WITCHCRAFT - Carlo Martelli - "Pact With The Devil" (1964)

Well, it ought to be pretty obvious by now that the fun never stops around here, and tonight's Saturday Special feature is no exception! Welcome to this tale of "Witchcraft" down in The Dungeon!

Besides your 'Witch Deflector,' You might want to break out 13 cloves of garlic too, just to feel comfortable!!!

"Witchcraft" is the basic tale of the Hatfield's and the McCoy's, or Why Can't We Just All Get Along? These two families, the Whitlocks and the Laniers have been at each other's throats for like 150 years! Now it's come down to leveling an ancient Whitlock unoccupied graveyard to build a new Lanier housing complex that has got Lon Chaney Jr. so upset! Most people talk crap about Lon Chaney Jr. in his waning years, but for me, he puts in a credible performance as the elder Morgan Whitlock! Jack (How I Won The Door, The New York Ripper) Hedley as Bill Lanier is on the other side of the fence!

Naturally, or probably in reality, unnaturally, the umteenth generation Laniers and McCoys have a different take on the whole scene, and David (The Masque Of The Red Death, Dr. Who) Weston as Todd Lanier, and Diane (The Haunting, The Plague Of The Zombies) Clare as Amy Whitlock are desperately in love!

This was a rare film performance by Barry Linehan, who did a ton of British TV from 1961 to 1993 on shows like "Big Breadwinner Hog," and  "The Bass Player And The Blonde!" Here he's Myles Forrester, the unscrupulous labor contractor who authorized the destruction of the ancient Whitlock graveyard! I'm not quite sure what transition I captured here, but it sure is weird!

Bill Lanier goes to the site of the Whitlock graveyard to survey the damage! The deal was that the bodies had been moved years before, and the gravestones etc were supposed to be salvaged before land leveling commenced! Then the bulldozers moved in, and that's what really pissed off Morgan Whitlock!

It just so happens that the Lanier Family also reside in an olde home formerly owned by the Whitlock family! When Bill was at the graveyard, he heard some noises and he salvaged this small piece off a grave that had some symbology that was exactly the same as the one in the Lanier's living room fireplace!

It's starting to get kind of freaky! Time to ask Grandma Lanier some questions! Marie Ney has the role of Malvina Lanier! Marie was a trooper! Her acting career started way back in 1919, and she had a total of 35 acting credits over the course of 50 years! She had one more TV appearance, but "Witchcraft" was her last film performance!

 

Amy Whitlock lives with Uncle Myles, and while he's out of town, it's kind of scary, so she's invited to spend the night at the Laniers! No Whitlock has stayed in the house for decades, but it's the closest thing there is for a reason for somebody to take off some of their clothes, and spice it up just a tad!

Here she is! Presenting the long dead Vanessa Whitlock as portrayed by Yvette Rees! Here's the deal! That Whitlock graveyard was supposed to be empty, but one body was left behind, that of Vanessa Whitlock, who was supposed to be burned at the stake years and years earlier by the Laniers, but was buried alive instead! Uh, Oh! Bad move! Spooky Yvette Rees only has 22 credits, but she's got some good ones like "Curse Of The Fly," "Man With Two Faces," and "A Severed Head!"

The first victim is Myles Forrester! Okay he deserved it, what else do you got? There's quite a bit of Voodoo type stuff going on, like there was a Myles primitive doll that was pushed down to the bottom of a pan full of water, and this was the result!

Next, Vanessa pays a nocturnal visit to Bill's Sister Helen Lanier as played by Viola (The Witches) Keats! The terrific lighting in this shot commands me to acknowledge the work of Cinematographer Arthur Lavis who worked on everything from "Making Electricity: Sources and Applications of Power," to "Catweazle," with stops at "Hold On: It's the Dave Clark Five," "The Penthouse," "The Horror Of It All," and "The Earth Dies Screaming" in between! "Witchcraft" was made in 1964, but it has a much stronger 40's and 50's vibe to it!

Not convinced it was only a dream, Helen Lanier decides to bail on the whole scene and get out of town! Unfortunately Vanessa Whitlock joins her on her journey, and mentally makes her drive off the edge of a cliff in a landfill to her death!  Later in the movie, Vanessa unsuccessfully tries this same stunt on Bill and Todd Lanier, but Bill snaps out of it just in the nick of time!

The one thing I did find odd was that the Whitlocks have been having their devil worshiping meetings in this mausoleum for years that is only a stone's throw away from the Lanier home, and nobody ever heard or noticed anything before!

 The composer for the music in "Witchcraft" was a gentleman named Carlo Martelli, who only has 9 composing credits to his name, but those 9 include "The Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb," "Catacombs," "Prehistoric Women," and "It!" "Witchcraft" was Carlo's first film!

With Vanessa's help, the coven led by Myles Whitlock seeks to reek more havoc on the Lanier Family!

Meanwhile, Vanessa pays a visit to Grandma Lanier, and gives her a little push down the stairs!

The coven was all prepared to sacrifice Bill's wife, Jill Dixon as Tracy Lanier to the devil, but Bill and Todd made it back from their ordel just in time to rescue her! Undeterred, Jill went on to have a very successful career on British TV during the 60's and 70's!

Here's the kicker! Sorry Todd, your sweet and unassuming girlfriend Amy is also one of them! As it turns out, blood is thicker than water or love!

Not exactly a blockbuster on it's own, "Witchcraft" was often only half of a double feature back in the day that was coupled up with flicks like "The Horror Of It All" or "House Of The Damned" to sweeten the deal! Here's a little piece of information that I wish I had known six months ago, not as a double feature, but "Witchcraft" alone can be found streaming on Amazon for $2.99! What could be more convenient than that?

