Monday, September 17, 2018

"X" THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES / He Stripped Souls As Bare As Bodies! - 1963

It's time for a Dungeon Redo of this wild and weird Roger Corman flick that I saw with my cousins way back in 1963... The story's about Dr. James Xavier, a world renowned scientist experimenting with human eyesight. He devises a drug, that when applied to the eyes, enables the user to see beyond the normal realm of the light spectrum and also gives the user the power to see through objects! Xavier tests this drug on himself when his funding is cut off and continues its use as time progresses. He then begins to see, not only through walls and clothes, but eventually through the very fabric of reality!

This thing stars Ray (PREMATURE BURIAL) Milland, Diana (THE SWIMMER) Van der Vlis, Harold (THE INVISIBLE BOY) J. Stone, John (ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE) Hoyt, Don (MUSCLE BEACH PARTY) Rickles and features Morris (EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS) Ankrum, John (THE OMEGA MAN) Dierkes, Dick (WAR OF THE SATELLITES) Miller, Jonathan (NOT OF THIS EARTH) Haze, Barboura (A BUCKET OF BLOOD) Morris and more.

The Story starts with Dr. Xavier showing Dr. Diane Fairfax his experiments with increasing the possibilities of eye sight in animals and humans. He has had some success with his monkeys...

The doctor's funding gets cut off, so, he decides to test his sight enhancing drug on himself, you know, like, why not?!.. Right?

Diane thinks it would be a good idea for the doctor to take a break so they go to a party.

The serum kicks in and Dr. Xavier sees some pretty interesting sights! And, he even gets a peek at Diane in the nude, which makes him blush.

The doc keeps on using the serum and things are getting extra weird. When Dr. Stone tries to inject Xavier with something to counteract the serum, well, Xavier pushes him aside and his friend falls through the window of the five story medical building!

Xavier disappears after the accident and reappears as a psychic at a carnival. He now has a helper named Crane who takes questions from the audience. Dungeon heroes Dick Miller and Jonathan Haze are in the audience, and Dick is being a dick. It all backfires on him when Xavier tells the audience all about what a fuck up he is, funny stuff!

Crane finds out that Xavier is actually a medical doctor and wants to make more money by having him diagnose the sick, so they move into an old medical room. Things are going well until Diane shows up, and she takes the doc away from the setup against Crane's will.

She takes him to Las Vegas, he has a plan...

The Doc cleans up at the '21' table and the supervisors get suspicious when he wins ever time!

His glasses get knocked off and it reveals his mutated eyeballs! Now he's seeing psychedelic skeletons instead of people,... Help, Mr. Wizard!!

Dr. Xavier takes Diane's car and drives into the desert, chased by a heckilopter even! He crashes the car and starts walking, then, he hears some noise. It's a holy roller revival, he stumbles to the entrance.

The doc testifies, he tells the crowd of the things he has seen. They respond with, "If thine eye offend thee... Pluck it out, pluck it out!" So's, he plucks each eyeball out... Kind of a crappy effect, but, it gets the point across! Tune in again on Wednesday as we edge our way toward 'Halloween Countdown!'

Saturday, September 15, 2018

THE ANNIVERSARY - "She's Got Bette Davis Eye" (1968)

Just when you get to the point where you think you've seen every weird movie made in the last 80 years, something like this pops up out of nowhere. Welcome back to The Dungeon Saturday Night Special! Bang bang, shoot shoot!

"The Annniversary" was written by the Hammermeister Jimmy Sangster, and is based on a popular play of the time that was written by Bill MacIlwraith!

Here she is, the star of the show, Bette Davis as the mean and deplorably horrible rich bitch named Mrs. Taggart! Every year on this day, Mrs.Taggart gathers her three dysfunctional sons and their families together for the anniversary of her and her late husband's marriage! 

Here's the core of the cast all in one nice shot together. Starting on the left is James (Privilege) Cossins as the cross-dressing Henry Taggart, Jack (For Your Eyes Only) Hedley as Terry Taggart, Sheila (But Seriously, It's Sheila Hancock) Hancock as Terry's wife Karen Taggart, Elaine (Casino Royale) Taylor as Shirley Blair, and Shirley's fiancee Tom Taggart as played by Christian (To Sir, With Love) Roberts!

"The Anniversary" is Bette Davis! There's no better way to describe it!

