Nigel

 

NIGEL THE PSYCHOPATH AT LARGE-1994-How come when people make lists of the worst movies ever made, a garbage film like this isn't there. Well I guess most people haven't seen it. Terrible editing and direction, zombified acting, loud noises, atrocious gore sfx with splattered blood that looks like it was squeezed out of a tube and worst of all the gas mask wearing killer preys on kids and uses a weed whip to kill. One kid has his arm severed and his stump spurts blood. He kills adults too. Meanwhile some yokels are hunting for him. When one of them accidentally kills a kid, his partner just says, "don't worry about it". Actors laugh and smile. A fight scene involving a broom seems intentionally stupid but I'm not so sure. 

The end features a policeman who looks like a high school student, a guy in drag and a drunk who thinks the drag is his ex-girlfriend! What happens when kids who've seen FRIDAY THE13th too much get a hold of a camera! Director Jim Larsen also made a movie called BUTTCRACK (1998).

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Late Santo

 

 (imdb)

THE FIST OF DEATH-1982-During a very long pagan ritual, a woman (Grace Renat) dressed in black transforms into a monster, a tiger and a snake. Her sister (the same actress), clad in white banishes her for blasphemy and using "the star of great power" for evil. An "oracle" sends El Santo (himself) and his whiny assistant Cliff (Cesar Suarez) to help the good sister who is also trying to protect "The Jungle Girl" who was raised by wolves. She also plans to marry a Chinese prince (Steve Cheng). Both sisters are fairly bursting out of their furry bikinis and the bad one does an erotic dance several times. Santo fights a furry man beast and a tiger. 

The fights and pacing are terrible. The ending sets up a sequel (FURY OF THE KARATE EXPERTS) which was made back-to-back with this film. Both were filmed in Florida by director Alfredo B. Crevenna. 

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Deafula

 

 (imdb)

DEAFULA-1975-This is the first movie done completely in sign language. Funny that it's a horror movie. A guy named Steve (hearing impaired writer/director Peter Wechsberg) kills some people and drinks their blood. When he was a kid his father/minister gave him blood transfusions, but he still killed his pet dog and drank its blood. In the present he's going to church when a stoned hippie couple try to rob him. When the male hippie stabs him multiple times Steve turns into Deafula in black cloak and phony nose. He makes them drive their motorcycle off a cliff. Butterfield (Dudley Helmstreet), a detective from England and a nameless local detective search for clues. Turns out the detective knows Steve. Even though he called in Butterfield to help, the detective treats Butterfield like an idiot even though it's clear he knows something about Steve. Deafula kills a woman then hypnotizes 2 punks into mutilating her body. 

Later there's an eerie flashback to Steve's birth where we learn Steve suffers from a rare blood disease and can only survive if he gets a blood transfusion every month. After his father dies Steve visits his mother's friend Amy who was there when Steve was born (and his mother died). She has a weird looking servant who has tin cans instead of hands. She relates her own flashback. And Steve learns the truth. Dracula is also his father (his mother was his victim). 

There's really no other horror film like DEAFULA. It's the first all ASL film and takes place in an alternative universe where no one speaks. Original shown silent, the version I saw had subtitles and a narrator.

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Canadien Zombies

 

 (imdb)

CORPSE EATERS-1974-This was made in Canada by a guy who owned a drive-in. It starts off with a warning that a "green man'" will appear when something bad will happen. Then a mortician prepares a customer for display while his boss drives and rants. Then 3 couples ride around endlessly in a motorboat. When they finally stop to relax, 2 of the women go topless. They decide to visit a graveyard. A storm kicks up and they take shelter in a mausoleum. When one of the guys recites some kind of black mass prayer, the dead come back to life and attack the group. 3 are killed but one couple and a wounded guy escape. They go to a hospital where the guy dies on the operating table. The woman becomes "infected" and kills her boyfriend and a nurse. Then the alcoholic undertaker seems to be eaten by his clients but it ends with him being put in a straitjacket in a mental hospital (?). 

Director Klaus Vetter also served as cinematographer.

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Bad...

 

 (moviesandmania.com)

ANNA-2017-Two obnoxious imbeciles steal a cursed doll from a private museum. The dialogue is ridiculous and most of it is so dark you can't see anything. Don't waste your time. The director Michael Crum also made LAKE FEAR (2014) and ANNA 2 (2019).

