Friday, February 3, 2012

LET'S KILL UNCLE / William Castle Productions - 1966

Welcome to Friday Night Drive-In with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. William Castle gets plain weird in the sixties, this, SHANKS and PROJECT X are good examples of that weirdness. Based on a novel by Rohan O'Grady, the story's about a 12-year-old boy who has just inherited his father's fortune and is trapped on an island with his famous uncle, a former British intelligence commander who intends to kill him in order to get his hands on the inheritance himself...

William Castle gives himself a choice cameo as the accident victim at the beginning of the movie, the dead millionaire industrialist, Russell Harrison.

The music is by the great Herman Stein, who had 101 composing credits that includes film titles like SON OF ALI BABA, CITY BENEATH THE SEA, ABBOTT AND COSTELLO GO TO MARS, IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE, CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, THIS ISLAND EARTH, TARANTULA, THE MOLE PEOPLE, THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, THE LAND UNKNOWN and THE MONOLITH MONSTERS!

Lettuce bring in our littlest Dungeon helper and Friday Night button pusher, Rufus The Gnat!.. Howdy dort, Rufus! Let's get the ball rolling, so, push the big red 'GO' button, now, Rufus! Here's our Eariffic Soundclip for... LET'S KILL UNCLE, BEFORE UNCLE KILLS US!

From left to right... Pat Cardi as heir Barnaby Harrison, Robert Pickering as Sgt. Frank Travis, Mary Badham as Chrissie and the familiar Nestor Paiva as the ship's steward. They're on the way to the island.

Linda Lawson plays Justine, here, she tries to explain boys to Chrissie.

Bill would be remiss if he didn't add one of his extra strange characters to a production, this time it's Ref Sanchez as the creepy dude on a creeper, Ketchman! Ref also played Igor in EVERY THING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX * BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK.

We like showing book covers, here at The Dungeon.

Chrissie and Barnaby go exploring the island. Mary was in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and a classic episode of TWILIGHT ZONE. Pat went on to be in BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES and HORROR HIGH.

Well, if it isn't one hole, it's another!

I chose this still because I'm super alergic to bananas.

Chrissie runs out the door and falls directly into that mucked up pool, which is infested by sharks!! This mismatch of reality and images is like having someone spin you around and then sucker punch you right in the nose.

Ketchman is mysteriously there to help pull her out of the pool, just before a shark sinks it's teeth in!

Uncle finally joins the fun, flying in with his plane. Sadly, Nigel Green died at age 47 in 1972 from an overdose of sleeping pills. Go figure.

Anyway, before long, the real fun begins!

Uncle pretends to be poisoned, just for fun!

He also has a fun assortment of deadly weapons in his cabinet!

Ralphie The Tarantula even shows up for a fun little role as the spider!

This is how you milk an airplane!

And, we all know what happens when you run out of milk!

Got blood?!..

Uncle is also a master hypnotist and commands Barnaby to do some pretty weird things.

You'll have to see for yourself how it all ends, got this nice print off TCM!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

NIGHT KEY - "What I Create, I Can Destroy" (1937)

Today's date is 2012012, crazy huh? Tonight's feature is pretty wild too, the Boris Karloff classic, "Night Key," and just like this great title card, it's simple, but very effective!

The Big City where crime runs rampant! The whole soundtrack of "Night Key" is stock music from at least 9 different uncredited composers including Karl Hajos, Charles Maxwell, Arthur Morton, Charles Previn, David Raskin, Heinz Roemheld, Clifford Vaughn, Edward Ward, and Franz Waxman!!

The only thing that slows the criminals down is the vigilant diligence of "The Ranger Protection Service!"

And the always amazing Boris Karloff is David Mallory, the brains behind the design of the sophisticated alarm system!

Mr. Mallory's conniving two-faced lawyer is giving him the old do-si-do, with one hand patting him on the back and the other one in his pocket! Allemande Left, and away we go!!

This is David Mallory's newest wireless burglar alarm invention, pretty fancy for 1937! Kudos to the prop department!

The effervescent Jean Rogers is Joan Mallory, David's daughter. They're really happy because David's lawyer just told him that Ranger wants to buy his latest device, and Joan can get out of her deadend job, and David can get the much needed eye surgery he needs and deserves!

This is Hobart Cavanaugh as two-bit crook Petty Louie! Hobart was in 190 films from 1928 until 1950, the year of his death! Here's just a couple of samples, "The Mayor Of Hell," "The Devil's Mate," "I Am A Thief," and "The Ghost Comes Home!" What a great character guy!

Here's how Mallory's system works, when an alarm is tripped, this big wall of lights and numbers is triggered, and then this guy yells out what number it is..... "601!"

....then his co-worker goes over to this file system, and looks up the number, and written on a card is the actual location of the alarm! Pretty sophisticated by today's standards! When I was in The Army, I trained for 8 weeks with a similar system, then they sent me to Alaska, where they used a completely different system! What a waste of time!

Then the Ranger guys go out and grab the perp while he's in the act! This time, it just happens to be Petty Louie!!

Meanwhile, back at the Ranger station, Mallory's equum asinum of a lawyer has totally set him up! Mallory sold his latest wireless alarm invention to Ranger, but he doesn't get paid until they use it, and they don't plan on upgrading for 10 years!! In the vernacular, Ranger is an asshole!!

On his way out, Mallory passes by Louie's holding cell, and since he now has nothing to lose, he uses his wireless device to bypass the electric door, and lets Louie escape!

Boris leaves behind a little classic piece of graffiti for the authorities to ponder, "What I create, I can destroy," and signs it "Night Key."

Not knowing that her Father got screwed out of any money they were going to have coming their way, Mallory's daughter makes some party hats to celebrate! Jean Rogers had the role of Flash Gordon's girlfriend Dale Arden in two of the three "Flash Gordon" serials!

The party's over when the ugly truth comes out!

With Louie Louie's help, Mallory decides he'll show Ranger what's up by showing the public how inefficient his old system is!

But instead of robbing the places, he plays a series of practical jokes! The clock shop is the first stop, and when the Ranger guards get there, all the clocks are going off at once!

Next up is the umbrella store!!

Time for a change in the story as Ward Bond as "Fingers" steps in to let Mallory know that "The Kid" wants to see him!! If you've ever watched any 50's or 60's TV, you'll know that Ward Bond was Major Seth Adams, the star of 133 episodes of "Wagon Train" from 1957 to 1961, but all total, he had 271 acting credits before passing away at 57! Major Seth Adams was without a doubt more benevolent than "Fingers" ever thought to be!

This is "The Kid!"

Perennial thug, punk, and gangster, Alan Baxter puts in another killer performance! One of Alan's last films was the dirty rat flick "Willard!" "Fingers" always has his back!

The Kid knows Mallory can bypass all the alarm systems, so first he take's Mallory's glasses away, and when that backfires, he kidnaps his daughter!

Using Louie's eyes, Mallory is able to come up with a device that puts a shocking electrical charge on "Fingers" that freezes him in his chair, so Louie takes advantage of the situation by giving "Fingers" the old Three Stooges nose job!

Mallory creates this cool electrical gun that allows him and Louie to escape, unfortunately, the electric waves can't hold back bullets, and Louie gets shot as they exit!

Reunited with "The Kid," Mallory and Joan are almost goners, but it all works out in THE END! Double Bonus, "The Key" and "Tower Of London" are on a double feature Boris Karloff DVD that is available on Netflix!! It's a no brainer!!

Monster Music

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