DAS GEHEIMNIS DER SCHWARZEN KOFFER - Gert Wilden - "The Secret Of The Black Trunk" (1962)

Holiday greetings, and welcome to another Edgar Wallace Wednesday down in The Dungeon!

Tonight's feature is titled "Das Geheimnis Der Schwarzen Koffer," or "The Secret Of The Black Trunk!"

Here are the stars of the show, the black trunk, and his buddy, the little dark satchel!

Here's the deal!

We're back in jolly olde London, and somebody is murdering people, but the trick this time is that before he kills them, as some kind of special courtesy and going away gift, he packs their bags for them!

All the Soho locals know the story, so if they happen to mysteriously find their bags packed, they know what's going to happen to them whether they like it or not!

The murderer is an exceptionally good knife thrower, being able to skewer his victims from over 50 yards away, so the authorities are speculating that it might be some angry ex-circus performer!

Rule number one, never trust a blind man in a wheelchair selling razor blades and shoelaces!

Here's a different take on peeping from behind a painting!

I just like this shot because all the industrial stuff in the background makes this car look like it's got one Helluva exhaust system!

Okay, enough with the mayhem and murder, it's time for some fun down at the local club, and a good spot to stop and tell you that the music in
"The Secret Of The Black Trunk" was written by the very talented Gert Wilden!

Gert's style is quite interesting compared to some other mundane composers.

You'll be able to tell by this whimsical theme song that the man had quite a playful approach to music! It's no wonder he went on to write the music for a few 70's soft-core flicks like "Sex Is Not For Virgins," and "Swinging Wives!"

Gert just passed away a couple of months ago at the age of 98!

The main act in this club is a dancer named Lissy as played by the lovely Helga (The Phantom Of Soho, Man On A Spying Trapeze) Sommerfeld! Helga passed away on my birthday some 24 years ago at the age of 50! That's a raw deal!

This is Joachim (Mission Stardust) Hansen as Inspector Robert Finch, the man in charge of these murder investigations!

I spent the first 45 minutes of the film trying to figure out why Edgar Wallace stalwart Joachim Fuchsberger looked so different before I figured out it was a different Joachim! What a maroon!

 

The main female character and Inspector Finch's love interest is the scintillating Senta (The Terror Of Dr. Mabuse, Sherlock Holmes And The Deadly Necklace, When Women Had Tails) Berger as Susan Brown!

Besides a bunch or murders, there's another story line about people addicted to a drug called Mescadrine, a synthetic form of Mescaline that is pretty weird! This is a picture of interrogation tools! The tape recorder keeps repeating the same lines over and over! Where does the Mescadrine come from? Who is your supplier?"

Here's the end of yet another fellow that had his bags packed for him!

This just might be something the police would be interested in! If you're planning on going on a murder spree, it's a good idea to have a good solid list of victims like this, just in case you lose track, or if Santa Claus was a hit man, this could be your wish list!

"The Secret Of The Black Trunk" was written by Edgar Wallace's son Bryan! While not as prolific as his famous Father, Bryan Edgar Wallace does get credit for quite a few thrillers like "The Dead Are Alive, "Der Phantom Von Soho," and "The Mad Executioners," and was an early influence on Giallo Maestro Dario Argento!

"The Secret Of The Black Trunk" is another release from those fine folks over at

Sinister Cinema or Amazon just in case you want to add it to your freaky X-Mas death wish list!

TABONGA'S 7th DAY OF XMAS: 7 Spiders Spinning

You know, nothing sez Xmas quite like our little Spider buddies here at The Dungeon, because, they're just sooo damn cute!.. Hence, here are some special spidery photos to celebrate the 7th Day of Xmas around here!

Here's Tarantella with her giant spider cousin in an interesting publicity pose from MESA OF LOST WOMEN!

THE COSMIC MONSTERS had this big spider that seems to specialize in spinning webs, making sure we all have a white Xmas!

Love HORRORS OF SPIDER ISLAND and all its spidery appeal, it's a German film so you'd probably expect to see something like this here!

THE DIABOLICAL DOCTOR Z is one weird flick! This girl seems to not have Cooties, but, Spidies!

MISSILE TO THE MOON is always a hoot, just look at this wild 'n' weird scene! And, to top it off, the good guys come in just in the nick of time and shoot the thing in the Ass!!

The Mexican movie HELLISH SPIDERS had Ocram, dude with a spider for a hand. Eegah!! and I played brothers in a short film named SNAKE BAIT in 2002, we both had snakes for hands.