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Not Another One!

 

ANOTHER SON OF SAM-1977-Opens with the names of infamous serial killers. A serial killer named Harvey escapes from a mental hospital. He goes on a killing spree in a small town and a police lieutenant who's psychiatrist girlfriend was assaulted by Harvey goes after him even though his captain has brought in a SWAT team when they trap the killer in a building. Harvey is usually shown in POV shots and very tight close-ups. The police and the SWAT team don't seem to know what they are doing as Harvey outwits them several times. They really botch things up. Even killing a hostage and thinking they got the killer, who then kills the captain's son in law cop when he goes to investigate. Later they get Harvey's mom, who abused him as a child, to talk him out and despite her assurances he won't be harmed he's shot and killed to a bloody mess. The lieutenant's girlfriend dies though. 

A guy named Johnny Charro sings a terrible song terribly. Filmed in Atlanta, Ga., it features a lot of slo-mo and freeze frames and the editing, acting, direction, everything sucks. 

Originally called “Hostages” and filmed in 1975, the director/writer Dave Adams (his only movie) changed the title to cash in on you know who.

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Robot vs. Mummy!

 

THE ROBOT VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY-1958-The narrator tries to say it's based on a true story. Dr. Diaz and Dr. Estelle visit the home of Dr. Amalda (Ramon Gay) and his wife Flor (Rosita Arenas). Also there is Amalda's assistant Picante (Crox Alva-rado). Once settled Amalda relates the story of an Aztec breastplate and bracelet to his guests. He tells about the time he gave a lecture on regressing past lives through hypnotism that was not well received. Depressed he hypnotized Flor and learned her past life was as an Aztec queen named Xochtil. She and her warrior lover Popoca decide to elope but are caught by some priests and after a big singing and dancing ceremony Xochtil is sacrificed and Popoca is buried alive and cursed to watch over her tomb forever. 

Accompanying her are the breastplate and bracelet that tell where some ancient Aztec treasure is buried. It's also mentioned that a guy at Amalda's lecture Dr. Krupp (Luis Aceves Casteneda) has turned into a bad guy now called “The Bat” who knows all about the “regression experiment”. In another flashback Almalda and Flor and some others visit an ancient tomb where they find the breastplate on Xochtil's skeletal remains but without the bracelet they can't find the treasure. Undaunted by a warning they find, Almalda, Picante and Flor's father Dr. Sepulveda (Jorge Mondragon) go back to the tomb. Not so lucky this time, they run into the walking mummy that is now Popoca (Angel Di Stefani). They hold him at bay with their flashlights and escape. Later Popoca tries to sacrifice Flor but is stopped by Sepulveda who uses a cross to hold off the mummy. He then sacrifices his own life to save his friends and keep the mummy entombed. Dr. Krupp manages to kidnap poor Flor and her daughter and get the sacred items. He forces Almada to translate the hieroglyphics that will lead to the treasure. Just when Krupp is ready to kill the family Popoca bursts in. He knocks down Krupp's henchman Tierno (Arturo Martinez), (who winds up with an acid scarred face) and throws The Bat into a pit of snakes. However when Almalda returns the next day with the police they discover Krupp escaped through a hidden door! 

Then Krupp and Tierno once again kidnap Flor (she's under The Bat's hypnotism) and find the mummy. When Almada and Picante find a dead body, radium and that a large amount of metal has been stolen they suspect The Bat is back! After Almada and Picante are captured by Tierno and brought to Krupp, he introduces them to his great creation, a “human robot” (Aldolfo Rojas), a big clunky cartoonish metal thing with a human head inside the frame that can disintegrate with it's claws. Krupp wants the robot to kill Popoca, so they all go off to the cemetery. When the robot and the mummy go at it, it seems the robot is getting the better of Popoca. Almada arrives with the police and shoots the control box Krupp uses. After that the mummy trashes the robot and kills Krupp and Tierno. Flor gives the breastplate and bracelet back to Popoca who, screaming, goes back to his tomb. This third and final segment of the Aztec mummy trilogy is also a compilation of the entire series as all the flashbacks are scenes from the previous entries.

Thanks for reading! Happy Pi Day!

Vampire?

