Friday, June 7, 2013

THE FATAL HOUR / Monogram Pictures - 1940

It's Fatal Friday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. In this mystery the crime fighting twosome of Captain Street and reporter Bobbie Logan bring in crime solving Chinese sleuth, Mr. Wong, to help solve the murder of Street's friend and fellow cop, Dan Grady. This was the fourth of six Monogram mysteries starring Boris as the very clever detective, Mr. Wong...

Eegah!! sent over this lil' soundclip from the movie for our enjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there next to the acid vat, NOW, Rufus The Gnat! Here's our audio offering for... THE FATAL HOUR!

Bring in Boris as crime slueth, Mr. Wong. Captain Street wants a cool head when it comes to solving the strange case of the death of his friend, Dan Grady.

Mr. Wong goes to another Chinese merchant for some straight answers. Wong has the gift of noticing clues that others may miss.

The Neptune Club is the hangout for the local crime ring, the owner works for the mysterious Big Boss.

Reporter Bobbie Logan pops up in the back seat as Wong and Street are on their way to investigate another crime. You know, those crazy reporter dames!

Great shot!!

Captain Street simply hides behind the door as this unsuspecting crook shows him where they keep the valuables, in a safe behind the picture. How clever!

Then, the Captain's late to the show because he was flirting with this little cutie working in the hotel lobby.

Bobbie pulls a fast one by sticking a candle holder into the back of the Big Boss, who was ready to fill Captain Street and Mr. Wong full of lead!! Case closed...

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

SETTE NOTE IN NERO - Bixio, Frizzi, and Tempera - "With You" (1977)

"Sette Note In Nero" aka "The Psychic" is a rather tame but very well made film from famed Italian Goremeister Lucio Fulci of "Zombie," "City Of The Living Dead," "The House By The Cemetery," and "Zombi 3" fame! I guess that's why I liked it, because it wasn't entirely gross!

"Sette Note In Nero" was also released as the more literal "Seven Notes In Black!"

Number one, any movie that has a Nash Metropolitan in it is all right with me. The Metro was one of the neatest subcompacts ever conceived! The Metro was produced from 1953 to 1961 and got somewhere in between 27 and 39 miles per gallon, and was one of the coolest little cars ever made!!

The real story here is that of the star of "The Psychic," the beautiful Jennifer O'Neil as Virginia Ducci, is a wealthy gal with issues, and back issues too!  It seems Virginia can see into the past, hence the title "The Psychic!"

At one time in my life I thought I was going to be smart and record all my albums on a reel to reel tape recorder, and then sell them! Reel bad idea! The theme song for "The Psychic" was written by Bixio, Frizzi, and Tempera, and was sung by Linda Lee! Franco Bixio, Fabio Frizzi, and Vince Tempera have also worked together as Magnetic System, and if that's not confusing enough, Linda Lee's real name is Rosanna Barbieri!

Anybody who has spent any time hanging around this site knows I can't resist a shot like this!

So Jennifer's psychic powers have allowed her to know that something weird was going on, and she discovers a body inside a wall of her and her rich hubby's country home!

I went through a couple of hundred screen caps I had for this movie, and about 90% of them were just of Jennifer! Like many a young girl, Jennifer O'Neil had a love for horses, but at the tender age of 15, she broke her back and neck in three places when her horse fell on her! Besides breaking her back and many a young man's heart in movies like "Summer Of '42," Jennifer was the face of  "Cover Girl" makeup for over 30 years!

Jennifer's husband in the movie is Gianni Garko as Francesco Ducci! Needless to say, he is a dick! Gianni had the role of Katan in "Mole Men Against The Son Of Hercules," but he is probably best known for a string of films he made as the legendary gunfighter Sartana that had cool names like "If You Meet Sartana Pray For Your Death," or "Sartana The Gravedigger," or "Have A Good Funeral, My Friend...Sartana Will Pay," or "Light The Fuse...Sartana Is Coming!"

Jennifer got married for the first time at the age of 17, and after that love affair was over, she ended up getting married eight more times, twice to the same man! It took her awhile to finally settle down, but she has been married to her current husband since 1996, and lives to this day on a horse ranch in Nashville, Tennessee! I wish them well, but I'm here in case she ever needs me!

