Friday, February 6, 2015

THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - 1970

It's Family Friendly Friday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Here's a weird little movie starring Butch Patrick and produced by Dungeon Super Hero, Chuck Jones, after he left Warner Bros. to work for MGM on Tom and Jerry cartoons.

Here's a sound clip from this cartoon flick for your approval, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button over by our scary Trollbooth ride, NOW, Rufus The Gnat!.. Here's a little taste of... THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH!

Fantastic lineup of the most awesome voice talent in the whole freakin' world here!!

So, like, what's to become of Milo?! He's a boy who's totally bored with life...

One day he comes home to find a tollbooth in his room! Having nothing better to do after another boring day at school, he gets in his toy car and drives through after paying the toll, only to emerge in a world full of wild adventures.

Milo starts his journey and comes to a crossroad. Which way should he go, George?

Then, he gets bogged down in this creepy cartoon swamp that's full of little gooey critters! You can see one of them lounging in the slime there.

Milo gets to meet Kakofonous A. Dischord, he likes loud noises, as heard in the sound clip!

He hooks up with his pooch pal, Tock. Time out for a nice meal at this fancy dining room.

The adventures get even creepier, and scarier! Chuck Jones and his crew were masters of detail when they designed and rendered these great looking scenes and creatures.

Then, Milo is confronted with some fun monsters that chase him and his pals around!

Milo finally makes his way to the crystal palace of the Princess of Sweet Rhyme and she makes it possible for him to find his way back home...

And, hurray, here he comes!! We're back tomorrow with more from The Dungeon!

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

FALLGUY - Jaime Mendoza-Nava (Theme) - Tony and Joe - "The Duck Walk" (1962)

Stomp, shout, and work it on out, cause it's Whipping Boy Wednesday, and a movie about a poor schmuck who ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time, and turned into being nothing more than...........

 ......A Dupe, a Patsy, a "FALLGUY!" 

That too cool theme song was written by Jaime Mendoza-Nava, a man with some credits to match his chops! Just a couple of Jaime's credits include ORGY OF THE DEAD, EQUINOX, GARDEN OF THE DEAD, HOUSE OF TERROR, you know, all those places you don't want to go!

"Fallguy's" got everything! It's got whores!

It's got clearly marked buildings!

 And it's got a local dive called "Kordanes" where all the kids hang out! Makes me hungry just looking at that "Fried Shrimp" sign!

The kids at "Kordanes" are rocking out to the novelty song recorded in 1960, and released on Gardena Records by Tony(Johnny J. Colonna) and Joe(Buddy Motola), "The Duck Walk!"  If you wanna see the 45 sleeve and record label, then cruise on over to 45cat! It's worth the trip! These are the kind of scenes that made me want to do this blog from the get go! Quack, Quack!!

 Joe Cool leaning on the jukebox is Ed Dugan as the fallguy Sonny Martin! This would be Ed's only filmed acting gig!

 Sonny tells his best girl he has an appointment, and he has to split, but rest assured, he will be back in an hour, but he's not going to make it!

On the way to his appointment, Sonny is passed on a windy road by a couple of fast moving cars shooting guns! When one car goes over the side, Sonny goes down to see if he can be of any help! The guy in the car just happens to be a big mob boss, and he pulls a gun on Sonny, and makes him drive to the house of a Doctor friend of his! Before he can be treated, he pulls the gun, there's a scuffle, and the Doctor shoots and kills him! Sonny manages to escape from the house and runs like Hell!!!

One of the few real actors in this independent Donn Harling Production is George Mitchell, in fact, George might have more appearances on "The Twilight Zone" than any other actor I can think of! He was in all these episodes, THE HITCH-HIKER, EXECUTION, JESS-BELLE, AND RING-A-DING GIRL! George just might also hold the record for being in the most "Twilight Zone" episodes with hyphenated titles! George is the Big Boss Carl Tamin, and just like that other big boss guy in "The Turkish Spiderman," Carl doesn't like to be bothered when he's working either!