THE VALLEY OF THE ZOMBIES-1946-Dopey Dr. Evans (Robert Livingston) romances nurse Susan Drake (Adrian Booth aka Lorna Gray) . Their boss Dr. Maynard (Charles Trowbridge) tells them blood is missing from their supply. Later that night Maynard is visited by an ex-patient Oraman Merks (Ian Keith) who says he takes some kind of voodoo drug that brought him back from the dead and now he needs blood to survive. He kills the doctor. Then we learn that Maynard's chemist (Earle Hodges) is Merks' brother who'd been stealing the blood. Merks kills him too and embalms both bodies. Detective Blair is sure Evans and Susan are the killers. The pair go to the old Merks home and discover Merks' coffin empty. Eventually Merks kidnaps Sarah making her his hypnotized slave. Just when it looks like Sarah will kill Evans, Blair shoots Merks and he falls to his death. 

This crazy little Republic studios short film (57 minutes) directed by Phillip Ford doesn't make much sense. Ian Keith was one of the handful of actors considered for the title role in the original DRACULA before Lugosi.

Oh yeah...and no zombies!

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Finally The Third

THE JUNGLE CAPTIVE-1945-A scientist named Mr. Stendal (not Dr.) (Otto Kruger) brings a rabbit back to life through his new type of blood transfusion. Later his henchman Moloch (Rondo Hatton) kills a morgue attendant and steals the body of the now deceased Paula the ape woman. Detective Harrigan (Jerome Cowan) suspects Stendal's young assistant Dan Young (Phil Brown) who's engaged to Stendal's nurse Anne Forrester (Amelita Ward). Obviously mad, Stendal brings Paula back to life with the unwilling help of Anne who supplies her blood. “Don't be a fool. We're scientists, not sentimentalists!”. Paula escapes, kills a dog and Stendal has to control her with a whip. He turns her back into Paula DePuree (now played by Vicky Lane) but she's semi-catatonic. Despite not being a surgeon Stendal plans to put Ann's brain into Paula's head but Moloch has fallen for Ann. Stendal tells him: “No offense Moloch, but with that face you're not exactly a Casa-nova”. When Paula wanders away, Moloch tries to locate his boss and Paul becomes suspicious. He follows Moloch to their hideout where Moloch turns against Stendal and is shot and killed for his efforts. Paula reverts into an ape and kills Stendal. But before she can kill Anne, Harrigan arrives and shoots her.

Another unnecessary sequel to the “Paula, the ape woman” series started in 1943 with CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN and followed by JUNGLE WOMAN in 1944. It's not very good though not very long. It just seems like an excuse to bring Paula back to life just so she could be killed off again!

Vicky Lane was in only 6 movies in her brief career (plus one TV appearance). Her first husband was Tom Neal (DETOUR). Phil Brown was in many character and bit roles and much later on became a TV director. Director Harold Young also directed THE MUMMY'S TOMB (1942).

Of course once again I kind of screwed up and forgot all about this third installment. I reviewed the first two years ago!

https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2015/08/

https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2016/04/ape-sequel.html

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Beast of The Amazon

CURUCU: BEAST OF THE AMAZON-1956-Rock Dean (John Bromfield), an American plantation owner in Brazil has all his native workers quit because they are afraid of a monster they say lives along the Amazon River. Dean reluctantly teams up with a female doctor Romar (Beverly Garland) who's looking for a potion the natives use to shrink heads to find out what's going on. The beast looks like a mutated version of Toucan Sam but with fangs. Later it turns out their guide (Tom Payne) is impersonating the monster because he's the leader of a group who want to stop “the white man” from invading. 

Filmed in parts of Brazil and Argentina this color production has lots of stock footage and bad SFX. It was written and directed by Curt Siodmak who'd seen better days when writing Universal horror movies (THE WOLFMAN, FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN). 

Lead actor Bromfield had been in THE REVENGE OF THE CREATURE the year before and was later in the TV series SHERIFF OF COCHISE). Garland was in SWAMP WOMEN and IT CONQUERED THE WORLD, both for Roger Corman, the same year.

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Suffer The Usher....

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER-1949-Some stuffy English dudes discuss Edgar Allan Poe at their club. One of them relates the title story.

