HOUSE OF CARDS - "A War Of Intrique" (1968)

It's Orson Welles Wednesday" in The Dungeon and a very odd film from 1968 titled 

"House Of Cards."

Besides this movie, the title "House Of Cards" has been used multiple times in movies with various plots, once in 1990, once in 1993, once in 2001, and twice in 2013 culminating with the Kevin Spacey TV series!

If I had to describe "House Of Cards," I'd say it was kind of like a Jesse Franco movie, but one that made sense!

The star of the movie is George Peppard as the washed up prize fighter Reno Taylor who has to throw in his own towel!

Probably better known for his TV role as "Banacek" and for being the Captain of "The A-Team" John "Hannibal" Smith, George Peppard smokes and wisecracks his way through this film like a poor man's Joachim Fuchsberger!

The main reason I watched "House Of Cards" was because Orson Welles was in it, but honestly, that wasn't quite enough!

Orson plays a pompous ass, and is very good at it, but his on screen time is very limited!

While Joachim, I mean George, smokes another cigarette, it gives me an opportunity to tell you about the female lead in this film, Inger Stevens as the neurotic rich alcoholic Anne de Villemont!

Admittedly Inger is very attractive, but I always preferred Connie and/or Stella, if I were to have a choice of 60's Stevens' gold!

Reno Taylor is a pretty classy dude, and he refuses to take advantage of a lady in a drunken stupor!

Reno Taylor got hired to watch this rich brat! The kid disappears, and the next thing you know, everybody's trying to kill poor Reno!

Reno has to go on the run, and his mug is plastered all over the front pages of the newspaper, so let the chase begin!

"House Of Cards" is not a bad movie, and actually has a lot of very scenic scenes like this, but is pretty confusing, and it just never really hits on all eight cylinders!

"House Of Cards" is such a popular movie, you can find this whole five page press book for five bucks online! 

As far as real estate goes, if I had to do it again, I'd rather go back and watch "House Of A 1,000 Dolls," "House Of Dracula," or "House Of The Damned" again, but then, that's just me!

MAJIN, THE MONSTER OF TERROR / Unbelievable! Unstoppable! - 1966

In this Daiei Studios production released for TV in the US by AIP, a samurai lord of a once peaceful village is murdered by one of his own men. The traitor claims the throne, forcing the lord's two small children to flee into the woods, where they conceal themselves near the huge stone statue of Daimajin (original title), the god of their village. After 10 years, the new samurai lord was proven to be very brutal and merciless towards the villagers. So, the villagers pray for the monster to awaken and to use his powers to save them from the treachery.

This thing stars Miwa Takada, Yoshihiko Aoyama, Jun Fujimaki, Ryûtarô Gomi, Ryûzô Shimada, you get the picture...

Here's the traitor in all his jerk face glory... He's a real ass!

The two in exile finally locate the giant stone Majin in the mountains where they're hiding.

There's a long patched countdown spot I guess at the end of reel 1, where they patched this image in at the very end! Man, that's a freaking crappy patch job, even for a cheapo TV print!

One of our heroes is threatened by a white hot poker!.. Like, fun, no?

Before the traitor kills this crafty old lady, she puts the curse of Majin on him!

Then, the bad guys find the stone Majin. They want to destroy the thing by driving a big metal stake into its forehead!

They complete their task and the spike was driven into its head. But then, they realize that they've opened a big old can of whup ass!.. Help, Mr Wizard!

The mofo Majin then flies through the air like a meteor and lands at the village the traitor took over... Now what?! Wow, that bottom still looks like a painting!

Well, the monster tears the crap out of the place, he's a'lookin' for that damn traitor!

Majin stomps on lots of bad guys as he lumbers through the village!

The traitor is found hiding in a building, he'a actually looking back into the eyes of Majin!

Majin grabs him, removes the stake, and nails the effer to a plank!.. Good job!

After its job was complete, well, Majin crumbles into a big pile of rubble, bringing our story to an end. So, tune in again on Wednesday when we return with more Dungeon Pogey Bait...

TAGTEAM - Rowdy Roddy Piper and Jesse "The Body" Ventura (1991)

Here's a real Saturday Night Special for you!

 A Tag Team match featuring "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and Jesse "The Body" Ventura vs. All The Bad Guys On The Streets!

"Tagteam" is an unsold 1991 pilot TV show that never made the light of day for various reasons!

My opinion is they should have made this a three man tag team, because "Tagteam" reminds me of an updated "Three Stooges" episode! That being said.......

Let's get bready to crumble!

We got a good crowd for tonight's match!

 Look at the depth of character these two guys have!

They can go from one mood to another just like that!
Snap!

This is a pretty crappy print I found, and it's hard enough to get good screen captures of action scenes, so I feel pretty good about shots like this!

This just might be one of the greatest shots of tag team wrasslin' ever! 

They play the whole thing legit, so the boys get fired because they won't throw the match!

And you probably thought that wrestlers have no morals, well you're wrong!

Roddy and Jesse have higher standards than that!

They are forced to go out into the real world to find work!

They are complete failures at being piano movers!

Here's a pensive portrait of Jesse Ventura!

Being attack dog dummies in a ladies self defense class didn't exactly work out for them either!

The pair get then involved in breaking up a grocery store robbery!

That's when they get the bright idea that they should become cops!

Next stop, the police academy!

Somehow the two stooges manage to graduate, and the next thing you know, they're legally throwing people out of windows!

Tabonga and I were raised on cartoons, wrasslin' and Three Stooges, so I actually kind of liked this show, even as silly as it is!

"Rowdy" Roddy Piper and Jesse "The Body" Ventura were always two of my favorite wrasslers, so I wish this show would have made it, but it's too late now.

Roddy Piper passed away in 2015 at the age of 61! Probably his best film was "They Live" from 1988!

Ex-Governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura is still kickin' it, and went on to be in such classics covered on this site as "Predator," "The Running Man," and "Abraxas, Guardian Of The Universe!"