Friday, March 28, 2014

CUBAN REBEL GIRLS / Exploit Films - 1959

It's &$#!*@ Up Friday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Blogger lost it's freaking mind this morning and it pushed my (don't push that!) button and I got real mad and did a quick, mean spirited post, so, I'm redoing some of it. Errol Flynn plays himself as The American War Correspondent, in Cuba to help Fidel Castro overthrow dictator Batista, and, the movie was authorized by Castro himself!! Also, this was Bakersfield's own Barry (THE DEAD ONE) Mahon's first full length movie he directed and produced!

Eegah!! sent over a soundclip from this movie for our earjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there by the atomic guerilla suit, NOW, Rufus The Gnat! Here's a taste of... CUBAN REBEL GIRLS!

If I tried to fix a photo, it only made it worse, so, pics are what they are...

Here's Errol, landing in Cuba in his own plane. Check it out, Blogger tinted this one sepia a bit after I had desaturated all of my photos!

These are two American gals who are on their way to become Cuban Rebel Girls!

Love that wall, the girls meet with their contact in Cuba.

This is how you keep Batista's soldiers off the rebels' trail!

This was the very best part of the flick, naked bathing Rebel Girls!

The rebels like to sing their song as they march along here and there.

There are plenty of gun fights, enough to make Wayne Lapierre's loins quiver in ecstacy!

Here's a blonde Rebel Girl running through a vintage power plant trying to get away.

There's actual footage used from the real war too.

Here's a wounded Errol Flynn getting some medical attention from a Rebel Girl Nurse.

Look at all the people that loved Castro back then!!!.. Wha' hoppened?!

The last photo of Errol shows that Blogger turned my photo sepia! Sadly, this was Errol's last movie, he died the same year...

Tune in tomorrow when Eegah!! posts a movie I saw back in 1956 with a girl friend of mine after school got out!

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

DEVILMAN STORY - Patrick Leguy - "The Devil's Man" (1967)

Welcome to Wapenshaw Wednesday down in The Dungeon! And how is tonight's feature going to evaluate your readiness for combat you ask? It's quite simple really, if you get it, you're ready, if you don't, you're not!

This movie was made in 1967, and the original title was "Devilman Story" but it was also released as "The Devil's Man!"  That's an important fact to know! On second thought, no it isn't!

This the hard working team of The Professor and his daughter, Christine Baker! The Professor is a brain surgeon!  Christine is played by Luisa Baratto of "Bloody Pit Of Horror," and "Superargo And The Faceless Giants" fame! Next thing you know is, the Professor has disappeared!

Christine goes out looking for her Dad, and I'm seriously not kidding, finds Santa Claus instead!  That's what kind of movie this is!

Manly man and one of the Lords of The Dungeon, Guy Madison shows up as journalist Mike Harway to help Christine track down her Dad! I forgot to tell you that Gail Russell who I just wrote about in "The Uninvited" was married to Guy Madison for five years. That must have been a real interesting couple!

Great stairwell shot! Besides this stairwell, the music in "Devilman Story" is also pretty cool and was written by some guy named Patrick Leguy in his only film credit! Here's just a taste to tantalize your tastebuds!

Christine finds this dead guy, and figures out that her Dad has been taken to Africa! Now it's up to Mike Harway to find him! Why it's his responsibility is hard to say! The editing, if you want to call it that, is so choppy, sometimes it's easy to lose track of what's going on!

Guy Madison's horseback riding skills work to his advantage in the Italian job market!

I'm showing you this still just so you can see now sneaky Mike is!

Mike takes out the guard, and puts on his duds! I don't think I've ever seen Guy Madison look more uncomfortable, and yet, somehow, someway, he finds a way to blend in!

Out in the middle of the stinking desert, Devilman has his secret laboratory going day and night to find a way to swap his brain out for a better one!!

These are the eyes of one of Devil Man's zombies!

This is just one of Devilman's uncanny instruments of destruction and torture!

Here are a couple examples of scientific procedure gone wrong!!!!

The Professor is totally under Devilman's mind control now, and is about to operate on his own daughter as if she were some kind of lab rat!

This is the artificial brain that Devilman thinks will make him the most superior person in the room!!

One last shot of he who calls himself Devilman before he goes to his final resting place in Hell!

Everything goes kablooey, Baba Looey, and one less Devilman the world has to deal with thanks to Guy Madison!

After Devilman's death, the Professor snaps out of it, Mike saves Christine from the brain transplant, and everything is peaches and cream once again back in the neighborhood!

Monday, March 24, 2014

~ 13 OF TABONGA'S FAVORITE SIXTIES MONSTER FLICKS ~

It's another Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. We have a special request from our pal, Paul, all the way from Sydney, Australia, for 13 of Tabonga's favorite Sixties Monster Movies. So, here we go, Eegah!! and I saw a number of these in the theater when they came out, way back when, movies are listed in alphabetical order.

13 GHOSTS - 1960 / Eegah!! and I loved William Castle's 13 GHOSTS, especially Ghost #13! We still had our 3-D glasses from the show until a few years ago when we sold them on Ebay, also had the Punishment Poll cards from MR. SARDONICUS.

ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE - 1963 / After seeing this freaky little Toho flick on TV in the mid-sixties, it became a real favorite of mine, what a roller coaster of a horror show!

THE BRAINIAC - 1962 / I have a real fetish for Sixties Mexican Monsters, there's nothing like them! Yeah, they're schlocky, but, that's what makes them so damn cool! I dig his suckered, two-fingered hands and that crazy, 18" forked tongue!

THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE - 1962 / At the time, this flick was on the 25 worst movie list in our original DWRAYGER DUNGEON Magazine from 1964, I even wrote a letter to the editor of FAMOUS MONSTERS panning it that they published in issue #22!.. Love it, now!!

THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS - 1963 / We saw this one in 1963, I think we had both read the paperback novel before the movie came out, we were really into horror and science-fiction! Back then, my favorite book was SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES by Ray Bradbury.

FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH - 1967 / The original English title is QUATERMASS AND THE PIT, where, Martian insects were buried in their spaceship and dug up during the construction of a tunnel. This movie and QUATERMASS 2 aka ENEMY FROM SPACE were both first done as a four hour mini series on British TV, and, proudly have those on DVD, too!

THE FLESH EATERS - 1964 / Wow, what a freak show, this movie is whack in so many ways!! Look at all that happens before you even get to see the freakin' weirdsville, tentacled, cyclops monster at the end! I also have clips of the censored Nazi nude swimming pool experiments, which are extra creepy, plus, the beautiful Barbara (INVASION OF THE ANIMAL PEOPLE) Wilson has a topless scene at the beginning!

THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH - 1964 / Then, there's this thing, schlock horror at it's very best! Music was by the non-existant band, The Del-Aires, and, check out that publicity photo, looks like it was shot before the completion of the actual monster suits!

THE HORRORS OF SPIDER ISLAND - 1962 / This was a lost movie for years and the best print is lousy, but, those sexy Euro chicks and freak spider make it one wild 'n' weird flick to love!

ISLAND OF TERROR - 1966 / I saw this one when it came out, a real terrorific flick! My mom and younger sister saw it together and it freaked them out but good!! Directed by Terrence (ISLAND OF THE BURNING DAMNED) Fisher.

THE MASK - 1961 / Eegah!! and I also saw this one at the theater, a real shocker! It was unique with its dream sequences and was in 3-D with free glasses! The Mask itself was just creepy to look at!

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD - 1968 / It's hard to forget this one the first time you saw it!! The one part that really got me was when the little girl turned on her mom, jeez!!!

THE TIME MACHINE - 1960 / Another great flick Eegah!! and I got to see at the time, Rod Taylor was perfect as time traveler, H. George Wells. Those Morlocks were simply, teriffic!

Next Monday I will be posting ~ 13 MORE OF TABONGA'S FAVORITE FIFTIES MONSTER FLICKS ~ then ~ 13 MORE OF TABONGA'S FAVORITE SIXTIES MONSTER FLICKS ~ the following Monday, tune in for those!!

Saturday, March 22, 2014

THE UNINVITED - "You're Not Welcome" (1944)

It's another Saturday Night Special down in The Dungeon, and tonight's feature is a strange little film that's hard to find for some dang reason!

Made in the year of 1944, it's called "The Uninvited" so I guess that about explains the whole thing, nobody was welcome including me and you! The overly dramatic music by Victor Hugo is not that exciting, so Here's a taste of Ray Milland's opening narrative instead!

A pair of London dwellers happen upon a magnificent but abandoned olde home while out in the country on holiday!

What a great studio! Ray Milland's character is a songwriter so this room is really enticing to him!

One thing though, it seems like some of the neighboring locals might be toting around some extra mental baggage! This wonderful brother and sister team are Dungeon Super Hero Ray Milland as Roderick Fitzgerald, and his sister Pamela played by Ruth Hussey. In an unrelated "un" fact, Ruth was also in an episode of Science Fiction Theatre called "The Unguided Missile!"

Is this a perfect shot or what? That's not really a question, it's a statement!

So the Fitzgerald's buy the joint, and move right in. The neighbor lady's Dad was willing to sell the place for a very cheap price for some reason! This is Stella (By Starlight) Meredith as played by Gail Russell in her first major role! Roderick Fitzgerald is quite smitten with the young lady!

 The house is obviously haunted, and Stella has been banned by her Father from going there, but we all know how that goes! Joined by Alan (Cat People, Isle Of The Dead, House Of Horrors, Unconquered, The Strange Door, etc) Napier as Doctor Scott, the group breaks out the Ouija Board in an attempt to get to the bottom of things!

After the Ouija seance, Stella starts talking in Spanish, and bolts out of the house towards the bluffs overlooking the ocean!

That little stunt lands Stella in the nuthouse named after her Mother!!

The person in charge of "The Mary Meredith Retreat" is an odd gal known as Miss Holloway, an olde acquaintance of Stella's Mom! Miss Holloway has an air about her that says, this is not a nice person! Miss Holloway was played by Cornelia Otis Skinner! Cornelia only has 11 acting credits to her name, but she kept quite busy writing novels!

This lovely portrait of Mary Meredith hangs in Miss Holloway's office!

All I could think about when I saw this shot was this other favorite shot of mine from Mario Bava's "Schock" 33 years later!

"The Uninvited" is not super scary, but it has some pretty cool ghost effects in it!

Whenever something freaks out Stella, she heads off toward the cliffs again!

Literally living life on the edge, Stella is almost done for when the edge caves in underneath her. Lucky for her, Roderick was able to save her!

The ending is a convoluted affair that I'm not even going to try to explain, but I will go so far as to say that the ghost is indeed Stella's Mother, but Stella's Mother is not who you think she is!

I like this shot of Ray Milland pursuing the ghost, and the action stops to perfectly frame the candlestick holder he's carrying!

Gail Russell's real life didn't turn out with anything near the happy ending that this film has. It seems that Gail wasn't really comfortable in front of the camera, so she started drinking to steel her nerves, and she sadly, but literally drank herself to death by the age of 36!! Ray Milland of course went on to do "Panic In Year Zero!," "X: The Man With X-Ray Eyes," "Frogs," and "The Thing With Two Heads," just to mention a few of his many masterful roles!

While this French poster is great to look at, it is less exciting than it's American counterpart, but portrays a more accurate look at what "The Uninvited" is really all about!

Monster Music

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