Jonathan (Irving Steen) goes to visit his friend Roderick Usher (Kay Tendeter) at his castle. Usher says he's inherited a strange family disease. He also says his sister Madeleine (Gwen Watford who later became famous for a British TV work)) has the same disease. She plays the piano, drinks milk and wanders around the castle. The weird family doctor (Vernon Charles) relates a story that the disease is actually a curse placed on the family by a man their father killed (he was having an affair with their mother). He also tells Roderick about a “temple” hidden in the moors.

The three men go there and meet Rodericks's mother, now a decrepit old hag who has her dead lover's head! The doctor says that if they burn the head the curse will be broken. They leave but come back with their gardener (I'm not sure why they needed a gardener to burn a head) but Mrs. Usher overpowers Roderick and kills the gardener. Then Madeleine has a run-in with mom and is almost killed. Jonathan tries to cheer Rod up by painting and reading until Rod suddenly announces that Madeleine is dead (he tells how in a flashback). He puts her in a coffin, nails it shut and places it in the family mausoleum. 8 days later Rod is brandishing a gun at night because he hears strange noises (nails being hammered, a ticking clock) and thinks sis is coming to get him. He shoots the doctor (but Jonathan doesn't hear anything). It seems Madeleine was buried alive and escaped her coffin (after 8 days?). He tries to shoot her and fails and she tediously chases him to the roof where he falls to his death and Madeleine disappears (all the time mom is watching).

Where Jonathan was all this time isn't explained but he shows up in time to escape the burning castle, set on fire by lightening. Your guess is as good as mine...

Director Ivan Barnett did little else but this strange quirky adaptation has it's moments.

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The Baby

THE BABY-1973-This is a weird one! Anne Gentry (Anjanette Comer) a social worker visits the family of Mrs. Wadsworth (Ruth Roman: in Curtis Harrington's THE KILLING KIND the same year), her two daughters Germaine (Mariana Hill) and Alba (Susanne Zenor) and her son called Baby (David Manzy) a full grown adult who acts like a baby. He can't walk, sleeps in a crib, wears a diaper, drinks from a bottle and has to be fed. After an "encounter" with Baby, a babysitter is whipped and beaten by the female trio. Anne, who seems to have lost her husband, becomes obsessed with Baby's welfare and development. Alba punishes her brother with a cattle prod and Germaine has sex with him. Tod Andrews (from FROM HELL IT CAME) plays a doctor who tries to help Anne and Michael Pataki plays a pot smoker who tries to pick up Anne at Baby's birthday party before she is drugged and tied up. Fortunately Baby helps her escape and she takes him back to her house when she leaves. Mom and her daughters invade Anne's house to get Baby back. It doesn't turn out too good for them. Anne stabs both daughters to death then buries (wth help from her mother) Mrs, Wadsworth alive!  In the surprise ending....well there is a surprise ending too.

The acting is very good especially from Ruth Roman (an actress who always looked like she was wearing wig) as the fanatical mother. The sicko story was written by Abe Polsky who also penned THE REBEL ROUSERS in 1970. The direction by Ted Post (HANG 'EM HIGH, BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES) is also very good and there's a good suspenseful finale although the scenes when Anne and Wadsworth fight over an axe are kind of goofy. Mariana Hill was in HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER and MESSIAH OF EVIL around his time.

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My Last For 2010..if you are lucky!

TENTACULES-1977-This Italian production from director Ovidio G. Assonitis features several name American stars and a lot of tedium. After several underwater incidents involving a conglomerate called Trojan Inc, , a local reporter Ned Turner (John Huston) investigates. It seems there is a giant octopus hanging out ready to munch locals. Henry Fonda is the company owner and Cesare Danova is his flunky. Shelly Winters plays Turner’s sister who wears a huge sombrero. Claude Aktins is the local sheriff trying to contain (cover-up) the trouble. Bo Hopkins shows up as a famous scuba diver who’s expression barely changes. His bland plea to a few killer whales to help him destroy the monster is pretty funny. A fat guy goes swimming and gets killed and then the boat he was on is destroyed. It all has to do with a tunnel the company is digging. Meanwhile there’s a kid boat race that’s going to take place and Turner’s nephew is in it. Since it’s actually a Italian production many of the secondary actors’ voices are dubbed but for some reason Danova’s seems to be too! The SFX (including toy boats) are pretty cheesy.