I'll end with this still from some footage supposedly taken on the Moon during the APOLLO 18 mission. What they thought was a rock, jumped up! That would be quite unnerving I have to admit, but, when you think about it, wow... Moon Spiders!!

ABRAXAS, GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE - The Prime Movers - "Strong As I Am" (1990)

Well, everybody's got their lights up and stuff so I guess it's time for a X-Mas movie!

Oh, Shit! I thought it was "AbraXmas" not "AbrAxas!"

It doesn't matter I guess, it's a X-Mas movie either way!

Jesse The Body Ventura is "Abraxas, Guardian Of The Universe!"

Born James George Janos, Jesse Ventura was elected to the post of Mayor in the town of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota shortly before this film was made. A few years later, the former wrassler and colour commentator was elected Governor of the state of Minnesota! He did not choose to seek re-election!

The dangerous and evil  nemesis of Abraxas is Secundus, as played by Sven (Conan The Barbarian, The Running Man, Predator, Pink Cadillac) Ole-Thorsen!

It's the future, and Secundus has come to Earth with Abraxas in hot pursuit! This is how he impregnates a randomly chosen female!

The sun goes down, and the next thing you know is that..........

.........She is now the Mother of a bouncing baby boy!

The Mother is played by Marjorie Bransfield in one of her only 9 film appearances!

At the time this film was made, Marjorie Bransfield and funny guy Jim Belushi were married. In fact, out of her 9 films, 6 of them also had Jim Belushi in them! "Abraxas" is the only movie where Marjorie had the lead, and Jim just had a small bit part! They were only married for two years, and after that, Marjorie pretty much gave up acting except for one TV appearance in 1996!

Zippy The Pinhead's favorite expression is put to good use!

Don't mess with Secundus or you will get the horns!

As you can see by some of the stuff in the background, the movie was happening during the Christmas season!

A lot of the lighting makes "Abraxas" look like one big MTV video!

These two guys are his boss!

Jerry Levitan and Damian Lee as Hite and Dar!

"Abraxas, Guardian Of The Universe" might not be the best movie in the world, but at least the makers had enough sense to have a good bar scene!

Here's what was possibly the prototype to the Smart Watch!

If it played music too, I'm sure it would be something cool like this song from

the great band called The Prime Movers and "Strong As I Am!"

This won't stop Secundus, it only pisses him off more!

Secundus is seeking his boy, and he reeks havoc the whole way!

He takes quite a beating, but in the end,  good reigns supreme over evil and Abraxas prevails!

Hey, nobody ever said that being the Guardian of the Universe was going to be an easy job!
I've had my copy of "Abraxas"  for a number of years now! It was part of a four disc, 14 movie DVD set called "SCI-FI." It was the only movie left in the set I never wrote about, because I never planned on doing movies from the 90's, but we've been doing this for so long now, we're starting to run out of films from the 50's, 60's, and 70's, so Merry X-Mas and welcome to the future!

PATRICK / Filmways Australasian - 1978

Here's a fun little flick from down under that goes like this... After causing the death of his mother and her lover, Patrick lays comatose in a small private hospital, his only action being his involuntary spitting on people. When a pretty young nurse begins work at the hospital, she senses that Patrick is communicating with her, and he seems to be using his psychic powers to manipulate events in her life.

The movie starts with Patrick just laying on his bed, not much going on here on the surface.

He finally gets fed up with his mother and her boyfriend having sex and frolicking, so, goes into the bathroom and tosses his heater into the bathtub, and... Ka-Zappo!!

I have a sound clip for your approval, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button located there by our full spittoon, NOW, Rufus The Gnat!.. Here are some sounds from... PATRICK!

Sister Williams welcomes nurse Kathy to the hospital, her assignment is to help take care of the comatose patient, Patrick.

The doctor there likes to experiment on Patrick, he's trying to get Patrick to snap out of his condition. Nothing works, frustrating him.

Then, Kathy brings her doctor pal to the hospital to do some tests concerning Patrick's potential psychic powers. But, Patrick is not cooperating...

Later though, when the night nurse comes change his diaper, we get to see Patrick finally turn his head and he give her an evil glare.

You can hear the nurse scream and the neon light explode at the end of the sound clip.

Sister Williams is on Patrick's hit list, he causes her to fry herself in the electrical room.

Patrick then brings on the pain when the doctor tries to do more experiments on him, invisible forces basically beat the crap out of him!

Patrick is in love with Kathy, you can tell from what he's typing out on the typewriter.

He wants her to choose between him or her separated husband. Once she chooses her husband, Patrick's life force is gone and Patrick is now dead. There's a lot more to the story, so, pick up a copy if you'd like to see all the action.