RETURN OF GIANT MAJIN / Colder Than Ice, Unyielding As Stone, Divine Retribution Is At Hand - 1966

Okay, here's one for Randall... In this follow up production, an evil warlord sets his sights on yet another village to conquer, this one by a lakeside. He kidnaps Katsushige and offers an ultimatum to the villagers to hand over one of their protectors, Lord Juro, in exchange for the release of the woman. But, Lord Juro and the brave village people defy the evil doers and decide to fight for their freedom. When their sacrifices seem in vain, they pray to their stone god to awaken and fight for them!

Here's Lord Juro, he has just found out that his village has been captured by an evil warlord and his people need his help desperately...

The warlord and his men outnumber and outgun the village people (ha ha) and they must submit to his orders, or, get sliced in half!

Some of the villagers escape to an island across the river where a peaceful tribe of people live. It's also where the giant stone protector Majin is located... The top still strikes a nerve with me for some reason, it's really surreal.

So, the warlord and crew, using boats, find the island, their plan is to destroy Majin and claim the island for themselves. The bastards stack a ton of explosives up and set the whole thing off, blowing the stone Hajin into a thousand pieces! Its head falls into the water.

One of the exploded pieces of the statue just happens to go through this dude's evil heart!

The warlord ties Katsushige to a cross and sets it on fire! She prays to Majin and a mysterious wind from nowhere blows the flames out.

Back at the ranch, Majin rises from the water and starts pummeling the warlord's men!

Majin goes to the village where the warlord has Katsushige bound. First, it easily pushes over that big stone wall before rescuing Katsushige from her tormentor.

Now, Majin has its sights set on the frightened little warlord... Oh, Lordie!

The warlord has set out more explosives for the giant, and, it goes off!....

Okay, now you really pissed him off!!..

And, this is the fate of the cry baby warlord after trying to escape in a boat. He looks pretty good as a dead man!

So, our big old hero, Majin, walks into the water, turns back to stone and disappears, just like I'm ready to do... Tune in tomorrow when we'll have even more cool junk 4 U.

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...