HORROR HIGH / Crown International Pictures - 1974

It's Friday the 14th High School Freak Out with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Our feature was distributed by Crown International, if you know what that means, you know what I'm saying! It stars child actor Pat Cardi in his last role, Pat also played a young chimp in BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES.

Eegah!! sent over a sound clip from this flick for our approval, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button over by our atomic chemistry lab, NOW, Rufus The Gnat!.. Here's a little taste of... HORROR HIGH!

The last part of the sound clip sure sounds like a nice Emerson, Lake and Palmer rip off!

Really, the first thing I noticed was all the weird seventies clothes that were in style at the time! How about that guy's pants?! I wouldn't be caught dead in them! Filmed in Irving, Texas.

Pat plays Vernon Potts, a skinny little nerd that gets the low IQ jocks all riled up because he's not a muscle bound jerk ass hole like them! Again, those stupid looking clothes, jeez!!

If that isn't bad enough, the weirdo janitor, Griggs, is also a tormentor. Griggs forces Vernon to drink one of his secret chemical formulas, which transforms him into a...

Vernon wakes up in his bed, covered in blood and no memory of what the Hell happened.

Texas may have been a leader in seventies fashion, but, that dress is just a boner butcher!!

A girl finds this in the science lab's acid barrel and you get the feeling that maybe old Vernon's involved, especially since the police identify the skull as Mr. Griggs, the weirdo janitor!

Vernon wants more revenge on the ones who done him wrong, this time it's his teacher, Miss Grindstaff. Throughout the movie she has this huge paper cutter on her desk, and, the blade's always in this position! Needless to say, Vernon uses it to chop her fingers off, obviously!!

As they cart the dead old teacher out of the room, the police photographer seems more interested in the nude mannequin!

Next, it's the athletic coach's turn. Notice he's holding his Texas-sized swat paddle, a nice weapon to use on intruders if needed... When Eegah!! and I met in 1959 in sixth grade, our home room teacher, Mr. Altman, gave out swats whenever a student earned it. You had to pull your punishment out of a hat that contained a number of options to pick from, like, one swat, two swats, etc. There was one that we always strived to pick, that was... the Delayed Swat! Yes, Eegah!! and I got swats!

Here's a close up showing the Hyde-Side of Vernon as he attacks the coach! He's as strong as a gorilla and easily tosses the 250 pound coach against the wall!!

Then, he uses track shoes with cleats to rip the coach's flesh, and, whoa, jumps up and down on him. This part is a little hard to watch because it looks 100% real!!

Back in '74, cops were cool and would chat with you as you cruised along on your bike!

Vernon's addicted to killing now and turns on his one friend, Robin. What I want to know is, why in the Hell would you hide in a brightly lit area?!.. Bib-bida, bib-bida.

He's finally brought down after being shot about 50 times, bringing our tale to an end!

Look for Eegah!! tomorrow with more cool junk from The Dungeon!!

SHERLOCK HOLMES - A Little Journey Through Time

I watched "The Woman In Green" over the weekend on Amazon Prime, and it was going to be my Wednesday feature, but I found out later that Tabonga has a colourized version for you, so I decided to go a different route, and give you a look at some of the many films of Sherlock Holmes that have been made over the years! There have been almost 300 movies and/or TV shows with, or about, Sherlock Holmes, and to think Sir Arthur Conan Doyle didn't even consider Sherlock to be his best work! It just proves what Clifford Coulter said, and I quote, "Do It Now, Think About it Later!!" You will never know what your future might bring you!

The first film ever made featuring Sherlock Holmes was made in 1900 and had the great title of "Sherlock Holmes Baffled!" It was 30 seconds long, and nobody knows who played Sherlock! From 1905 to 1920, a number of actors tried their hand at the role of Sherlock, like Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, Viggo Larsen, Otto Langoni, Georges

Tréville, Mack Sennett, Hector Dian, Hugo Flink, and more!

 After that, Ellie Norwood was Sherlock Holmes in a series of 48 short films from 1921 to 1923! Right in the middle of all that, in 1922 John Barrymore starred in this full-length feature appropriately called "Sherlock Holmes!"

 

In 1932, Arthur Wontner took over the lead role in "The Sign Of Four: Sherlock Holmes' Greatest Case!"

But even though "The Sign Of Four" was Sherlock's greatest case, they had no plans to stop there! Not at all, Sherlock was just getting warmed up! In 1939, the amazing Basil Rathbone took on the role of Sherlock in "The Hound Of The Baskervilles," and continued as Sherlock for the next seven years in an awesome run of titles!

