YOUNG COUPLES ONLY - Studio 57 - The Dumont Television Network (1955)

Tonight's feature was off my radar until a couple of days ago, but then again, that's what this is all about! That saying, welcome to another wacked-out Wednesday the 13th in The Dungeon, and a weird little TV show from 1955 called "Studio 57" on the Dumont Television Network! Never heard of Dumont before, then check out this bit of information from Wikipedia!

In a nutshell, Dumont was one of the world's first TV networks, but for various reasons discombobulated after a couple of years, and given all the respect a pioneering network should deserve, most of their programming was destroyed in the 1970's!
So let's get this ball rolling!

The DVD I have was bought from Sinister Cinema, and I have no idea why they shortened the title to "Couples Only!"

The reason I wanted to see "Young Couples Only" was because it stars Dungeon fave Peter Lorre, and for me, any movie with Peter Lorre in it is worth watching!

Barbara Hale has tons and tons of acting credits, mostly on TV, but she will always be remembered for her ongoing appearance through five decades as Della Street on the"Perry Mason" show! She was in 271 episodes of Perry Mason from 1957 to 1966 alone! Barbara will be having her 94th birthday next Monday on April 18th, and we wish her all the best!!

In this story, Bill Williams is Barbara's husband! Bill's first movie appearance was as an uncredited theatergoer in "King Kong!" He played Kit Carson" in the 1950's on TV for 103 episodes and he was also in "Space Master X-7," "Spaceflight IC-1: An Adventure In Space," and "Night Of The Zombies!"

Hello down there!!!!

I read on IMDB that in the original short story written by fabulous author Richard Matheson called "Shipshape Home," the janitor was described as looking like Peter Lorre, so what better person to actually play the role than Peter himself?

So this story is just rolling along, and then it suddenly gets really weird when Barbara's character notices that Peter the strange janitor in their apartment building has a third eye in the back of his head! Pretty cool for 1955!!

Her response was pretty predictable!

I read a review that said this was not a good performance by Peter Lorre, and I beg to disagree! In my little world, there are no bad performances by Peter Lorre! Just his presence in a film or TV show makes it worthwhile in my humble opinion!

Kinda freaky when the couple's little dog disappears!

Barbara says she came upon a secret room in their apartment building that housed a bunch of odd machinery! At first her husband doubted her, but when he sees it in person, he changes his tune!

Peter might not look too tough, but he's a lot stronger than Bill thought!

Thank God this policeman shows up to save the day! If you were making a movie, in the 40's, 50's or 60's and you needed somebody to play a military man, a police officer, or a bartender, Paul Bryar was the man to choose! Paul had an amazing total of 375 credits! Most actors today probably can't even count that high!

Oops, looks like Paul's not going to be able to save the day after all!

And now, the happy couple realize they are in deep shit!

And they are not alone! Not only is the whole building being launched into space, this whole city block is going along for the ride too!

Up, up, and away!! (And this ain't no beautiful balloon!)

THE HILLS HAVE EYES / Blood Relations Co. - 1977

Today we gots a gut churning classic from Wes Craven, it's a story about a family on the way to California and have the misfortune of having their car break down in an area closed to the public because it's a nuclear testing site! Problem is, it's inhabited by violent savages ready to attack anyone found crossing into their territory.

I have a sound clip for your approval, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button located there by our haunted sand dune, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula!.. Here's a sample from... THE HILLS HAVE EYES!

While traveling with a trailer through the desert on their way to California, retired detective Big Bob Carter (Russ Grieve) with his wife Ethel (Virginia Vincent), his son Bobby (Robert Houston), his daughters Brenda (Susan Lanier) and Lynn (Dee Wallace) along with his son-in-law Doug (Martin Speer) and their baby granddaughter Katy (Brenda Marinoff), well, they get in an accident and are now stranded. Then, strange things begin happening at night.

It's not long before the family realizes that a group of psychotic cannibal criminals are stalking them. Michael Berryman plays Pluto, his is an interesting story. He was born with the disease Hypohidrotic Ectodermal Dysplasia, a rare condition leaving him with no sweat glands, hair, fingernails or teeth... And, is the nicest guy in the world!! Get this, he currently has 17 productions in some sort of completion!!! Go, Michael.

I think this is Mars, he's going through the fridge for eats when he discovers he's not alone!

Pluto fails in his mission and is confronted by the big boss, the mighty Jupiter.

The family's two German Shepherds are loose and know who the enemies are and Pluto goes down for the count. Our pets are the most wonderful little buddies we could ever have.

The family is getting its ass kicked and have to fight back. Bring in plan B!