Pretty slick bachelor pad Carl has! These three have got it all figured out! Joining Carl on the left is Dr. Sam Johnson played by Don Alderette in his solo outing, and in the middle is corrupt and crooked cop, the Police Chief as played by Louis Gartner! Louis has some interesting numbers, he was only in two movies, FALLGUY, and THE STUNTMAN! He was born in 1928, and died in the reverse year, 1982!

I guess this out of work basketball player needed a 15 minute job!

Nice shot of the dash and the AM radio in this car!

Carl the Boss is so distracted by the ladies, it's hard to figure out how these guys get anything accomplished!

While there's a lull in the story, might as well throw in a good old fashioned catfight to lively things up a bit! They're fighting over Carl, of course!

They're trying to have a very serious business meeting with murder on the agenda, and the Boss just cannot believe what the Hell is going on!

Sonny is on the run, and ends up here!

You know you're in trouble when they send 'The Indian'  out to get you!

Sonny finally convinces Dr. Sam's daughter the hard way that he's not there to hurt her! Madeline Frances is June Johnson in her only theatrical appearance!

The stupid Police Chief starts shooting his gun into the house and he wounds Sonny and June. This scene where the Doctor is trying to revive his daughter looks like something in a real cheap Frankenstein movie!

Carl almost falls into an empty elevator shaft, but that would have been too difficult to film so....

.........He trips and falls down a short flight of stairs instead! Either way, he's dead!

After everything gets sorted out, and Sonny is off the hook, Sonny and June fall in love, and he sees her off at the airport when she goes back to school! It's easier for Sonny to fall now because he only has one leg after getting his kneecap blown off by 'The Indian'! "Fallguy" is just one of six "Weird-Noir B-Movies" available from Something Weird in a tight little package and a giveaway price almost too good to be true! A good investment if you have about 8 hours to kill and want a little more bang for your buck!

Monday, February 2, 2015

THE POWER / George Pal Productions - 1968

Here's a wild and weird movie from George Pal, the guy who brought us DESTINATION MOON, WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE, THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, CONQUEST OF SPACE, THE TIME MACHINE, ATLANTIS, THE LOST CONTINENT, THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM, 7 FACES OF DR. LAO and DOC SAVAGE: THE MAN OF BRONZE and directed by Byron (FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON) Haskin. Check out the amazing lineup of actors listed on the poster.

Here's a little sound clip from this action packed sci-fi flick, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button located there by our Atomic Power Unit, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula!.. Here's... THE POWER!

The theme uses this elaborate Asian instrument to create some mystery right off the bat.

George Hamilton plays Prof. Jim Tanner, he's working on mind control experiments for a large research company.

The heads of the research meet in their modern conference room. There, they discover that someone has extra sensory perception and telekinetic powers.

Whoever the person with The Power is, he's screwing with Prof. Tanner by causing hallucinations with a fear chaser!

Tanner tries to escape the madness but is stopped by this crazy Ventures 'Don't Run' sign!

Aldo Ray looks so cool in this nice looking Jeep, he takes Tanner way out into the desert and leaves him there after almost running over him!

Later, Tanner goes to a party and is entertained by an unknown hippie band, then, things get a little weird! As heard in the sound clip, whoa!!

Tanner's next adventure has him flooring his convertible Plymouth in a race to nowhere!

He ends up in the drink and barely escapes by unlatching the cloth top on the car.

Then, we get to find out who the man with The Power is... Michael Rennie as Arthur Nordlund.

For his next trick, Norlund puts Tanner through Hell, even though it's only in his mind!

It gets worse and worse for Tanner until the truth comes out...

Tanner is Norlund's equal and also has The Power! Norlund cannot survive after Tanner makes his heart explode by causing it to beat at a hyper accelerated rate... Game over, man!!

We'll see you again on Wednesday with more wild and weird flick reviews just for you!

Monster Music

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