As much as I like all the others, Basil Rathbone will always be my favourite Sherlock Holmes! Just like Sean Connery as James Bond, Basil Rathbone IS Sherlock Holmes, and as a bonus, the Basil years also had the coolest posters! End of discussion! This one was from the 1939 film, "The Adventures Of Sherlock Homes!"

In 1942 it was "Sherlock Holmes And The Secret Weapon!" All these Basil Rathbone versions also have the fantastic Nigel Bruce as the never to be underestimated Dr. Watson!

Still another one from 1942 is "Sherlock Holmes And The Voice Of Terror!" Basil and Nigel continue to kick arse all over the place!

The excitement refused to stop! In 1944 Basil was back with the great title, "The Scarlet Claw!"

I love this poster! Also from 1944, Sherlock Holmes in "The Spider Woman!"

Here's the movie that got my Sherlock up again! From 1945, "The Woman In Green," with the wicked Hillary Brooke as every hypnotist's dream come true!

The last film in this killer run of Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes films was called "Dressed To Kill," and was released in 1946!

Through the 50's and 60's Sherlock was on the television countless times played by guys with names like Alan Wheatley, Ronald Howard, and Erich Schellow, but there were only like three movies made, "The Hound Of The Baskervilles" in 1959 starring Peter Cushing in the lead role, "Sherlock Holmes And The Deadly Necklace" in 1962 starring Christopher Lee as Sherlock, and this movie, "A Study In Terror," in 1965 starring John Neville as Sherlock! I like this movie, but you can tell by the poster that in a pop culture Batman world, influences are starting to change the way that Sherlock is perceived!

By the 1970's, it became time to have some fun with Sherlock in earnest, and we ended up with titles like this 1970 Billy Wilder film "The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes" with Robert Stephens in the lead role!

Then in 1975, Gene Wilder took Sherlock to the dark side in "The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother,"(And it's not Mycroft!) with Douglas (The Brides Of Fu Manchu, The Vengeance Of Fu Manchu) Wilmer as Sherlock!

In the 80's and 90's Sherlock got serious again, with another completely different gang taking on his personality on TV and the big screen like, (Get Ready!) Geoffrey Whitehead, Vasili Livanov, Tom Baker, Guy Henry, Peter O'Toole, Roger Ostime, Larry Moss, and Jeremy Brett, and those are just the guys with multiple performances! in the 2000's Robert Downey Jr. breathed a new life into the role!

Ross K.Foad also had a nice run as Sherlock too, but these days it's the enigmatic Benedict Cumberbatch who dominates the minds of Sherlock fans all over the world! It cracks me up that Benedict's name sounds like a villain  from a "Batman TV show!" Without the writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, modern society would be deprived of two of it's favourite colloquialisms, "No Shit Sherlock," and "What Up Holmes?" I have no doubt that the name of Sherlock Holmes will continue to entertain society for at least another 100 years!

IRON KING / Nihon Gendai Kikaku Productions - 1972

It's Mega Monday as we head to Japan for more giant robots from this TV series about two good guys (one has a magic whip and the other can change into Iron King) who roam the countryside searching out bad guys to kick their sorry high tech asses! The series consisted of 26 episodes and had three sets of villains for our heroes to fight through. The complete series on 3 DVDs is available on Amazon for as little as $1.23 plus shipping!

Eegah!! sent over a fun little sound clip for our earjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button located there by our old broken down robot, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula!.. Here's a taste of... IRON KING!

Here's the leader of the Shiranui Clan planning more mayhem for the lowly Earthlings...

He calls on their giant wheeled robot, Silver Rider, to roll over the buildings in Japan!

But, our hero Gorô changes into Iron King to combat the out of control, insane machine!

Iron King shows up just in time to slow down the freakin' thing! Let's get ready to rumble!!

Then, Gentarô tries to get in on the action with his magic whip but gets tangled up on a wheel hub and has to hang on for dear life as Silver Rider tries to shake him off!

Thing is, Gorô has to drink a lot of water to keep Iron King's energy cells at maximum charge!

Wait!.. Oh crap, I didn't mean to show this still... Oops, sorry about that!

Anyway, back to the show! Iron King didn't appreciate that last move and is really pissed now!

Silver Rider can command these flying wheels that have an electric charge between them!

Gentarô uses his whip to get atop the wild robot menace and is able to toss a device into its head causing it to go crazy and then explode!.. To be continued.

Soooo, tune in next week (not really) when the Flame Demon calls on his Giant Rat Robot Patrol with their cool radar dishes for ears!! And, tune in Wednesday (for real) when Eegah!! will bring us another great post!