The trap is set and Jupiter falls for it. Using a steel cable, they attach it to the rim and Bobby guns the motor!! Jupiter is dragged like a hunk of weasel gristle!

Jupiter escapes being dragged through a metal barricade when the car runs out of gas, so, he goes to the trailer and opens the door, which is rigged to explode using open butane tanks and a match under the door!

And, guess what?!.. Freakin' Jupiter survives the explosion and is finally brought down with Bobby's pistol. What an ordeal these guys has been through!

But, it's not over, Mars has attacked Doug now! So, Beauty grabs a rattle snake and it bites Mars in the neck, which slows him down long enough for Doug to grab his knife and stabs the Goddamn Hell out of him!

You really need to see this scene to believe it, Doug goes absolutely insane as he stabs Mars over, and over, and over, making sure the son of a bitch suffers like the ass hole he is... Recommended flick!!! Join us again Wednesday for more insanity from... The Dungeon!!

DER RÄCHER - Peter Sandloff - "The Avenger" (1961)

Post 2201, no wonder I can't think straight anymore, and movies like tonight's feature aren't going to make it any better any time soon!! Welcome back to The Dungeon, and the ball of confusion known as Kriminalfilm, Kriminalroman or just simply Krimi Films!

Tonight's Saturday Night Special is titled "Der Rächer," or depending on what language you choose, "The Avenger,"and is a classic Krimi Film! Most Krimi movies were either based on stories written by Edgar Wallace, or stories based on stories inspired by the writing of Edgar Wallace! With what I've seen happen to Marvel and DC comics in my lifetime, I'm predicting there's going to be a major resurgence of Edgar Wallace adaptations in the not too distant future! Some day the name of the all but forgotten Edgar Wallace is going to be a household word known to everybody as it well should be!
The title song written by Peter Sandloff is either really poorly reproduced or the greatest piece of drunken music ever written! The music actually slurs!!

"The Avenger" opens with these two ladies opening a  box they see get tossed out of a car!

This guy's face looking back at them wasn't exactly what they expected to find inside the box!

I truly love this short scene where Siegfried (Too many Krimi movies to list) Schürenberg as Major Staines is deciding what to do about all the recent beheadings in the area while his secretary nods off like the next victim of the executioner!

Time for Heinz (Der Zinker, The Indian Scarf, The Mysterious Magician, Psycho-Circus, The Brides Of Fu Manchu) Drache as Detective Michael Brixan to step in!

Together maybe they will figure this mess out!!

The Benefactor has run an ad in the local newspaper, so if your life is a mess, and you want to bail, he is there at your beck and call! There can be peace for every lost soul, unfortunately, while he is experienced, he is not licensed!

Time to cut to the requisite exotic dance number!

 The sweaty guy enjoying the show is a gentleman known as Sir Gregory, who besides being a slimeball, is a major suspect because he has a very large sword collection! Sir Gregory was played by Benno (Raumpatrouille) Sterzenbach!

  Sir Gregory's only real friend is his dedicated man servant Bhag who he saved from some jungle Hell hole!

Bhag was played by heavyweight boxer Al Hoosman, who had a professional boxing record of  32 wins, 13 losses, and 3 draws according to BoxRec.com. They claim he was born in 1920 and died in 1968, but IMDB says he was born in 1918, and died in 1968, so Al was either 48 or 50 when he passed on! Born in Waterloo, Iowa, sometime in the 50's he moved to Germany, and was in quite a few films as guys with names like Hassan, Bonga, Tarzan, Pyles, Duke, etc. Al, like a couple others in "The Avenger" was also in the classic film "Town Without Pity" made in the same year and shot in Germany!

Then there were also the two main female characters, the lovely blonde on the left Ingrid van Bergen as Stella Mendoza, and the equally charming Ina Duscha as Ruth Sanders! Ina called it quits after 9 movies, but Ingrid has over 100 acting credits and is still active today! Great contrast in the top photo, with the blonde in a dark dress, and the brunette in a light coloured trench coat!

Nice shot of Ingrid in what I think is a 1957 Corvette! I'm sure somebody will correct me if it's a 58 or 59! It would also be my guess that it was red!

No, not done yet, because perennial Dungeon weirdo fave Klaus Kinski is in there too!

Call it intuition, but I'd be willing to bet that consummate artiste Klaus really enjoyed playing this part!

 I forget what the total head count was, but it was pretty high!

Just for the record, this is what you get if you do a Google image search for Der Rächer poster!
When computers start making all the decisions in life, I do believe the world is going to be an even stranger place to live!