jive Saturday Night down in The Dungeon!

Tonight's installment is called "Black Moon" and is a dark little film made in 1934! It looks to be shot in Haiti!

There's really an amazingly small cast, as long as you don't count all the natives!

Dorothy (Girls In Chains) Burgess is Juanita Perez Lane. Juanita is predisposed with playing the drums lately, and can't think of anything except going back to the jungle where she was raised!

Juanita truly has a unique style of babysitting! Her daughter Nancy was played by Cora Sue (Mad Love) Collins! Cora Sue was in 47 movies before abruptly calling it quits, and retiring from acting at the age of 18!

Juanita's husband seems a bit more caught up in his golf game than he is with his wife's apparent boogie fever. Meet Stephen Lane as played by Jack (Cat People) Holt! Jack only lived to be 62, but in that amount of time he managed to chalk up 191 acting credits! Dude must have lived on the set!!

Yes, indeedy, except for that drum thing, they seen to be the perfect Atomic Family!

Queen of The Dungeon, Fay Wray has the role of Gail Hamilton, Stephen Lane's personal secretary! Stephen doesn't get it at all, but Gail is quitting because she is SO in love with him, she can't stand to be around him any more if she can't have him! Stephen talks her into going off with his wife for a short trip back to the jungle before she quits! Little does he know that his wife has no intention on ever returning!

Dorothy and Fay make quite the lovely combination!

Everything goes to Hell on the island, so Gail radios Stephen and beckons him to come and see what's going on, then people start dying, including the radio operator who is found hanged!

Stephen is brought ashore by singer, songwriter, and actor Clarence Muse as "Lunch!" Clarence wrote the classic tune "When It's Sleepy Time South" that has been recorded by the likes of Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Billie Holiday, Wynton Marsalis, Dean Martin, Mel Tormé, and Louis Prima!

So calm and beautiful, you'd never know how much turmoil is happening in this tropical paradise!

Stephen gets the news from Juanita that she doesn't plan on returning back to that states, and it doesn't sit real well with him! That night Lunch tell him that they are planning to sacrifice his daughter, and takes him to the site where the grisly act is about to occur!

And it's at that moment that Stephen finally realizes that his wife is really the Queen of the Jungle!

Stephen ends up shooting the High Priest in the middle of the ceremony, and when they get back to the house, there's a big gun battle with the natives! Outnumbered, they flee to the basement when the natives set the place on fire!

They're captured when they try and escape out the back door, and now all they can do is wait! Since there is no more future, Gail finally confesses her undying love for Stephen!

Madame Sul-Te-Wan had the role of Ruva, the housekeeper who was responsible for introducing Juanita to the Voodoo as a child!  Madame Sul-Te-Wan was also in "King Of The Zombies," "Revenge Of The Zombies," "King Kong," and "Mighty Joe Young!"

To atone for all of Stephen's sins, the natives have decided that Juanita needs to sacrifice her daughter Nancy to the Gods, and even though she was torn internally, Juanita is still prepared to do it, until Stephen shoots her ass!

Stephen, Gail, Nancy, and Lunch can all go back home and live happily ever after, and that incessant drumming finally stops!

Friday, February 14, 2014

INSEMINOID / Jupiter Film Productions - 1981

It's Alien Valentine Friday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. We gots a $2,000,000 ALIEN inspired production from Britain that ended up getting on my bad side and just seemed like a lame attempt at horror to me. The story's about a crew of interplanetary archaeologists who are threatened when an alien creature impregnates a female member, causing her to turn homicidal. Alternate title is HORROR PLANET.

Eegah!! sent over a soundclip of the synthetic theme from this flick for our earjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there by the alien inseminator, NOW, Rufus The Gnat! Here's a taste of... INSEMINOID!

Like in ALIEN, this comatose dude finds something strange in a cave and gets attacked by an unknown creature.

Here's an interesting shot, the director's trying to get an ALIEN feel with a 50 cent prop!

Judy Geeson, playing Sandy, gets nude for this scene where a big alien bug inseminates her using it's clear tubular penile device... Gross!!

Sandy is pregnant by the big brute and isn't happy consuming just pickles and ice cream!

After killing off half the crew, Sandy gives birth to two ugly little bugs!.. Gross!!

The rest of the crew members lock Sandy out of the living quarters, so, she starts using explosives to get to them!

This guy finally strangles Sandy a goodern, putting an end to her deadly rampage!

But, now the babies are finishing off whoever's left of the remaining crew.

An emergency message is received by these space cowboys, the last survivor tells them about the urgent situation there, so, they head to the planet to help out.

Everyone's dead by the time they get there and they grab a few souvenirs to take back with them! This shot reminds me of GHOULIES.

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??