Haven't had a lot of chances to show you a vintage Vauxhall. Still in business, popular Vauxhall models of today include the Mokka X, the Vivaro, the Movano, and the New Grandland X.

Bette plays up the eye patch the whole way, and at times she reverts to being Captain Bligh or Long John Silver no doubt!

Mrs. Taggart asks her soon to be daughter-in-law Shirley to move a little further away because she detests the smell of body odor!

If Gross, Despicable, and Obnoxious were signs of the zodiac, Mrs. Taggart would  have been born in all those houses!

Time to drag the whole proceeding down to the club!

I'm not often speechless, but this film doesn't require much further conversation! These stills speak for themselves!  It's all about obsession!

Bette/Mrs. Taggart is the Queen!!!

And everybody else knows she's full of bullshit!

AARRGGHH!!"

Meanwhile, Henry's out stealing lady's undergarments! Well, not exactly stealing, he takes them off the clothesline, and pins up money in their place!

Somebody calls the cops on Henry, and they find the undies in his car, but he had borrowed his brother Terry's car, and Mrs. Taggart tries to explain to Terry, that it's better for him to take the rap, because he will only have one strike and it will never happen again, but if Henry gets arrested, the next time will be two strikes and they'll take him away for good! Terry is not happy with this concept!

There's not a chance in Hell this is going to happen!

Wherever you are or whatever you do, Bette wishes you "Happy Anniversary!"

A couple of years earlier The New Vaudeville Band had a killer novelty tune #1 hit with "Winchester Cathedral." So whatever happened to novelty songs? I grew up with "The Purple People Eater," and "The Witch Doctor," and "The Monster Mash," and now there's...........? Oh, that's right, there's no more real radio any more either.......except in the ozone!

Friday, September 14, 2018

ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN: The Runaway Robot - Season 1 Episode 17 - 1953

Here's a classic episode from the great TV series that all us kids watched the Hell out of back in the fifties. The story's about the inventor of a robot who's kidnapped by burglars that intend to use his robot for robberies. Meanwhile, the police are looking for the inventor, they believe he's responsible for the crimes, and Clark and his pals are out to clear his name.

Besides the gang, this episode features two actors we always enjoy seeing. First is Russell (IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE, THE SPACE CHILDREN) Johnson as Chopper and Robert (THE GIANT SPIDER INVASION, NEEDFUL THINGS) Easton as Marvin, the inventor's assistant.

It all starts with a robbery at a jewelry store, from out of nowhere a robot enters scene and chases the robbers away.

Professor Hinkle is out testing his new robot, but the damn thing goes haywire!..

It's stepping on the jewelry and then is seemingly ready to stomp on the head of the owner. The Professor runs over and pushes the off button before any damage is done.

The police throw the Professor in a jail cell, thinking he was behind the robbery. But Clark and the gang show up and get their friend released.

In the meantime though, Chopper's men have gone back to the shop and taken the robot to their hideout. They have figured out that they can use the hunk of metal to do the robberies for them... What else?

Jimmy's keeping an eye on the Professor, but when the phone rings, the Professor gets a call from Chopper to meet him at the hideout. The Professor uses some sleeping gas on Jimmy and leaves to go see his robot.

He's thrown into a small room with the robot to keep him from causing any trouble. The Professor opens a small panel on the back of the robot and calls his assistant on a special radio receiver...

Here's Marvin, he's a little slow but gets the message to contact someone at the Daily Planet.

Of course, Lois takes the call and shows up at the hideout by herself. She screams her head off and Rocco grabs his handy hammer to shut her up!.. Seriously, WTF!! That's pretty damn gruesome for a kid to see, jeez!

Then, there's this shot of our hero flying through the air... Check it out! Side shots had George laying on his stomach on a board, he looks like he has skinny little legs and a flat, square chest, funny as Hell.

The Professor has his robot steal a pile of money out of a vault for Chopper, but then, on the way back to the hideout, he has the thing set off some fire alarms to distract the crooks.

Mousey sics the robot on Lois, who keeps screaming, but Superman shows up to prevent the metal menace from its task!

The robot swings away at Supe and rattles itself into pieces, bringing this wild episode to a happy conclusion.

And, we get a laff at the end when Inspector Henderson bends over and gets a tail full o' fire! Hey you!, Yeah, you, check in tomorrow when Eegah!! tries to give us something special for a Saturday, here, at The Dungeon...

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??