MURDER, MY SWEET - "An Original Philip Marlowe Mystery" (1944)

This week's Saturday Night Special is a terrific little film noir from 1944 called 

"Murder, My Sweet."

Rich Arithmetic is the guy you can thank for turning me onto this title!

So here you've got former singer/dance Dick Powell as hard-boiled dick Philip Marlowe!

He's being interrogated by the police, and you don't find out why he is blindfolded until the end of the movie!

All you have to do is hear the first few lines of the monologue to get totally sucked into this film!

Raymond Chandler penned the novel and approved of Dick Powell for the role!

Any movie with Mike Mazurki in it is probably going to be worth watch in my opinion!

Big Mike is Moose Malloy, and he needs Philip Marlowe to help him find his girl. You really don't want to get in his face like this!

Marlowe has to go out looking for clues, and this was one of his first stops.

"She was a charming middle-aged lady with a face like a bucket of mud."

Esther (Dick Tracy vs. Cueball) Howard is Jessie Florian. "Her husband died with a beer in his hand, and she finished it for him."

Dis is da Moose's goil Velma Valento! 

Velma was played by Claire (The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse) Trevor.

Philip Marlowe is up to his neck in trouble in no time flat!

Ann (Bachelor Bait) Shirley as Ann Grayle, tries to get Philip Marlowe's attention disguised as a journalist!

This was Anne Shirley's last role. She was only 26, but had already been in 68 films!

Shots like this make films like this great!!

Philip Marlowe is one tough cookie, but there's more of them than there is of him, so they  catch up with him and shoot him full of some funky drugs!

It makes for a pretty surreal dug scene considering the date!

The doors of perception are quickly closing!

It gets so bad, you don't know if Philip Marlowe is going to get through this or not!

He feels like he's in a literal haze and even after he escapes, he still has a couple of flashbacks!

Meanwhile, reality looks like this!

"Murder, My Sweet" is a different kind of movie, and Philip Marlowe is a different kind of hero, and you can check it out for yourself on The Internet Archive for free. If you feel guilty enough, you can even drop a buck or two into their donation box!

This is the reason Philip Marlowe was blindfolded at the beginning. He got too close to the flash from a gun, and was temporarily blinded!

There have been at least 17 other TV or movie productions about Philip Marlowe over the last seventy something years. And there's more on the way! If any of them are half as good as this film, then they all would be worth watching!

THE BLOODY VAMPIRE aka EL VAMPIRO SANGRIENTO - 1962

Well, hello der!.. Here's a Mexican horror flick that was dubbed in English for American TV, it's about the Cagliostro family that has tried for generations to rid the world of vampires. Count Cagliostro instructs hid daughter and others in a method he's developed to accomplish their goal, ridding the world of vampires once and for all...

This one has a memorable vampire bad guy, Carlos (139 acting credits) Agostí plays Count Siegfried von Frankenhausen to the hilt, a sadistic fiend to be sure. His equally sadistic helper, Frau Hildegarde, is played by Bertha (the Frau is back in THE INVASION OF THE VAMPIRES) Moss and our heroine is played by Begoña (SANTO vs. THE KING OF CRIME) Palacios.

Count Frankenhausen and Frau Hildegarde watch as the count's mysterious carriage pulls up after a trip through the countryside.

This is the driver of the carriage, he don't take no lip from the passengers!

And to prove he's a bad ass, here's the Count when he's thirsty, for blood!!

On the good side of town though, Count Cagliostro is lecturing family and friends and giving a demonstration with his invention that will neutralize vampire blood...

Count Cagliostro's daughter Ines and her doctor fiance decide to get inside Frankenhausen's creepy place to really see what's going on there. She poses as a maid, and she gets the job, but, the first thing she has to do is take that damn cross off!

Ines is in her room changing at the count's mansion (where she now stays) when someone outside the door turns the knob back and forth, then leaves. The door knob fascinates me.

Here's what a typical Vampire Alter looks like, the can's just to the left there..

Somewhere along the line, the loyal Hildegarde has displeased the Count, and after choking her, he's ready to beat her with a lethal weapon, I assume from the dark ages.

On their way to the next crime against all that is good and godly, the Count and Hildegarde pass by a skeleton still bound to a torture wheel.

In order to save Ines, the good guys have to pass through corridors of huge spider webs!

Just as the Count is ready to bite Ines, her father and fiance enter the room, and she is saved!

The Count fights back, he changes into a giant bat and harasses the two men. Alas, her father dies saving Ines and her fiance. Also, the Count is back a year later in THE INVASION OF THE VAMPIRES! There you go kids, your Spanish lesson for the day, you can go do your thing now, we'll see you all tomorrow, here at The Dungeon!!..

R.I.P. - PETER THOMAS (December 1, 1925 – May 17, 2020)

 Well, I had something completely different planned for tonight, but I was just informed by Lord Litter in Berlin, that the great composer and Dungeon hero Peter Thomas has passed away at the age of 95 on May 17th.

Sadly, you probably won't even hear about it on the news in the U.S.

So here are some of the films, and one TV show, that Peter has scored that we have featured on this blog. Take a look, and you'll understand why I think he was one of, if not the best, soundtrack composers of all time!

1962 - "Das Rätsel Der Roten Orchidee" (The Secret Of The Red Orchid)

1963 - "Das Indische Tuch" (The Indian Scarf)

1963 -  Die Weisse Spinne (The White Spider)

1964 "Die Gruft Mit Dem Rätselschloß" (The Curse Of The Hidden Vault)

1964 - "Zimmer 13" (Room 13) 

1965 - "Schüsse Aus Dem Geigenkasten" (The Violin Case Murders)

1966 - "Raumpatrouille!"(German Space Patrol)
 

1966 - "Die Rechnung - Eiskalt Serviert" (Tip Not Included) 

1966 - "The Trygon Factor"  

1966 - "Um Null Uhr Schnappt Die Falle Zu"

1967 - "Die Schlangengrube Und Das Pendel" (Castle Of The Walking Dead)

1967 "Der Mörderclub Von Brooklyn" (The Body In Central Park)

1968 - Der Hund Von Blackwood Castle" (The Monster Of Blackwood Castle)

1968 - "Dynamit In Grüner Seide" (Death And Diamonds)

1968 - "Der Tot Im Roten Jaguar" (Death In The Red Jaguar)

1969 - "Der Mann Mit Dem Glasauge" (The Man With The Glass Eye)
And that's just a taste!
Peter Thomas left us with 175 composing credits to his name, and his passing is the end of an era!
Try as they may, he will never be replaced!