Director Assonitis also made the "Exorcist" rip-off BEYOND THE DOOR and FOREVER EMANULLE. in 1974 and later produced James Cameron's first directorial effort PIRANNA 2: THE SPAWNING.

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It's Harrowing!/

DUNGEON OF HARROW-1962 -If GALLERY OF HORROR is Babe Ruth then DUNGEON OF HARROW is Marv Throneberry. It strikes out in every category! It’s insane, depraved and down right revolting and to top it all off it’s not very well made! Shot around San Antonio, Texas by future comic book artist Pat Boyette, it begins with a guy named Fallon who on a stormy night decides to write down how he wound up in such a dreary and cheap movie. It quickly dissolves into a flashback.

We learn that Mr. Fallon (the remarkably bad Russ Harvey) is the privileged son of some aristocrat who is sailing to England. The ship he’s on hits a bad storm. The scenes of his cabin rocking back and forth and the subsequent flooding of the ship are hysterical. Only he and the ship’s Captain (co-scripter Henry Garcia) survive, washed ashore on an uncharted island.

Suddenly Fallon’s flashback is interrupted by the introduction of Count DeSade, a sweaty drunk who sits in the dark talking to some kind of ghost/spirit who reminds him of his evil past and throws a rubbery snake and bat at him. When the ghost disappears The Count muses, “It must have been the wine”. If only the viewer could say the same thing!

The Count lives on the island with his “Nubian servant” Mantis (who looks like Dennis Rodman and talks like an ex-boxer), his indentured “personal assistant” Cassandra (“I’m not much of anything now”) and the mute Ann who’s tongue was torn out by pirates and now mostly serves as The Count’s nightly S &M victim.



But there’s more! Mantis captures the duo. The Captain is set on the rack (DeSade thinks everyone is a pirate) but Fallon is invited to dinner where DeSade insults Cassandra, rants like a jerk and passes out. However before that happens we learn the fate of DeSade’s wife, a leper who went mad and now resides in an underground chamber/mausoleum in full wedding dress ready to re-enact her wedding night! Yikes!

Fallon and Cassandra decide to leave/escape/fly the coop. Unfortunately DeSade and Mantis will have none of it. He subjects Ann to a water torture after she’s caught trying to help The Captain escape, who in turn is impaled by Mantis. Poor Fallon! He’s chained up in the underground chamber where Mrs. DeSade (in full wedding dress and rotting face) wants to consummate her marriage! Eek! A leprous kiss turns Fallon’s hair white in one of the sickest scenes ever in a movie! Cassandra kills The Countess (a little late; why couldn’t she have done this three scenes earlier?) and the two of them flee to the woods with The Count, Mantis and hunting dogs in hot pursuit. Eventually, DeSade kills Mantis. Fallon kills The Count. He and Cassandra live happily awaiting the arrival of a supply ship to rescue them, right?

Wrong! When the ship does come the crew hightail it outta there as fast as they can because Fallon and Cassandra are now lepers themselves! Back in the present Fallon finishes his narrative and proceeds to put Cassandra in the former wedding chamber of Mrs. DeSade because she has gone mad too! The End…

What can I say? Yes, this movie reeks. The “leprous wedding night kiss” scene is creepy but the most depressing thing about the whole deal is the end where it’s revealed that both leads are now lonely lepers living in solitude. The Fallon character while a bit pompous perhaps was totally innocent. Did he really deserve such a cruel fate? Wasn’t he supposed to be the hero? Yet he ends up screwed and insane. He laments, “I’m so alone” and wishes he had someone to talk to. It’s pathetic and eerie all at once. Inept filmmakers usually don’t care much about their subjects (especially in such low budget surroundings) and DUNGEON OF HARROW really drives this point home!

The same year he made DOH director Pat Boyette also made something called THE WEIRD ONES. In ’64 he teamed once again with DOH star Russ Harvey to make NO MAN’S LAND about a US soldier in Korea (but filmed in Texas!). Fortunately for all of us the comic book world beckoned and Boyette put down his megaphone and picked up a pencil (though he did find time to write episodes of the TV police drama ADAM-12 in 1968). He did most of his work for DC comics and died in 2000.











One of ex-director Pat Boyette's self published comic books from the 1980's.







WARNING: THIS MOVIE HAS OCCASIONALLY PLAYED ON TV AS "DUNGEON OF HORROR"!! (actually a more approriate title)

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Now This Is A Great Bad Movie!

