THE GONG SHOW - "Featuring Count Banjola" (1976-1980)

Well, I've got a different kind of hurt for you tonight, and it pains me bad that it seems virtually impossible to find any decent copies of the original 1970's mess called "The Gong Show."

And that's just the way it is on this Wednesday version of The Dungeon.

I don't know if the network destroyed all the tapes or if Chuck Barris himself did something with them, but all there basically is left of "The Gong Show" is stuff that people recorded at home on VCRs probably on the slow speed, so they could get more shows on a tape. Lord Litter found me this one and about 80 others of the original shows on The Internet Archive. It would be nice, but luckily you don't need HD to enjoy something of these zany proportions!

I honestly don't know which episode this was, and even IMDB doesn't have really any info on the individual shows, so I'm pretty much on my own here.

 The first performer on this episode was a guy going by the name of Count Banjola, who plays an instrumental song on the banjo while being suspended upside down like a bat!

The judges on this episode were Pat Paulsen, Pat McCormick, and Juicy Jaye P. Morgan!

The three judges give The Count a perfect score of 30!

I'm guessing on a lot of this and just going by what I think I hear, and I think this guy who expands his belly to show what women have to go through during pregnancy was named Elliot Apsey!

Ricky Tick is a terrible comedian..............

..........But he's one Helluva good dancer!

The King of the Fleas gets gonged almost immediately, and rightfully so!

This young man whose name is something like Peter Paul Quizada does a pretty good job of performing The Beatles' "Black Bird."

Instead of cutting to commercial, we get a taste of "Packed My Boomzie!"

Gloria Goldsmith and her band The Wood Work were quite talented and were definitely not a novelty act!

Is that a crocheted lampshade that Chuck is wearing on his head? 

And this is the same guy who claimed to be a C.I.A. hitman?

A regular on the show was Murray Langston as The Unknown Comic!

With all this shit, a toilet bowl cleaner like Ty-D-bol seemed like a fitting sponsor!

There was a three way tie between Gloria Goldsmith, Peter Paul, and The Count who all got 30 points, but Count Banjola prevailed and got the big check! I read that "The Gong Show" was voted one of the worst TV shows of all time, but I've been watching some YouTube videos of the popular show "Britain's Got Talent," and that show not only could not have existed without "The Gong Show," I saw an act that I know for a fact I saw on "The Gong Show" before where four guys were performing with hammers on pans covering their crotch!

PRINCE OF DARKNESS / It Is Evil. It Is Real. It Is Awakening! - 1987

Here's one I saw at the theater back in the day, I personally thought I got ripped off... Anyway, a sinister secret has been kept in the basement of an abandoned Los Angeles church for many years. After the death of a priest belonging to a mysterious sect, another priest opens the door to the basement and discovers a vat containing a weird green liquid. The priest contacts a group of physics graduate students and their teacher to investigate the ominous container, they go there to stay until its purpose is examined. Unfortunately, they discover that the liquid contains the essence of Satan himself, and they also find that he will release his father, an all-powerful Anti-God! The liquid later comes to life, turning some of the students into zombies!

This one stars Donald (THE MUTATIONS) Pleasence, Jameson (SIMON & SIMON) Parker, Victor (PAPER DRAGONS) Wong, Lisa (DEAD AND BURIED) Blount, Dennis (YEAR OF THE DRAGON) Dun, Susan (THEY LIVE) Blanchard and more...

There's the church on the left. The Priest and Prof. Birack show up in a stretch limo, they go inside to see what's going on there...

The two find the mysterious room with the large vat of green liquid. They peruse the text from a book they find, it has confusing Latin writings with illustrations.

Alice Cooper plays one of the homeless people that seem to be under some kind of strange influence. Man, Alice is one weird looking dude!

Here's a shot of some of the grub the homeless are chowing down on... Hey, you hungry? Help yourself to a few maggots, I'm full...

Things start going south when one of the students is in the room with the vat of liquid, when, the liquid flows to the ceiling and then squirts into her mouth...

There's a meeting of the gang where a battle plan to uncover the secrets of the liquid is discussed. Love that big old boom box!

Then, the infected girl starts passing the liquid around!

And then, another girl is now typing out this creepy message at super high speed!

The son of the Anti-Christ shows up with a message, he then dissolves like the radioactive people in THE H-MAN, but instead of slime, he's full of black beetles...

