TABONGA'S BLUES - AKA "Beatsville" (1960)

Hey!!  I just got the word from Tabonga that his computer crashed, so rather than leave you high and dry with no place to go and nothing to do on a Friday night, here's a couple of mouldy crumbs I found in a corner on the floor of The Dungeon basement that you can enjoy while he's busy beating his head against the wall!

Speaking of beatings, 1960 was a great year for beat movies, and here's a couple of quick samples why: In America, it was "The Beatniks!" Oh, my, "Love Is A Thief!"

And in The UK, it was "Beat Girl" and "I Did Just What You Told Me!"

If you want to know more about either of these films, here are links to the original posts!

"The Beatniks"  and "Beat Girl"

THE MICROSCOPIC LIQUID SUBWAY TO OBLIVION - Bill Conti - Marcello Gigante - "And It's All Happening Here" (1970)

 Tear down the fences, and burn down your bras, it's a free concert! It's a Free Concert!!

 

The main feature of "The Microscopic Liquid Subway To Oblivion" is Ewa Aulin, every young man's dream in 1968 for her starring role as "Candy!" For some reason I'm sure she can explain, Ewa was also the associate producer of this film!

 

"The Microscopic Liquid Subway To Oblivion" is edited in some kind of chop and hack style that hardly makes any sense at all! Either that or the only remaining copy was chopped to bits in order to save it from further destruction!  Either way, to watch it, you can't help but wonder why you didn't choose to watch "Manos: The Hands Of Fate" again instead! Oh, that's right, Ewa Aulin is in it! Here she is as Miss Elizabeth!

This is Elizabeth's husband John, a University Professor who thinks he knows it all, especially when it comes to drug abuse! In reality, he's pretty stupid! One of the kids at the skool has committed suicide, so John is inviting the rest of the gang to his house for the weekend, so they can relax!

The guy playing the dick named John is none other than Alex, "The Incredible Melting Man" himself, Rebar!

The jagged rock hipster whatever music scattered throughout the movie is undoubtedly the best part, and was written by Bill Conti and Marcello Gigante! I have no clue who the musicians might be, but Here's just a taste of what's inside!

 

I'm not exactly sure why, but this picture reminds me a lot of my ex-wife in her better days!

John is a freakin' weirdo of the highest caliber!

This is Billy, a poor bastard stuck smack in the middle of a bad drug habit! Billy was played by Carlo De Mejo, who was also in "The Dead Are Alive," "City Of The Living Dead," and "The House By The Cemetery!"

Out of the 85 minutes this movie is running, I'm going to guess at least 15 minutes is just this group of stinkin' hippies hiking, camping and  cavorting about from morning to night!

Even though she's really cute, Elizabeth is also hooked on a strange blend of acid and heroin!

And she will do anything this loser Billy asks of her just to get some more of that junk+!

 

After she gets her fix, Elizabeth is so happy, she frolics around like a child chasing a butterfly!

In order to try and kick it cold turkey, Billy ties his own self to his bed, but since he's been banging the Professor's wife and giving her heroin etc, benevolent John does him a favor and shoots him up since Billy can't do it himself!

I did tell you that Ewa Aulin was in this movie, right?

 

So, why did I show you two pictures from the end of the movie with these guys on motorcycles holding flares? Because it's a scene that went on for like 10 minutes, so it must have great meaning!

 Wow, in some kind of nutjob nutshell, that about says it all!

~ 13 MORE OF TABONGA'S FAVORITE FIFTIES MONSTERS ~

It's another list of Favorite Fifties Flicks from Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. There are 13 more movies listed here, Dungeon fan Randall Landers gets credit for giving me the idea of more, and, they're listed in alphabetical order.

THE COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK - 1958 / I saw this one back in 1958, what a really teriffic movie it was! I love the size comparison between the Colossus and his doctor dad. What the Hell was dad thinking when he gave him a freakin' disintegating ray?!!

THE CRAWLING EYE - 1958 / First saw this one in the early sixties on TV, great monsters! The effects are a little hokey at the end, but, it's very original and it definitely tickled my sci-fi monster bone! Written by my fave, Jimmy Sangater.

THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON - 1954 / Here you go Randall, the fantastic Universal Creature, designed by the great artist, Milicent Patrick, who also created the Metaluna Mutant for THIS ISLAND EARTH, the Xenomorph in IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE and the Mr. Hyde mask for ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. She also has 28 acting credits including playing a Tavern Wench in ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET CAPTAIN KIDD.

THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT aka THE CREEPING UNKNOWN - 1955-6 / This movie was a real mind boggler, first with Caroon's skin turning transparent, then, him absorbing a cactus that's attached to his hand, until at the end where he's just a mass of zoo animals, as shown.

THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN - 1957 / Chris Lee makes for one gruesome Frankenstein Monster, it makes you sick to look at him, poor thing. Universal owned the rights to the protruding brow (believe it or not) and it wasn't until the making of THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN in 1964 that Hammer got permission to use it.

INVASION OF THE SAUCERMEN - 1957 / Paul Blaisdell was king of the Fifties Rubber Monsters, without a doubt! Here's an evil little Saucerman, ready to inject a cow with his syringe fingers. I'll be doing a special post of all of Paul's monsters, so, be looking for that one soon!

IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE - 1953 / Another great Universal flick, originally filmed in 3-D along with THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. Love this shot of Richard Carlson and Barbara Rush when they encounter the weird looking Xenomorpf on a desert road.

IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE - 1958 / Here's another great Blaisdell creation. Ray 'Crash' Corrigan plays IT!, when Ray put the mask on for the first time after shooting had begun, it was too small for his face and Paul had to redo the mask to make it fit properly! So, the first time you see the shadow of the monster in the spaceship before takeoff, you can tell that Ray has no mask on because you can see his big old nose!

KRONOS - 1957 / Saw this one at the theater in 1957, man, how cool it was!! This is a totally unique film and it had my attention the whole time, I was 9 years old when I saw it.

THE MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS - 1959 / Eegah!! and I saw this one in the theater and thought it was okay, you can see the Morro Rock in a few shots, Morro Bay was a popular place for us to go back then.

JEANNE CARMEN - Jeanne Carmen stars in THE MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS and plays a very innocent female character, totally opposite of who she really was. I've had a mad crush on her for years for obvious reasons!

THE THING - 1951 / I totally agree with Randall on this one, THE THING is one of my Top Ten Monster Movies from the Fifties. I like it a Hell of a lot better than Carpenter's 1982 freakout version. Weird, I never noticed that design on the Thing's suit before!

WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST - 1958 / This is probably Mr. BIG's best movie, I saw THE CYCLOPS with my neighbors in 1957 but the effects were not as good as in this one.

WORLD WITHOUT END - 1956 / This movie had the very best mutant men in the Fifties, the space ship was reused in IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE and QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE, another sci-fi movie my dad took me to see in 1959.

Next Monday, look for 13 More of My Favorite Sixties Monsters!

ON THE THRESHOLD OF SPACE - "No Monsters!" (1956)

Welcome to part II of my version of this week's spontaneous and combustible tribute to Guy Madison down in The Dungeon!! I love how busy the sky in this poster is, especially around Virginia's head, and also how they managed to get each and every one of the main features of the movie all in one poster! Phenomenally amazing!!

"On The Threshold Of Space" was made in 1956, the same year "Forbidden Planet" was released,  and the key word here is "Threshold," because as fascinating as the topic of space is, not quite getting there can actually be quite boring!

"On The Threshold Of Space" comes across as combination drama, documentary, and military training film, and is so unexciting that Dan C. Ogle's monotone monologue is even causing  him to go to sleep, but that doesn't mean it's a bad movie, because scientifically, it's historically quite interesting, but entertainment wise, it's just not!

Guy Madison is Captain Jim Hollenbeck, a Doctor of Space Medicine! It's going to be his job to figure out why stuff goes wrong at higher altitudes! It's going to be a trial and error process, and the guinea pig is going to be him!

In a storyline that's slower than a soap opera, Virginia (The Brain That Wouldn't Die) Leith is Captain Hollenback's main squeeze, an engaging, intelligent and very understanding woman!!

This would have been a good place to inject some cool surf music, but that ain't gonna happen since surf music wouldn't really exist until at least five years later!

Despite everything, balloons will never be as cool as rockets, and if you don't believe me, stage a backyard barbeque debate between a clown and an astronaut, and I think you just might change your mind!

Do you see that, he's so far up there we can't even see him anymore!

The viewer is given the treat of seeing Guy Madison in his cool space suit in a number of scenes!

Back on the ground, this high-tech table has to take responsibility for whether Captain Hollenbeck lives or dies!

When you're having major technical glitches, I don't think it's the best idea to have the Captain's  girlfriend around so she can worry her ass off!

Although it's not even from the same movie, this shot reminds me of the cover of the first issue of Spaceman magazine back in 1961!

You might not know it, but balloons don't exactly touch down with the grace of some magnificent bird! The Captain gets banged around a little, but he'll be back for another round!

This is REAL, not Science Fiction, and that's why it makes such a terrific sleeping pill! The miracle of modern science is a beautiful thing!

I absolutely love this poster, but sometimes a poster for a movie is just not enough! "On The Threshold Of Space" is an interesting historical document, but it's missing one thing that would have given it bona fide cult status for all eternity, a monster or two!!