GALLERY OF HORROR-1967–Man, if bad movies could hit home runs this Z budget anthology would be Babe Ruth! Everything connected with it is sub-par. The photography, the direction, the sets, SFX, the script and the acting!

But it wasn’t bad enough that the producers assembled a bunch of rank amateurs to play multiple roles in the 5 stories…Oh no! They had to include three “name stars” from the past too!



John Carradine (in ill fitting tux) is our narrator who introduces each tale and talks about vampires, werewolves, etc. He does this to the background of the rough sea crashing against breakers. Since Carradine could read the phone book backwards and hold our interest these scenes by default are the best-filmed parts!

John was a busy actor in films & TV at the time (in fact I would have to say that before in died in 1988 he was always a busy actor) but still he finds time to star in the first episode, “The Witches’ Clock” as a Warlock who uses an old clock to terrorize a newlywed couple. This is the only segment that is not a period piece.

The second tale involves a police hunt in foggy old England for the killer known as “King Vampire”. Lon Chaney shows up in the third installment “Spark Of Life” as a cheerfully crazy Dr. Frankenstein, doing experiments at a local college where two students decide to help him bring a corpse back to life. The fourth and longest episode (well it seems like the longest anyway!) is called “Monster Raid”. It’s about a doctor’s revenge on his unfaithful wife and her lover, also his ex-colleague who killed him. Fortunately a loyal assistant brings him back to life. Much of it is POV shots and flashbacks. Former 30’s Hollywood film star Rochelle Hudson plays the wife. I hope she wasn’t using this role as springboard for a comeback. Maybe she just lived next door and needed beer money.

And finally there’s the intriguing “Count Alucard” (yeah… right!) a tale of vampirism featuring someone named Mitch Evans in the title role and possibly giving the worst performance as the legendary vampire this side of Zandor Varkoff. This story has the funniest ending. And like all the others once the “surprise ending” is revealed the screen turns red (much like the faces of the theater owners who charged unsuspecting patrons to see this in 1967…).

The story goes that GOH was originally suppose to be an adaptation of the black & white horror comic CREEPY published by Warren (they also printed FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND) but eccentric owner Jim Warren pulled out at the last minute. The producers bravely (insert your own word here if you want) forged ahead and made their own humble opus. Many of the actors play several different roles and are all pretty bad.

Director David Hewitt would work with Carradine again in THE WIZARD OF MARS and make a few other films like the incoherent THE LUCIFER COMPLEX (where Robert Vaughn fought clones of himself, Keenan Wynn and Hitler while some guy watches it all on a TV in a cave!).

GOH is also known as “Dr. Terror’s Gallery of Horrors” perhaps to draw on the Hammer made anthology DR. HORROR’S GALLERY OF TERRORS which may have been playing in US theaters around this time. It also showed up on very very late night TV as RETURN TO THE PAST occasionally missing the “Monster Raid” sequence. For some reason known only to a chosen few it also played under the title “Blood Suckers”.

Grab a six-pack and enjoy!

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The White Gorilla

THE WHITE GORILLA-1945-They don’t make them like this anymore! Thank God!!! This movie was so cheaply thrown together that much of it uses portions of a 1927 silent movie (PERILS OF THE JUNGLE) as a flashback!

Stuntman and sometimes actor Crash Corrigan stars as Steve Collins, a jungle guide who returns alone from an expedition and relates “the chilling tale” of his encounter with a mysterious and legendary White Gorilla (also played by Crash), a simian outcast intent on killing anyone in his path.The silent movie flashback is incorporated when Collins tells of his expedition’s fate and his run-in with The Hairy White One. Collins watches mostly from a tree or behind bushes as two white guys in the jungle battle Tiger Men, lions and marauding elephants. There’s also a young white kid who rides on the trunk of an elephant and his mother who pretends she’s crazy to fool the locals into leaving her alone.



This footage in it’s original form may have been entertaining but here it’s pretty laughable especially with Crash’s inane narration.He is relating all this to a jungle trader name Morgan and two other guys. Half way through his tale Morgan’s daughter Ruth (Lorraine Miller) shows up and we get the skinny on The White Gorilla who also battles a regular black gorilla (though both are the usual phony man in an ape suit types). Eventually Collins kills his hairy nemesis when it kidnaps Ruth and we are told the cast of the other film is all dead.