It's this guy's turn, to show everyone he's insane, he sticks a sharp object into his neck!

Do you think this zombie dude's gonna to get his head bashed in?..

Things are going straight to Hell, just about all the students are nuts and out for blood!

I guess, the Queen Zombie, is horrified by her own face as she looks into the mirror on her makeup compact. The priest takes an ax and lops her head off. So, she simply picks it up and puts it back where it kinda belongs, and viola, she's back in business!

Dad's on his way back to the physical plane.... In a last ditch effort, the Priest tosses the ax into the encasement, breaking the glass!

And, all the evil goes poof and the zombos quit moving around.

In the aftermath, Brian is having flashbacks and starting to act a little weird... You should probably check in again on Wednesday when Eegah!! will bring on more hurt, here, at The Dungeon!..

PHARAOH'S CURSE - "It Came From The Dead" (1957)

  It's time for another Saturday Night Special down in The Dungeon, and a classic little 66 minute movie from 1957 called "Pharaoh's Curse."

Eleven years later, and finally, the curse has been lifted, and boy, do I feel good about it!

 I did a very short write up on "Pharaoh's Curse" back in 2008, because the only DVD we could find back then malfunctioned, so I only got to watch a few minutes of it.
These days though it's a different story, and all you lucky people can just watch it any time you want to for free on the amazing Mr.YouTube!
And I just found out, that if you've got an Amazon account, they have a much better copy streaming there too!

 Here's a shot to prove the authenticity of the location of this film just in case you think it looks like Death Valley, California anywhere along the line!

Cute couple! Too bad she's got a husband!
That's Diane ( The Invisible Boy) Brewster and Mark (Hot Cars, Hot Shots) Dana!
Diane's character has followed her no good husband into the hot desert to inform him that she wants a divorce!

The exotic Ziva Rodann is the Cat Goddess. This was only Ziva's second film and she was credited as Ziva Shapir. Ziva was the go to girl if you needed somebody for a role that was dark and mysterious in the 50's and 60's like Nefertiti in the "Batman" TV series.

Jewelry like this is usually a dead giveaway, literally!

  There's really not a whole lot going on here, so they have Diane Brewster's character get stung by a scorpion!

"Pharaoh's Curse" was directed by Lee "Roll Em" Sholem who was notorious for no nonsense quick shoots, and I'm sure working out in the desert, everybody appreciated his style!

It made me wonder if The Beatles were a big fan of this movie, as the Doctor looks at this inscription on the sarcophagus, and utters the words that he believes to be sage advice,
"Let It Be!"

"Pharaoh's Curse" is kind of a takeoff on the regular old mummy story, except for one thing, there's no mummy out walking around!

Looks like Santa Monica to me!

In the wrong place at the wrong time, the Cat Goddess's brother Numar gets the Dorian Gray treatment!
Alvaro Guillot was in only two movies and one TV show, but he had a much more interesting life as a member of the "New Surrealist School" of painting!

Alvaro was a personal friend of Salvador Dali and was known for paintings like this brilliant piece!
 Here's a link to a website dedicated to the man!

So there's no mummy......................

...........Just this crusty, dusty old fart!

This guy's so old and slow just like a mummy, that his arm comes right off when it gets pulled on, and yet the stupid people can't seem to get away from him! That's what has always bugged me about mummies!

"Okay, Fess up! I know that you know what's up!"

Dude is still out wandering around, walking around in circles!

Dumb Diane, they told her to stay in the tent, but No..........!

Is it him? Is it her? How did it get back in the box and get the mask back on?  There's many unanswered questions, but there won't be a sequel, since there wasn't much of a story to begin with!

THE END
is always more pertinent and final when it's a shot of a bunch of mule's and horse's asses!

This lobby card includes almost the whole outstanding cast including Mark Dana and Ziva Rodann, George N.(The Three Stooges In Orbit) Neise, Ben (Three Episodes of The Twilight Zone & Three Episodes of The Outer Limits) Wright, Guy (The Unearthly, Queen Of Outer Space, The Hypnotic Eye) Prescott, and Robert (The Bottle Imp) Fortin!
"Pharaoh's Curse" might not be the most exciting movie ever made, but with this array of talent, you can't hardly go wrong!