Monogram Double Feature by Dave Goode

 

To most fans of cinema psychotronica the movies that Bela Lugosi starred in at Monogram during the 1940s for producer Sam Katzman are referred to as the Katzman 9. They were previously referred to as the Monogram 9 until someone pointed out that Lugosi made The Mysterious Mr.Wong for Monogram in 1934. And that mystery flick in which Bela plays a Fu Manchu type criminal mastermind wasn't produced by Katzman. Of the Katzman 9 two of my favorites were the East Side Kids comedies Spooks Run Wild (1941) and Ghosts On The Loose (1943). Both featuring Lugosi.

 

If you ever wondered what an East Side Kids movie made by Ed Wood would like check out Spooks Run Wild. I say that as a good thing. A lot of Wood's movies were entertaining with good stories. It's in their execution that they fall short. This flick falls into the haunted house movie genre with the Kids bringing their own brand of slapstick humor to the proceedings. There are some pretty good visual gags in it. And overall it's a good lampoon of the horror film genre.

My favorite East Side Kids movie was Let's Get Tough (1942) in which the gang take on a group of Japanese spies. In Ghosts On The Loose they take on Nazi spies led by Lugosi. Not quite as much fun as Spooks Run Wild this one is also a haunted house mystery. But it's most famous for featuring Ava Gardner as the ingenue and a scene between Bela Lugosi and "Sunshine" Sammy Morrison in which Bela ad-libs a four letter word that director William "One-Shot" Beaudine saw no need to re-shoot.

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CLASH OF THE TITANS by Dave Goode

Not to be confused with SAMSON AND HIS MIGHTY CHALLENGE (1964) , which it quite often is , HERCULES ,SAMSON AND ULYSSES is a favorite of fans of the sinew & sandal genre. But don't let that title fool you. This is the Hercules and Samson show. Ulysses is little more than a spear carrier in this flick. It's the two legendary strongmen that carry the movie.

KIRK MORRIS

Not  exactly an official sequel to HERCULES (1957) and HERCULES
UNCHAINED (1959). But all three were directed by Pietro Francisi who also had a hand in the writing of the screenplays. And the actors all seem to be playing characters as presented in those two movies with Kirk Morris replacing Steve Reeves as Hercules. But seriously...who can stand in for Steve Reeves?

ILOOSH KHOSHUE

Aside from Morris you have Iloosh Khoshue under the name Richard Lloyd portraying the Biblical hero Samson.

LIANA ORFEI

And there is beautiful Liana Orfei as the seductive Delilah. A veteran of the genre Orfei is perfect as the woman whose name has become synonymous with betrayal. Interestingly enough her cousin, Moira Orfei, would essay the role a year later in SAMSON AND HIS MIGHTY CHALLENGE.

production still from the film

The story has Hercules and Ulysses battling a sea monster. Caught in a storm after killing the beast they are thrown off course and end up in Judea. There Hercules is mistaken by the Philistines for their enemy Samson after he kills a lion with his bare hands. The two strongmen are tricked into battling each other before teaming to fight the common enemy.

The highlight of this flick is the clash between Hercules and Samson as the two heroes throw each other through walls, throw boulders at each other and bend iron bars around each other. For those of us in a pre-CGI world this was as close as we really got to two super-humans duking it out. I still like it more than the clash of the Kryptonians in SUPERMAN II.

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