Horrors Of Black Museum Stills

Seems like more than ever, everyone's trying to get ahead in this world, like a bunch of crabs in a barrel all scratching and pulling each other back down in an effort to get to the top. It's been that way for years, & especially in the movies. In this wild scene from "Horrors Of The Black Museum," not only are the weirdos trying to get to the top, they are also literally trying to get a Head! Portable guillotines are pretty effective tools no doubt! Man, that was brutal for 1959, and Michael Gough, although not in this scene, is tremendously sinister the whole rest of the film!

Plan Ahead

Head Stills

Lilly's a stripper at the "Tam-Tam" tiki club. She looks good, but she drinks too much!
The boys in the band are wailing! There's a good crowd! The room is hot tonight!
Lilly's deadbeat artist boyfriend is bugging her, so she orders two or three more drinks!
Even if you're in a movie, you should always watch out for who's watching you!

Otto Storr as Frank the barkeep sees it all, but he ain't talkin' and the band just keeps on playing!! You might remember Otto from his role as Wenzel The Clown in the 1962 classic thriller, "Snow White & The Seven Jugglers."

Bloody Brood Stills With Peter Falk

There's a very fine line sometimes between Monster movies & JD/Crime flicks, but the general rule in defining genres usually seems to be, if there's a bonafide Psycho involved, that will make the plot just twisted enough to qualify as a Monster movie.....so you get some titles like "Bucket Of Blood," "Anatomy Of A Psycho" etc, or in this case, "The Bloody Brood." These hip punks are a real gang of mental monsters led by none other than Peter Falk, who was, by my reckoning, 32 when this film was made. Seems like film makers in the 50's had a lot of trouble defining the 'Beat' generation! They manage to get some of the lingo straight, they remember to use a lot of bongos, and beat poetry, but the characters generally seem overly outrageous, & very rarely dressed properly. Okay, here's the deal, Beatniks should look like Maynard G. Krebs, period. Sweatshirt & tennies, no suits, man, that's for squares, you dig?!!!
Harry Freedman provides us with a soundtrack a lot hipper than the people in the movie, but just as sinister! Here's The Bloody Brood

Dr Mabuse Stills

These German "Dr. Mabuse" films have been going on since 1922, & it took 39 years to get around to the "Return Of." Here's some swingin' background music from a couple of scenes that I swear to you, sound so much like "The Firesign Theatre" that it's incredible! "What kind of joke is this, Ross" etc...., you'll see, or hear, if you know what I'm talking about, you'll get it! Dr. Mabuse, 100% great stuff, find it when & where you can!!

What kind of a joke is this?

Here's a short bit with the player piano that was playing in the background of a telephone conversation leading to the discovery of the suspect's whereabouts.

The Player Piano

Beach Girls & Monster Stills

It's Very Easy to write off "The Beach Girls & The Monster" as complete fluff, which it is, but you just can not take away the fact that it has some very real excellent moments. The piece of music presented here is beyond belief! Starting off with some cool bongos, then extra greasy surf sax and crazy distorted guitar laid over an A+ heartbeat pounding drum, which segues into a driving jazzy free drum set followed with a loungey Brubeck piano tinged Kenyon Hopkins type psycholicious nightmare extravaganza! Yeah, yeah, Sure, sure, Vicki and Mark get killed too, but that's really a very minor detail compared to the incredible musical contribution to the scenes! This is really good!!

Batwoman Stills

"Okay, Fun time's over!" " We ordered a sandwich, a sandwich!" "Ha Ha, Ha Ha Ha, Hah!!" "Give me the key!","Oh, Yeah!" "Ha Hah!!" "Tiger, C'mon!"
Those are just some of the brilliant quotes from this 8 3/4 minute musical jam of bits from the movie "The Wild World Of Batwoman." The music just keeps on going, and a lot of it is really good when it gets cookin' and they hit some killer grooves! It seems the "Young Giants" play the majority of this music under the direction of Jerry Warren, mixed in with pieces of Jerry's 1959 45 release "Monkey Walk" by Jerry Warren & The Pets on Arwin Records. For all lovers of the best kitch available, it's the...."Batwoman Jam"

Definitely the cheapest looking gauge and equipment ever seen anywhere before or since, but for some reason, you just don't care!

Konga Stills

Man, that Michael Gough can be a devilish soul, & in "Konga" he probably plays his best role of a really 'not nice' guy. His assistant Margaret loves him; she's so lowly, she doesn't even have a last name and he treats her like crap. Sandra Banks adores his intellect, but has no clue that he's just a dirty old pervert after her bod, not her mind. He has his big monkey kill anybody that pisses him off, and he's growing giant phallic-looking, meat-eating plants in his greenhouse. Does that sound like a nice guy to you? Well, maybe by today's standards, but not back in 1961! Still, it makes for a great movie & should be riding high on your 'to do' list! Gerard Schurmann does a swingin' job on the music, just like he did on the other Michael Gough evil classic, "Horrors Of The Black Museum."
Konga
Having a casual conversation with the boss, Hey Mike, watch out, or you'll bust a blood vessel!

Stuck in the back of the truck, might as well break out the radio & listen to some cool tunes!

How bout that? Sandra Banks gets to ride up front!

Getting out of the rain, dancing, everyone's having a great time except, Sandra Banks' boyfriend Bob Kenton, who if Sandra had listened to, would still be alive, & she'd still have two arms!

Bob can't take it anymore!