THERE SHOULD HAVE BEEN MORE SEQUEL by Dave Goode

Without a doubt the best masked wrestler movies not to come out of Mexico were the Superargo series from Italy. The two movies starred Giovanni Cianfriglia. Someone who should be familiar to all fans of European costume dramas. He worked as a body double for Steve Reeves and did stunt-work in many Italian action movies. Cianfriglia portrayed the Earth giant Antaeus in HERCULES THE AVENGER and has a memorable fight scene with Mr.Universe winner Reg Park who plays the demi-god Hercules. He also has a great fight in GOLIATH AGAINST THE VAMPIRES against former Tarzan movie star turned sinew & sandal hero Gordon Scott. Scott portrays Maciste and Cianfriglia in the course of the battle portrays an "evil twin". For years it was rumored that it was Steve Reeves that was seen in long shots as the evil Maciste/Goliath as the two men grappled. But it was in fact Cianfriglia.

In SUPERARGO VS. DIABOLICUS(1966) Cianfriglia billed as Ken Wood plays the masked wrestling champion Superargo. In what is more or less an origin tale masked wrestling champion Superargo defends his title against his friend,a wrestled called el Tigre. During the course of the match el Tigre is accidently killed. Superargo is understandably despondent and looks for purpose in life.He finds it when his former commanding officer from the army,now the head of the secret service,recruits him for a special mission. And he uses his special abilities plus a bullet-proof costume and some Bondian gadgets to take on the modern alchemist Diabolicus and his sexy red-headed accomplice who refers to her employer as the "future ruler of the universe". This flick is a lot of fun with a lot of action. And Loredana Nusciak as Diabolicus accomplice(girl friend?) and Monica Randall as Superargo's girl friend Lidia are both nice to look at.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sequel SUPERARGO a.k.a SUPERARGO AND THE FACELESS GIANTS(1968) has Cianfriglia returning as the masked wrestler turned secret agent. Superargo's girl friend from the first flick is nowhere to be found. Instead the masked man is keeping company with Kamir a Hindu guru who has taught him to unleash his psychic abilities. Superargo is called in by the authorities to solve a case involving a group of missing athletes and ends up battling Professor Wond,played by former American western star Guy Madison,and his army of living robots.

 

 

 

I always thought there should have been a third movie so that fans of the masked wrestler genre would be talking about a Superargo trilogy today. Wondering what that might look like my buddy Vance Capley and I put together this faux page for a Superargo comic book.

CLICK THE PICTURE AND SEE DAVE GOODE AND

VANCE CAPLEY DISCUSS THIS FILM:

CLICK THIS LOGO TO SEE VANCE CAPLEY'S WORK

The Best Superman Movie (IMHO) by Dave Goode

For my money, the best Superman feature film to date, remains SUPERMAN AND THE MOLE MEN from way back in 1951. Produced by Barney A. Sarecky, written by Richard Fielding and directed by Lee Sholem, this little B-Movie was distributed by Lippert Pictures Incorporated. And it introduced the world to George Reeves in the role of Superman. With no Jimmy Olsen. And Perry White only briefly mentioned in the dialogue this black and white film seemed almost like an extended live-action version of the animated shorts the Fleischer Brothers produced for Paramount back in the 1940s.

The movie jumps right into the action.Clark Kent and Lois Lane arrive in the town of Silsby to cover the story of the world's deepest oil well. The drill however has penetrated into the underground home of a race of "mole men" who come to the surface to investigate what's going on. The town's people on first contact with the strange visitors from the center of the Earth form a mob intent on killing the creatures. Luckily Superman is around to prevent a tragedy.

More or less a sci-fi flick the movie's limited budget (estimated at 275,000 dollars) is obvious. George Reeves does some pretty effective Peter Pan take-offs.But his actual flying scenes are limited to two. One is a pretty cool overhead tracking shot where the viewer never actually sees Superman in flight.But at the same time you don't feel cheated.The other is a brief animated flight scene. It's pretty bad. But we still "believed a man could fly".  And of course there is the infamous vacuum cleaner/ray-gun that the Mole Men use. Something Irwin Allen might have tried on LOST IN SPACE. But it works.

What really works is the tightly written script.And George Reeves and Phyllis Coates as Superman and Lois Lane.Reeves is the perfect Superman. Even without a wind curl on his forehead. And his Clark Kent is even better. Though some purists might argue he's a far cry from the Clark Kent that Siegal & Schuster created. I've always preferred Reeves' mild-mannered reporter to the wimpy Kent played by other actors. And Coates was the perfect Lois Lane. Independent and gutsy.