I once saw an episode of the TV show VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA that re-used a black and white scene from the first season in a later color episode but using a silent movie from 1927 in a film 18 years later is something Jerry Warren wouldn’t even have the audacity to do!

It’s a pretty funny concept but I wonder if any of the audience in 1945 knew or cared? The other hysterical thing is the credits. After the title Corrigan & Miller’s names are show and the words “ and an all star cast”! That’s what it says in the opening credits!

Stuntman Ray “Crash” Corrigan began his film career in 1934 as Johnny Weismuller’s double in TARZAN AND HIS MATE. In 1936 he starred in the serial UNDERSEA KINGDOM (Lon Chaney Jr. is one of the bad guys) and a series of “Tucson Smith” westerns but mostly he played apes and other creatures. He was in the similarly themed WHITE PONGO the same year as TWG. His last appearance was as the space monster in IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE. He died in 1976.

Lorraine Miller was later in William Castle’s rarely screened IT’S A SMALL WORLD. Director Harry L. Fraser wrote I ACCUSE MY PARENTS and the Batman and Captain America serials among other stuff! He was also second unit director on some films including Bert I. Gordon’s THE CYCLOPS and THE BRIDE AND THE BEAST (which involves gorillas, reincarnation, was written by Ed Wood Jr. and interestingly enough was directed by Adrian Weiss who edited TWG). His directing career, which started in 1925, was mostly undistinguished but his last was CHAINED FOR LIFE (starring real life Siamese twins The Hilton Sisters). Calling him THE WHITE GORILLA’s director is being kind. He should be the “put to together-er”.


One last note: TWG’s musical score is credited to Lee Zahler who is also credited with the music to PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE.

One last final note: An actor in the silent footage named Frank Merrill also played Tarzan in late ‘20’s pre-sound era.THE WHITE GORILLA is crazy stuff.

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one"-Albert Einstein

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The Fur Flies

WHO KILLED DOC ROBBIN?-(1948)-This is a Technicolor haunted house mystery produced by Hal Roach and starring a bunch of "Little Rascals" wannabes. There's a freckled face coward, a smart guy, the tough leader, 2 girls and two younger black kids "affectionally" called Dis & Dat which takes ethnic stereotyping to new heights (or depths). "The Gang" spends a lot of time in the haunted home of a dead scientist, where they are terrorized by an ape (guy in a costume ), trap doors and other nonsense. In a flashback we learn "Doc" is a suspicious doctor (George Zucco) who wants the invention of an old man who is a friend of the brats. Although it is dated 1948 some "war time" references to Japan seem to say it might have been made earlier.

If you want to see low budget color mysteries watch SCARED TO DEATH instead. Not only does it have Zucco but it's Bela Lugosi's only color film...and it's narrated by a dead woman!!!!

CATMAN OF PARIS-(1946)-Republic Studios was best known for their low budget westerns and serials but occasionally ventured into adventure, action or like this entry, horror.

Carl Esmond (a US actor born in Austria who had a short Hollywood career) plays author Charles Rene who may turn into a catman due to a bout with tropical fever. Douglas Dumbrille plays his friend. Lenore Aubert (later in ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN) is his fiance'. He has bouts of amnesia and can't remember where he was when a murder occurs (so you know right away he ain't the killer!).

He has a wild fight in a cafe with four guys (including Anthony Caruso and John Dehner). It turns out that the cat like creature appears every once in the while when the planets are aligned a certain way. Massacre of Christians, Middle East wars and the victims of Ivan The Terrible are all blamed on him! The wild police team of Gerald Mohr and Fritz Feld try to figure it all out.

A creature does show up at the end ("It really is a catman" declares Mohr) with furry face, fangs and pointy finger nails. Everyone has terrible French accents. Director Lesley Selander was an assistant director from 1925 to 1936 before he directed his first film. He made over 130 movies until his retirement in 1968. Star Esmond was later in low budget stuff like FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON and AGENT OF H.A.R.M. Douglas Dumbrille usually played villains or corrupt officials several times against The Marx Bros. and Abbott & Costello. Gerald Mohr was an actor and narrator who voiced "Reed Richards" in the first FANTASTIC FOUR cartoon show in the '60's.

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