World Music

It's Monster Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Eegah!! and I saw this one back in 1960 at the theater, distribution was a lot different than today, it actually took that long for it to make it to our town! It was originally released as a double bill with THE SCREAMING SKULL. This flick remains one of my favorites, it was written by the director, Robert J. Gurney Jr. from a story by sci-fi pulp and paperback writer, Henry Slesar, from a story called "Bottle Baby." Henry went on to be a very successful writer for television including writing for ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, TWILIGHT ZONE, THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. and BATMAN! Great lobby card, sadly, I used to have a mint 3-sheet of this title. Eegah!! sent over a very nice soundclip for us to play, sooooo, as to not be rude, you can go ahead and push that big red 'GO' button right there in front of your claw, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here comes some cool rockin' sounds and more, get ready for......

Tonight's Saturday Special is "Vanishing Point," a guilty pleasure of a film that Tabonga and I saw back in the early 70's at the Fox Theatre in a double feature with the equally trippy "Zachariah!" On the surface, "Vanishing Point" is not much more than an elongated chase scene, but read between the lines and you'll find an intriguing story of innocence, oppression, and the helplessness of individuals in society in general! You know you're in BIG trouble when a police helicopter is tailing you like this!! Looks like this might be the end, but "Vanishing Point" is just getting started!! Barry Newman is ex-cop Kowalski! It's no big deal, he just has this 1970 Dodge Challenger to deliver to San Francisco from Colorado, but he was driving too fast, and now he's got law enforcement officers after him, and it's too late to turn back! Kowalski is a true rebel without a cause!! No relation to wrasslin' heavyweight champ...

It's Friday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Our super classic silent film was directed by the masterful Fritz Lang who utilized many talented craftsmen to help create this awesome spectacle. The budget was 1,300,000 DM, has runtimes from 80-210 minutes and was released on March 13th. For years, all that survived of the METROPOLIS prints were incomplete original negatives and copies of shortened, re-edited prints. Over a quarter of the film was believed totally lost, but, in July 2008 Germany's 'ZEITmagazin' reported the discovery at the Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken of a 16mm dupicate negative copy of the original full-length 35mm print, which had been sent to Argentina in 1928! Lil' Rufus The Gnat has the night off because the music from this copy was so pedestrian that we have no soundclip for it! So, enjoy your time off Rufus, we'll see you back here next Friday! And, buzz-a-buzz buzz to you, too!! So then, the story goes like this... In the fu...