THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM - Bram Stoker - Ken Russell (1988)

"The Lair Of The White Worm" was a film made in 1988 by Ken Russell, and this week's Saturday Night Special in The Dungeon! The original story was written by Bram Stoker of "Dracula" fame!

This won't take long, because, this movie is nutzoid!
I couldn't possibly explain all the ramifications and/or possible interpretations in a lifetime!

Ken Russell is sometimes known as the "Fellini of the North," or "England's Orson Welles!"

That's a lot of baggage to have to tote around, but Ken managed to do it!

Wow! Very Nice Pad!!
This is actually the Knebworth House in Hertfordshire, England! Originally built in 1490, it was transformed in 1843 to how it looks today! Although there are residents who live there, the house and gardens are open to the public these days as a tourist attraction!

There's one heck of a party going on, and you can enjoy the best of the frivolities by checking out this video!
"The D'Ampton Worm"

They dance and celebrate an age old tradition in D'Ampton House!

Even the food is worm oriented!

After a rollicking good-time start, everything starts to turn dark when Amanda Donohoe as Lady Sylvia Marsh shows up! This was one of Amanda's earliest features, and she's still kicking it hard today!

You do really have to have balls to wear glasses like this, and get away with it!

Lady Sylvia has a very kinky side to her, and is not to be trifled with!

From what I've read, apparently Ken Russell has used snake imagery in many of his movies! I guess if I do this long enough, I'll find out for sure!

But what I don't get more than anything is this! Is this a movie about worms or snakes? Besides being legless, they don't really have a lot in common!

Now this is a GREAT shot!
How devastatingly tantalizing! How obtuse, but effective!

When all else fails, just scream!!

This is Sammi (Soft Toilet Seats) Davis, from England, and no relation to Sammie Davis Jr. of the Rat Pack, as the seriously tormented Mary Trent! Samantha was married to film maker Kurt Voss for three years!
Kurt made a 2006 documentary called "Ghost On the Highway: A Portrait of Jeffrey Lee Pierce and the Gun Club," and you can watch it right here!
The only bad thing about that great documentary is they didn't include any Gun Club music, so, for the real deal, check out this live performance, or this one! Either way, everyone should experience that what was the Gun Club at least once in their lives! After all, we are talking about tortured souls here!

Most movies I'm satisfied just watching at home! This one is so visually stunning, I'd like to see on the big scream!

13 WILD BIKER POSTERS FOR A FRIDAY

Here's 13 wild biker posters for a Friday! These movies were popular in the sixties and seventies, they were brutal in their depiction of mixing drugs, booze and violence with motorcycles. A sign of freedom and individualism at the time...

We'll start with THE HOT ANGEL from 1958 because the lobby card shows motorcycles in the insert. Cycling seems to be a fairly tame sport at the time, this one stars Ed (EARTH vs. THE SPIDER) Kemmer and Lyle (ATOM MAN vs. SUPERMAN) Talbot.

By 1965, the train was off the rails! MOTOR PSYCHO is about three bad boys who get their kicks by raping other people's women and generally being a public nuisance. The movie stars Alex (THE GODFATHER) Rocco in his first acting role and a cameo by director, Russ Meyer.

ANGEL UNCHAINED is a story about Angel, a biker who joins a commune of hippies near a small town in Arizona. But, when the town's jackass rednecks attack them, Angel calls up some of his bad ass biker buddies to exact a little revenge!.. With Aldo Ray!

In ANGELS FROM HELL, a sadistic ex-motorcycle gang leader comes home from Vietnam to resume his life in freakin' Bakersfield, CA, and wants to form a powerful cycle gang there, and, have the police running scared for a while. I wonder how many locals they used in the cast?

In THE DIRT GANG poster, well, looks like the gang has a beef with the Fuzz!! The story's about a film crew that's shooting a movie in the desert, they're terrorized by a vicious outlaw motorcycle gang on dirt bikes! They are after the women in the production, what else.

HELL'S CHOSEN FEW is about a biker falsely accused of a murder committed by the drunken sheriff. His Vietnam vet bro doesn't believe the accusation, so, decides to join the Hell's Chosen Few biker gang in order to find out the truth. Directed by David L. (THE WIZARD OF MARS) Hewitt, familiar faces include William (THE MIGHTY GORGA) Bonner, Gary (SATAN'S SADISTS) Kent and Titus (VISIT TO A SMALL PLANET) Moede.

The chicks are brought in with SHE-DEVILS ON WHEELS! An all-female motorcycle gang called 'The Maneaters' hold motorcycle races, but, also terrorize the residents of a small Florida town. They clash with an all-male rival gang of bikers and the nut-busting fun ensues! Produced by Herschell Gordon Lewis.