Can you believe this cat fell like two stories and cracked his head wide open, and he still ends up pursuing Jennifer endlessly!

"Sette Note In Nero" is a murder mystery so it would be a real injustice for me to give you any more details! I can tell you this though, as it turns out, Virginia can also see into the future, and that "The Psychic" is a rental available from Netflix just in case you're curious enough to want to know the whole twisted story for yourself!

Monday, June 3, 2013

J-MEN FOREVER / A Proctor & Bergman Film - 1979

We have a comedy classic from two of the brains behind Firesign Theatre, Phil Proctor and the late great, Peter Bergman, heroes to the Dungeon. We had every Firesign Theatre album from the beginning, we used to sit around and crack up to the little weird worlds they created in our minds, especially when we closed our eyes! Then, Cheech and Chong came along, appealing to the total base side of humor, we definitely preferred the thinking man's approach to comedy. The storyline for J-Men is simple... The Lightning Bug, ruler of the Moon, plans on enslaving the Earth with rock and roll music and marijuana! This used to play frequently on Night Flight back in the late eighties.

I swear, Joel Hodgson gives a shout out to J-Men in one of his very first MST programs, he quotes an exact line about the robots when he was watching the same scene used by J-Men from the UNDERSEA KINGDOM serial! I'm pretty sure this thing was the spark for MST...

Eegah!! sent over a cool lil' soundclip from this movie for our enjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there next to the atomic powered weed whacker, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's our audio offering for... J-MEN FOREVER!

Peter had the deep voice of authority.

One of my top 10 lines of all time is from Rocky Rococo... Rocky Rococo at your cervix!

It's all those guys verses...

...This guy here, The Lightning Bug! He has many faces, including the Crimson Ghost, and really bugs the good guys! They cut characters and scenes from a number of old serials and added the shots with Peter and Phil.

The good guys get their record inventory decimated! We got to make some fake newspaper headlines in our flick, THE CREEP.

The bad guys have a teriffic assortment of death devices!

This still is very interesting to me.

The whiny little girl voiceover they do for Leonard Nimoy here is a real crack up!

J-Man Barton gets the last word ~ J-Men... Forever!!..

Saturday, June 1, 2013

GIRL ON THE RUN - "Gorgeous Girls In The Hottest Burlesque Your Eyes Have Ever Seen" - Rose Tree Productions (1953)

Tonight's very special Saturday night feature was made in 1953, and is a carnival tale titled "Girl On The Run!" Have you ever been to a real carnival? Well, then you know what to expect!!!

"Girl On The Run" is just one of the six movies on Something Weird's two disc release called  "Weird-Noir Six B-Movies." I'm just not sure these films rate as high as a B though, but then grading is always a subjective thing that lies in the eye of the beholder! Whatever they are, they definitely got the weird part right!

"The "Palace Of Beauty" keeps 'em coming back for more! Hey Pops, don't have a heart attack!

These are some healthy gals, and I mean that in a good way! The reason they have masques on is because they all do double duty in the International Dance Revue as Frenchie, The Hawaiian dancer, Jitterbug, etc.

"Girl On The Run" has got two major things going on for it, and number one is that it's got Steve McQueen in a very small bit part as a carnival goer, in his very first acting job! That is worth the price of admission right there!

Number two is that the guy who runs the whole show is Charles Bolender, a dwarf version of George Clooney! I don't know why Charles didn't get top billing, I guess it was just because he was a little guy!

The "Palace Of Beauty" sports a fine array of international cuties from all around the globe.......

............And all that bumping and grinding just drives the guys crazy!!!! They eat that shit up!!

The girlie show is pretty clean, but the movie itself is full of dirty cops and politicians!

There's always gotta be that one mysterious dame!

So the girl's on the run, where's she going to hide, but in plain sight?

In most states you can get a fairly hefty ticket for having an unreadable license plate because it's covered in mud!

The dancer who gets the most on screen time is Rene De Milo as the Frenchie Gigi! Amazingly, this would be Rene's only ever on screen performance! Quite unbelievable!

Little George, I mean Charles, just sits back and takes it all in!! "Weird-Noir" can be found on Amazon for as little as $11.48! It's a real no brainer!!

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??