PULGASARI / North Korea - 1985

Here's a wild and weird one from North Korea of all places! Tagline sez... Banned for a decade! The story goes like this... In feudal Korea, an evil King becomes aware that there is a peasant rebellion being planned in the country and has his men take all the iron farming tools and cooking pots from them so they cannot defend themselves! An old blacksmith is imprisoned and starved to death, but, his last creation is a tiny figurine of a monster... Pulgasari, a creature that eats iron! The blood of his daughter brings the creature to life, and, it fights on the side of the peasants to overthrow the corrupt monarchy.

Although the film is a North Korean production, director Sang-ok Shin is South Korean. North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il was a huge fan of Shin's and since North and South Korea have technically been at war since 1951 and have no diplomatic relations, Kim had him kidnapped! Shin eventually escaped back to South Korea, but, not before he had been forced to make this movie for the North Korean leader!..

The original title card is not available, so, we get this one from the recent release!

After Pulgasari is hatched, well, he's cute as a bug and loved by his new parents. They let the little guy play in the sewing drawer, then, they tuck him in for the night!.. So freakin' cute!!

When the King's men try and decapitate our hero, Pulgasari jumps in to save the day! After the monster bites a hunk out of the sword, the men run like Hell, and, our hero is saved!

The peasants find a cave to pursue their training against the King, wish I had a cave!

The good guys are tricky! This time, they drop a big pile of logs onto the King's men when they try to attack from a river!.. Horray!!

This still simply speaks for itself!..

Well, you can see that Pulgasari is all growed up, and, he's on the attack, big time!

The King has some strange allies... A bunch of these women fan sleeping gas around the monster until he faints and falls into a giant hole! Then, many tons of rocks come tumbling down on him... Don't worry, he's not dead!

Back at the King's ranch, well, I guess they're working on weapons to defend themselves against Pulgasari with some sort of polluting nuclear domes in the background, what the?!

The big guy just keeps on coming! Eventually, the King's domain is decimated by Pulgasari.

Problem is, the monster now turns on the peasants after their victory against the King. You have to admit, the details are stunning on the creature! In fact, some of the scenes are absolutely amazing, it would be worth your time to check this one out if you get the chance.

So, the blacksmith's daughter has to cast a spell on the monster that causes him to crumble into a million pieces! Kinda sad.

But, guess what?.. There's a baby Pulgasari somewhere on a mountain in North Korea, just see for yerself! Check back on Wednesday for more, from... The Dungeon!!

RED INGLE AND HIS NATURAL SEVEN - "Melody Masters" (1948)

 Tonight's Saturday Night Special is for me, I hope you like it as much as I do!

 When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time listening to my Dad's olde 78 records, and I mean a lot of time! Many, many of those songs will be ingrained into my head for my own personal eternity!

Of course, the novelty records were the ones I listened to the most by Spike Jones, Tex Williams, and there was this record called "Yokohama Mama" by Hari Kari and his Six Saki Sippers, that I accidently broke one day, but two of my favourite records were by Red Ingle and his Natural Seven, "Tem-Tayshun" with Red Ingle and Cinderella G. Stump (Jo Stafford) on vocals, and  "Cigareets, Whuskey, and Wild Wild Women" with vocals by Red and Buttermilk Tussie!

 Red Ingle was born into this world as Ernest Jansen Ingle in 1906, and departed in 1965 at the age of 58. If you'd like to visit his grave, it's in a Santa Barbara graveyard that he shares with Fess Parker and Alan Thicke!

 This is a 14 minute burlesque show that Red made in 1948, and you can watch it or download it for free, no strings attached at a site I just discovered and added to our side bar called "Free Classic Movies!" As I captioned the link over there, If this blog was a class, that site would be one of our textbooks. There are probably at least 100 great movies you can watch there that we've covered on this site, so don't ever tell me you don't have anything to do!

 Red knew how to surround himself with talent like The Albin Dancers, and singer Karen Tedder!

 "The Man With The Big Sombrero" is the song sung by Karen Tedder!

 I didn't know before I started writing this that Red worked with Spike Jones and his City Slickers before going solo, and had done the vocals on a couple of Spike's hits like "You Always Hurt the One You Love," "Liebestraum" and "Glow Worm!" From listening to the music, I always had assumed that this was a hillbilly band, but that aspect was just one part of their shtick! I love Red's outfit, like some kind of military busboy ringmaster!

 

 Red learned to play the violin at a very young age, and then also turned to saxophone!

This Wikipedia page will show you what an amazing cat he really was!

Okay, enough of all that, let's get this show rolling!!

 Can't find out much about the very talented and very pretty Karen Tedder, except she was in another one of these Red Ingle shorts, and was on the Perry Como show once. I'm pretty sure that she was also the one doing the Buttermilk Tussie vocals!

 Karen is awesome doing her Carmen Miranda routine, and ignoring Red the whole time as he eats all the fruit in her headdress !

 Next up are the Albins doing an insane dance number you're just going to have to watch because I don't think I can really describe it accurately!

 

 Red's guitar player was a guy named Hayden Causey, and Hayden and the boys do a hot little number called "Steel Guitar Rag!" with Red on fiddle!

 In a more serious moment (Right!) Red does something he calls "Violin Concerto!"

The show closes out with "Cigareets, Whuskey, and Wild Wild Women!" The only thing that's missing is the drunken heckler on the recorded version! This song became a big hit because it was banned from playing on the radio for it's lyrical content! That'll work every time!! 

And you gotta admit, 

"Cigareets, Whuskey, and Wild, Wild Women, They'll Drive You Crazy, They'll Drive You Insane!"

That's advice that some almost 70 years later, you still can't argue with!

So, thanx big time to Jimbo Berkey at Free Classic Movies for this killer blast from the past!

The way things are going, gettting to see this might be the best thing that ever happens in 2017!

THE HEARSE / Marimark Productions - 1980

It's Friday, so, I guess it's time for this little horror flick, the story's about a girl who's haunted by a phantom hearse, which she believes is connected to her dead aunt, a witch with a bad reputation in their town! The tagline sez... There is a door between life and death, and now, that door is open!

The movie stars Trish (THE CHANGELING) Van Devere and Joseph (FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON) Cotton. Joseph was sure in a lot of bad movies near the end of his career, but, not as bad as Keenan Wynn.

Although the story is supposed to take place in the Bay Area, it was actually filmed at Griffith Park, what else!

What The Hell?!!.. Where'd this freakin' ID Monster come from?!

I like this shot because of the colors, chartreuse, pink and lime green, nice!

Joseph Cotton plays Walter Prichard, local big wig and ultra lush, here he is getting the damn sheriff lit at work!.. Man, the good old days!

The movie takes a while to get going, so, they throw in this albino dude to get you to think he's the bad guy!

This is the mysterious driver of The Hearse making an appearance at the cemetery.

If you look real hard, you can barely make out Trish in the shower.

Then she dreams about seeing herself in a casket at her own funeral!.. Good one!

Here's a fun shot of some early eighties doofus dudes, fulla mischief and other stuff.

Albino Guy shows up again to see if he can help out. There's just something cool about this scene in a well lit yellow dining room.

Oh yeah, guess what?!.. Joseph gets strangled in the shower!.. Who could have done this?

The Hearse is chasing Trish... Yow! That Packard grille looks like it's biting the car!

Here's the real bad guy, Tom Sullivan, played by David (STAR TREK: THE MOVIE) Gautreaux. He's also the Hearse Driver and he can go Poof!

This is a beautiful still showing The Hearse meeting its doom... Or, does it?! Anyway, check in tomorrow for something special, here, at The Dungeon!