JAGUAR LIVES! - "Now Is The Time For A New Screen Hero" (1979)

Welcome to Wildcat Wednesday in The Dungeon!

I've been a longtime fan of boxing, kick boxing, and martial arts in general, but I never heard of this movie or it's star Joe Lewis until a couple of days ago!

  "Jaguar Lives!" came out a month after the birth of my first daughter in 1979, so I didn't have much time or money at the time. Our TV only got three channels, and I damn sure wasn't going to the movies!

  Jaguar and his partner and best buddy Cougar are on a mission to save the world!

Joe Lewis is Jaguar!

Joe Lewis is one of only five people to ever defeat Chuck Norris in the ring, and is considered to be one of the top three greatest kick-boxing champions in history!

 But they're just a couple of minutes too late!

 Cougar shoots Jaguar in the back before they can accomplish their goal, but despite the odds, Jaguar doesn't die, hence the title "Jaguar Lives!"

 Jaguar slowly works his way back into shape with help of his Sensai Woody Strode, when he learns that his old pal is dead!

 "Jaguar Lives!" might not be the best movie ever made, but it sure does have an amazing cast of characters like Barbara (The Spy Who Loved Me, Caveman) Bach!

 The always quirky and fun to watch Donald Pleasence is a big shot general of some third world cesspool!

 There are some interesting and novel fight scenes like this encounter with two of the General's men on motorcycles!

 Jaguar travels all over the world, and in each place he goes he encounters another world class star!

 All the big stars have small parts like John Huston as Ralph Richards! In a pretty tricky maneuver, John is one of five guest stars who had previously also appeared in James Bond movies!

The others are Barbara Bach, Donald Pleasence, Christopher Lee, and John Wiseman!

 Here's a couple of shots from another wild and wooly chase scene!!

Jaguar is on top of the car hanging on for his life as it careens through the streets!

 Not everything is as it seems!

The stunning Sally (Dr. Who, The Body Stealers) Faulker goes from lover to nun! She obviously has some honesty issues, so it should come as no surprise that she too, will also betray Jaguar!

Christopher Lee is not a man to ever be trifled with!

 Capucine of "Pink Panther" fame is looking as good as ever as the evil Zina Vanacore!

 Whip instructor to the stars and member of  "The International Knife Throwers Hall of Fame," Anthony De Longis is Cougar, aka Jaguar's worst nightmare!

"Jaguar Lives!" was shot in Spain, and the final fight scenes all happen at this wondrous place, the Belmonte, Cuenca, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain or in English, The Belmonte Castle!
I found "Jaguar Lives!" to be a cool kitty, mildly entertaining, and more interesting than many films of this genre! It's actually perfect for a midweek diversion, if that's what you're in the market for!

REVENGE IN THE HOUSE OF USHER / aka ZOMBIE 5 - 1983

Here's an eighties Euro horror flick that goes like this... A young doctor visits the secluded home of his ailing mentor, Eric Usher, who believes the house itself is alive and plotting to drive him insane, manifesting itself through ghostly apparitions!

You can see another alternate title here. Anyway, it stars Dungeon great, Howard Vernon, in one of his 193 acting credits. There are also Antonio (MACUMBA SEXUAL) Mayans, Lina (SEX IS CRAZY) Romay, Fata (only acting credit) Morgana, Ana (only acting credit) Galán and Antonio (only acting credit) Marín... Wow, unbelievable!

By the way, this is a very weak production from the Euro guys, stale, no nudity.

Here's our young doctor as he approaches the Usher castle, he's there to help out Eric Usher in his research. What he doesn't know yet will blow his mind!

Check it out, here's Morpho in his old age, he appeared in a sixties Orloff flick. Here, he tends to Usher's daughter Melissa, who died many years ago, but now can be reanimated using the blood of prostitutes!

Here's Eric wandering around in his castle... He's coo-coo you know!..

Dr. Harker goes to this insane room to have a little talk with Eric, using a handy flashback.

We get to see young Morpho commit the murder of a beautiful woman that screams a lot...

Wait!.. I'm not done... Then...

Well, I guess, back to the flashback!.. Eric and Morpho dig up a body from the graveyard and take it to the lab for inspection. Wow, she looks pretty good for being, like, dead!

Just wanted to show Howard in this classic villain shot, nice!

You know, you're a Weirdo!..

It freakin' amazes me at all the fantastic locations Euro guys have access to, they can't lose as long as they're doing some kind of Gothic style production.

Well anyway, the ghosts of some of the prostitutes attack Eric, and...

The damn castle caves in on itself, killing everyone inside except Dr. Harker, who rides away on his trusty steed! So, we'll be back on Wednesday with who the Hell knows what, til then, yo!

THE AVENGERS - Season 4, Episode 23 - "The House That Jack Built" (1966)

Tonight's Saturday Night Special is Episode 23 of season 4 of the killer 1960's British TV show, "The Avengers!" I had something else actually planned, but I was rooting around in the garage trying to organize a bunch of crap when I found this VHS tape I had forgotten about!

Being as "The Avengers" was one of my favorite TV shows in 1966, It's hard for me to believe this will be the first episode we've ever discussed in these pages, and it's a good one!

The male star of "The Avengers" was the always splendid hat trick Patrick Macnee as John Steed!

Patrick's co-star on the show was Diana Rigg as Mrs. Emma Peel!

In my humble opinion, two of the most beautiful, intelligent, and funny women of the 1960's were Elizabeth Montgomery of "Bewitched" fame, and Diana Rigg, who was Mrs. Emma Peel in 51 episodes of "The Avengers!"

This episode titled "The House That Jack Built" aired May 16, 1966 and is genuinely creepy!

 

"The House That Jack Built" is practically a solo vehicle for Emma Peel. She has apparently inherited an old house from an unknown Uncle Jack, and is off to see what it's all about!

Once she is inside the house, it turns into some kind of dark ride roomful of mirrors from the mind of some insane carnival barker!

There is no Uncle Jack, and this is a crazy house where one door just leads her back to where she came from over and over again!

I swear there is almost no dialogue for 15 or 20 minutes while Mrs. Peel wanders helplessly around and around in circles! Occasionally she'll say something like "Who's there?"

Diana Rigg looks amazing throughout the whole insane ordeal, and quite the ordeal it surely is!

Somehow, amongst all the madness, she finds an opportunity to drink a glass of wine!

Finally, she finds this part of the house!
"The "Late" part is kind of unsettling!

Whoever is trying to drive her mad, has drenched up all these photos and objects from her past!
It gets kinda weird and creepier when she starts carrying her old doll around!

Some people can carry a grudge for way too long of a time!

The guy got fired so he spends the rest of his life and Lord knows how much money to create a house that will drive Emma Peel insane! I think he just might have a problem!

Another problem is that this mentally deranged fellow with a shotgun has also been confined in the house, and he keeps reciting the British nursery rhyme "The House That Jack Built" over and over! More than anything he's  just really annoying!

The "Automation Man" himself is dead, but the house is pre-programmed to drive Emma Peel screaming yellow bonkers, and that's it's sole reason for existing.

In this pre-recorded video, the revengeful madman tells Mrs. Peel that his self-contained krazy house runs on solar power and has frictionless bearings, so she needs to get ready for a long and arduous journey!

Everything has a weak spot, and eventually Emma Peel finds it!

In the end John Steed finally shows up just in time to escort Mrs. Peel home!

The moral of the story...Be careful as you go through life because you just never know who you might piss off!
It doesn't matter if it's on the job, or waiting in the buffet line for the crab legs at the local Chinese restaurant! They're out there waiting for you, and eventually, they're going to find you!