In Al Adamson's SATAN'S SADISTS, the Satans are a cruel biker gang led by a cat named Anchor! The gang goes to a diner in the middle of nowhere in the California desert and begin to terrorize the locals. After some killings, one of the cafe patrons manages to escape from the bikers and needs to get to the nearest town before the Satans catch up with him. Stars Russ (THE HAUNTING) Tamblyn, Scott (JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF TIME) Brady, Kent (THE CRAWLING HAND) Taylor and Robert (DRACULA'S CASTLE) Dix.

THE GLORY STOMPERS (great name, we love the word, stomp) looks like a whole lotta stompin' goin' on!! Chino is the tough leader of a motorcycle gang who starts a biker war when he abducts and mistreats the leader of the enemy gang, A tale of revenge! Stars include Dennis (GIANT) Hopper, Jock (THE LAND UNKNOWN) Mahoney and Casey (THE INCREDIBLE 2-HEADED TRANSPLANT) Kasem.

DEVIL RIDER is all about a young rebellious girl who hooks up with a biker gang, her mother hires a private detective to find her and bring her back home. So, the detective goes undercover as a biker to search for her.

That's one wild poster for THE DEATH WHEELERS, we love skulls too! This story's about a gang of young bikers that call themselves the Living Dead! They terrorize the population in the small town of Surrey, England, and after an agreement with the devil, they are to gain eternal life. They all commit suicide to attain their eternal life but things don't turn out as expected...

WEREWOLVES ON WHEELS is one messed up flick, a biker gang visits a monastery where they encounter monks engaged in worshipping Satan. When the monks try to persuade one of the female bikers to become a satanic sacrifice, the bikers smash up the monastery and leave. The monks have the last laugh, though!

A good place to end is with Roger Corman's NAKED ANGELS! We'll just let the poster do the talking here... So, hope you enjoyed the show, we're back tomorrow with something special, just for you!

5 AGAINST THE HOUSE - "Life Of The Party" (1955)

Welcome to "What A Cast Wednesday" in The Dungeon! 

Tonight's feature is called "5 Against The House!" Tricky title, but not exactly what the movie's about, but then that would be splitting hairs!

"5 Against The House" has a Dungeon all-star cast without a doubt starting with Guy Madison! Good lookin' Guy Madison was born outside of Bakersfield, California in a little hole in the wall called Pumpkin Center. Some 95 years later, the place has done nothing but shrank, and is almost non-existent today! The following year after this film was made, Guy would be in two classic movies, "The Beast Of Hollow Mountain," and "On The Threshold Of Space!"

Kerwin Mathews would go on to be Captain Sinbad, Gulliver, and Jack the Giant Killer in the 60's!

From the 60's to the 90's, Brian Keith wasn't just on, but was the star of at least six television shows ranging from "Family Affair" to "Walter and Emily!!"

Alvy Moore provides the lame comic relief! Alvy was in almost every TV show ever made in the 60's including the "Twilight Zone" episode called "Showdown With Rance McGrew as 'The Man On The Stool!'

And the icing on the cake is Kim Novak in her 4th film! I'm only got one word to say about Kim, "Vertigo!" Unlike all the male stars of this film, Kim is still around and will be celebrating her 85th birthday on February 13th of next year!

To this day, Reno still claims to be the "biggest little city in the world," and I guess it's pretty hard to dispute since there are no real parameters to that declaration!

 "5 Against The House" is just fun to watch as a period piece! To say that casinos have really changed over the years would be a huge understatement!

If these college kids look it a little olde to you, you have to remember that this is set after the war!

 

Kim absolutely kills this song called.....
"Life Of The Party"
Too bad she's not really singing it. The real vocals are by big band vocalist Jo Ann Greer, who was 'the ghost singer' in a handful of other movies too!

The guys think her performance is heaven on earth, and don't really care if it's her singing or not!!

Cool looking shoebox!

Nice frame! Reminds me of "The Graduate"

 

Just like Rio or New Orleans, Reno is having their big annual celebration and everybody in town dresses up like cowboys, so it gives the guys a perfect reason to wear disguises so they can pull off this caper! That's William (The Killers) Conrad on the right as the casino worker! Besides being "Cannon" and "The Fatman," Bill Conrad had a huge career as a narrator on TV shows like "Rocky And His Friends," "The Fugitive," "Tales Of The Unexpected," "Buck Rogers In The 25th Century" etc etc!

Drugs, Smokes, and Show, what more could you possibly need?

The author of the original story, a gentleman known as Jack Finney, also wrote perennial favourite, "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers!"