You probably have seen this movie in it's edited form that was shown in two parts on THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN television series where it was titled THE UNKNOWN PEOPLE. But if you've never seen the 58 minute movie version I suggest you search it out.Those missing 15 minutes do make a difference.

The Jackie Robinson of Super-Heroes by Dave Goode

Born at the tail-end of the baby boom,just when the Silver Age was beginning I loved the comic books of that era. But there was one thing that I found a bit disturbing about that period. The lack of "heroes with a face like mine". Consider that the civil rights movement was getting a major push at the same time the Silver Age was beginning it seemed strange that the first black super-hero from a major comic book company wouldn't appear until 1966 with the appearance of the Black Panther in Fantastic Four 52 and 53 from Marvel Comics.

To be sure there had been black characters featured in comics since the Golden Age. But the less said about them the better. They were a reflection of their times. Mimicking the negative stereotypes that were found in the movies. It was during the Silver Age that you began to see black characters that were positive role models for young black comic book readers. And that taught young white comic book readers to reject the old stereotypes.

In Fantastic Four No.52 we got the first black super-hero to appear in a mainstream comic book...T'Challa, the Black Panther. The only thing that you can compare it to was when Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball's "color barrier in 1947. In 1947 no matter what baseball team you rooted for if you were black the Brooklyn Dodgers automatically became your second favorite team. Captain America was my favorite super-hero.But the Black Panther immediately became my second favorite super-hero.

T'Challa was the king of a scientifically advanced fictional African nation. He was a super-athlete able to fight the Fantastic Four,at least for a brief time,to a standstill. He was intelligent,articulate and you could easily imagine him played by Sidney Poitier in a movie. The Black Panther was soon followed in by a super-hero I could even more readily identify with...Sam Wilson,the Falcon. Wilson would be the first African-American costumed hero from a mainstream comic book publisher. He would also become the partner of my favorite super-hero Captain America.

The other day I was watching THE SINS OF RACHEL CADE (1961) starring AngieDickinson and Roger Moore. The movie is set in Africa and features Woody Strode and Rafer Johnson in supporting roles. Watching the two athletes turned actors set me to imagining them in a 1966 Black Panther movie with Johnson as T'Challa and Strode portraying his father T'Chaka.

Swinging 60s Saturday Morning Space Opera by Dave Goode

When I was a kid I would wake up early on
Saturday mornings to catch the sci-fi series

FIREBALL XL-5. The show originated in the U.K. AND was syndicated here in the U.S from 1963 to 1965. It had a catchy theme song and was set in the far-flung future of the 21st century. It was the 3rd "Supermarionation" show (the 1st was FOUR FEATHER FALLS, 2nd  SUPERCAR) produced by the husband and wife team of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and followed the Flash Gordon-like adventures of Col.Steve Zodiac and his crew Dr.Venus,Robert the Robot and Prof.Matthew Matic.

The show was hugely popular. And with it's success there came a slew of Fireball XL-5 spin-off products. One of the coolest products was a lunchbox/thermos set designed by comic book artist supreme Wally Wood. Wood was a master illustrator and his work in the space opera genre is considered some of his finest and made him perfect for this job.

There was also a one-shot comic book from Gold Key in 1964 with a way-out cover by George Wilson.* Of course in that alternative universe that sometimes runs through my mind there was a live-action FIREBALL XL-5 movie starring Steve Holland and Eva Lynd. In fact the Steve Zodiac marionette looked quite a bit like Steve Holland. And I wouldn't at all be surprised if Holland had posed for the cover of that Gold Key comic book cover.After he and Wilson had worked together to produce some other striking comic book covers.

* In Britain, a two-page black-and-white Fireball XL5 comic strip appeared in the weekly TV Comic between 1962 and 1964 before moving to the newly launched weekly TV Century 21 comic in January 1965 for another five years. The strips that appeared between 1965 and 1968 were in color only reverting to black-and-white in 1969. Four hard cover Annual books were published in Britain by Collins between 1963 and 1966 featuring color and black and white comic strip and text stories.

GORILLA MY DREAMS by Dave Goode

Growing up in the Silver Age of Comic Books no doubt played some part in my becoming a fan of "ape-suit cinema". I even have a theory that all the intelligent gorillas that appeared in the comic books of the 50s and 60s were the results of those brain transplant experiments by mad scientists in the horror movies of the 30s and 40s. One of my favorites from the ape-suit genre was the fab 50s 3-D flick GORILLA AT LARGE.