FEAST OF FLESH / Cinematográfica Pelimex - 1967

It's Freaky Feast Of Flesh (boobs) Friday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. We gots a very cool 78 minute flick from Argentina all about a killer that wears a monster mask and prowls the beaches of Argentina at night, looking for young girls to seduce. He injects them with heroin and then plays weird organ music to turn them into a sex slave. Spanish title means "Bloodlust."

Here's a good look at one of the beautiful victims!

Eegah!! sent over a nice little musical sound clip from the night club for our earjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button located next to the giant hypodermic needle, NOW, Rufus The Gnat!.. Here's a taste of... FEAST OF FLESH!

Here's our creepy masked maniac, playing a weird refrain on his piano in a dark room. You know, practice makes perfect and all that jazz...

Meanwhile, at the night club, this sexy gal does her topless routine to the pleasure of the weenie gallery!

Oh, and, don't forget about this captivated lesbian chick!

Back at the ranch, though, it's time for a few more laughs with a loaded syringe!..

And... HOLY COW, BATMAN!! I mean, like, casting these very wholesome girlies must have been an interesting part of this production. As I hinted earlier, this movie is all about boobs (mainly) and hands, as even shown on the poster!

Break time!!.. Check out this neat-o vintage record player used by the police inspector.

The police find this guy, dead, with a syringe I guess supposed to be in his heart, in the graveyard. Their job is to gather clues from the crime scene... To me, it just looks like teenagers playing a prank on them!

SEE!!!..... Hands on Boobs!

Images in a broken mirror always have a nice visual appeal, we did the same thing in our Dungeon flick, VIRUS MAN, starring our own Greg Goodsell.

Now, it's this dude's turn! Although, I don't think it would be that much fun to grab his boobs!..

In a Scooby-Doo twist ending, our bad guy is shot and killed, only for our hero to discover that he has a second mask on! The second mask is removed and our murderer is revealed... Tune in tomorrow for another wild 'n' weird post from the Dungeon Crew!

OPERAZIONE POKER - Piero Umiliani - "Nice Pair" (1965)

Roger Browne was off my radar at first because he was mostly a 'Sword and Sandal' guy for years, but after watching a couple of his spy guy films like this, I'm starting to really like the guy, and that brings us to tonight's feature, "Operation Poker!" The instrumental genius once again responsible for the swingin' swanky music is the "Mah Na Mah Na" man himself, the Maestro Piero Umiliani! What a phenomenon!

This is pretty interesting, the word operation is seen here four times, with four different spellings! Operation, Operacion, Operazione, and Operatie, but no matter what language you're talking in, Poker is still Poker! The universal way to lose your ass!

Not exactly Tex Ritter's "Downtown Poker  Club!"

So here he is, Roger Browne as secret agent S1-14, aka Glen Foster on the prowl! Don't know why, for some reason on IMDB, they have his name as Glenn Forest.

This is a unique way to get your girl to go with you, knock her out cold! I've watched this a couple of times now, and I'm still not sure why he did it!

The heartbreaking Helga Liné is Diane, Glen Foster's girlfriend! Yabba Dabba Doo!!

Suddenly people like this agent start dying in all kinds of strange ways! There was a trip wire hooked up to the accelerator pedal and I'm not sure he didn't get shot right square in the crotch!

And this woman is always round whenever it happens!! Carla Calò aka Carol Brown as the twisted Russian agent responsible for all the executions!

Then every once in a while when the sub-titles kick in for a few minutes, you get stuff like this, arguably the worst pickup line of all time!

Here's a little scene featuring one of the best gadgets I've seen in a while! When Glen hits the button, the whole ass end of this '56 Chevy ejects, and the would-be assassin is thrown over a cliff to his well deserved death!

There's way too much going on in "Operation Poker" for me to try and attempt to explain much, and it's awfully twisted too. Glen's got his girlfriend Diane, and he's got orders to get friendly with this Austrian Ambassador's daughter Helga! They are both beautiful and to me can look very similar at times, and if that's not bad enuf, Diane's played by Helga Liné, and Helga is played by José Greci! It would have been a whole lot easier if Helga could have been Helga!

Glen gets some good help from his muscleman pal Omar as played by Bob Messenger (Roberto Messina)!

I'm not sure, but this might be the first time I've ever seen somebody in a fight scene put a real piledriver on his opponent! Roberto is pretty tough!

 

"Operation Poker" is supposed to be set in Malaga, London, Vienna, Geneva, Copenhagen, and Casablanca, but I think it was all filmed in Spain and Italy. This looks like North Korea's vision of the future!

 

Omar gets shot in the back, and you think it's curtains for him, but as you can see, he's doing fine!

Glen finally gets to the root of the problem. This is the device that enables his poker playing friend Parker to win all the time, and is also why the Russians, Chinese, and Vietnamese are all at each other's throats!

When this little x-ray camera hidden in a tie clasp is combined with a special pair of contact lenses, the wearer is enabled to see through not only cards, but walls!

Naturally Glen Foster puts them to good use immediately!

The reason that selfies never existed until just a few years ago, was that it was something that was virtually impossible to do with a camera like this!

The bonus feature is you get a free mini-tour of the Tuborg Brewery!

The last laugh is on the pig in the tank that these three are peering in on!

I just had to add this other version of the poster for it's classical use of four aces! "Operation Poker" is a winning hand in a world of mediocre jacks or better, and the jokers are wild! Where's the place to find it? Cult Action, or The Trash Palace, Of Course! Actually, just go ahead and get one from each place, and give one to friend! They'll love you forever!