I never considered it a horror flick. More like a murder mystery with the chief suspect a gorilla. A major reason I like this flick so much is that it features Anne Bancroft in what would be her sexiest role until she portrayed Mrs.Robinson in THE GRADUATE. In GORILLA AT LARGE she plays a nymphomaniacal aerialist who spends most of her time dressed in leotards. Another plus,for me at least,was that judo plays an integral part in the movie's plot. No there's no fight between the hero and Goliath,the eponymous gorilla at large.But the hero played by Cameron Mitchell is an ex-Marine with a working knowledge of judo. This makes him a prime suspect when characters start turning up with broken necks. You're left to guess who the real killer is...Goliath or someone in a gorilla costume?

Another favorite of mine is THE APE-MAN. Directed by the legendary William "One-Shot" Beaudine from a screenplay from Barney Sarecky this psychotronic movie isn't great art. But it's a heck of a lot of fun. It stars iconic horror movie star Bela Lugosi with Louise Currie  and Wallace Ford.And in a nod to equal opportunity it features Ernie "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison as a newspaper copy boy.Think about it. They could have cast any of the East Side Kids in the role. But they cast "Scruno". It's one of those movies where a scientist breaks the laws of the nature and pays a price for it.Emil Van Horn portrays Bela's pet gorilla. And as usual he's great. One of my favorite ape-suit actors Van Horn also worked in a few Gorilla & Girl nightclub acts.

Retro art by Vance Capley

THE MARTIAN INVASION by Dave Goode

One of the things that has bothered me over the years is how you can say something is your "favorite" and people take it to mean you're saying it's the "best". So let me say I consider THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL the best science fiction film of the 50s. Just my opinion.But my favorite sci-flick of the 50s is INVADERS FROM MARS.

The movie was produced independently by Edward L.Alperson and directed by William Cameron Menzies.It starred Jimmy Hunt as the young hero David McLean and stunning Helena Carter as Dr.Patricia Blake. With Arthur Franz,Leif Ericson and Hillary Brooke and a number of other 50s television supporting actors.

The screenplay is by Richard Blake from a story by John Tucker Battle and the film has a surrealistic,nightmarish quality that makes it almost a horror film.I know the Martians gave me nightmares for years.And one of the cool things about this film is that you don't see the "invaders from Mars" until about an hour into the picture. And they're well worth the wait.They're like something out of a sci-fi pulp. As is Helena Carter as Dr.Blake. In the movie's climax with her torn dress high heels and seamed stockings she looks like a pulp heroine come to life.

Retro art by Vance Capley

I'm Ready For The Remake by Dave Goode

If you're a fan-boy then you know what I'm talking about when I say that I can easily imagine favorite movies adapted to the comic book medium as easily as I can imagine favorite comic book stories adapted to the silver screen. For instance can't you picture adaptations of the John Wayne movies BACK TO BATAAN,THE SANDS OF IWO JIMA or THE GREEN BERETS drawn by Russ Heath,John Severin or Joe Kubert? Most of the time I'm imagining adaptations of masked wrestler movies. After all that genre has so many similarities to super-hero comics. But another movie I think that would be great as a comic book is THE BLOODY PIT OF HORROR a.k.a THE CRIMSON EXECUTIONER.

THE BLOODY PIT OF HORROR was a flick that had it's roots in Euro-pulps and Italian horror flicks like BLACK SUNDAY,THE WHIP AND THE BODY and THE VAMPIRE AND THE BALLERINA. It's a story that could easily be reimagined as a story published by Myron Fass. THE BLOODY PIT OF HORROR in fact sounds like the title for one of his horror comic book anthologies.

 

The movie stars former Mr.Universe winner Mickey Hargitay. And if this wasn't his best role he was at least perfectly cast. He plays Travis Anderson a "muscleman who formerly starred in costume movies". Mickey did the same. Most famously he portrayed Hercules in the camp classic THE LOVES OF HERCULES opposite his wife 50s icon Jayne Mansfield.

As Anderson, Mickey imagines himself to be the reincarnation of the Crimson Executioner an exceptionally sadistic member of the Inquisition. So when a group of models and photographers show up at his castle-home to take photos for foto-novel you know they're going to get more than they bargained for. Especially after Mickey starts dressing like the Crimson Executioner and delivering lines like "Mankind is made up of inferior creatures,spiritually and physically deformed,who would have corrupted the harmony of my perfect body." I can't speak for anyone else. But I'm ready for a remake.

 retro art by Vance Capley