The 10th Gladiator by Dave Goode

One of my favorite stars from the sinew & sandal genre was Dan Vadis. If you're not someone who "likes movies about gladiators" you might know him from his roles in Clint Eastwood movies like The Gauntlet , Bronco Billy, and Any Which Way But Loose among others. The first thing I took note of him in was the Ten Gladiator trilogy. In The 10 Gladiators (1963), Triumph of the 10 Gladiators (1964), and Spartacus and the 10 Gladiators (1964) he stars as Rocco the leader of a traveling band of gladiators who always seem to find themselves fighting on the side of the oppressed.

Of the 10 Gladiator series my favorite is Spartacus and the 10 Gladiators. It's great over the top fun with cheese whiz dialogue and the almost 3 Stooges-like antics of the gladiators themselves. Another plus for this one was the fight between Vadis and pro wrestler turned actor Milton Reid a.k.a as the villain. It makes you think the athletic Vadis could have had a second career in the grunt & groan racket as a "baby-face". You can also see why Vadis was nicknamed "Karate Dan" as he drops into a horse stance when he throws a punch. Usually a reverse punch or back fist.

Another good one that Vadis stars in is The Rebel Gladiator (1962). In this one he portrays a strength hero who has converted to Christianity and opposes the tyranny of the mad emperor Commodus played by sinew & sandal regular Alan Steel. Commodus in this flick is much closer to the historical Commodus then the one who was seen in the movie Gladiator (2000). The real Commodus declared himself the reincarnation of Hercules and fought in the arena. Of course those matches were probably as scripted as anything you'd find in the WWE.

In Hercules The Invincible (1964) Vadis stars as the legendary hero of song and story. Though not as massive as a Reg Park or Mark Forest he has an air of raw strength about him. He performs a feat of strength in this flick familiar to fans of the genre...the Hercules hold. And though it's doubtful his biceps measured over 18 inches he looks like he's capable of resisting the pull of the two elephants he's struggling against.

My favorite performance by Dan Vadis in a muscle movie was his turn as the Son of Jove in The Triumph of Hercules (1964). In it he's as noble as any of the other actors who've portrayed Hercules. But he seems to be having a lot of fun doing it. Unlike Steve Reeves in the groundbreaking Hercules (1957) Vadis enjoys being a god among men. Like in all his other starring roles his athleticism is on display throughout the movie. Be it rescuing someone from quicksand , fighting in the arena , matching his strength against 7 indestructible golden men or saving the heroine played by Marilu Tolo from a deathtrap.

It's his athleticism that makes me imagine starring in an American - made masked wrestler movie. Or maybe in a movie where he plays a jungle hero. Perhaps not Tarzan himself. But maybe as one of the Lord of the Jungle's many imitators. Or maybe an entirely new character. Below is a new Golden Adonis comic by myself and my buddy Vance Capley.

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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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One That I Always Wanted To See! by Dave Goode

James Bama was to Doc Savage as was Frank Frazetta to Conan. I, like so many others, came to the Doc Savage through the paperback covers illustrated by Bama. The same way Frazetta's Conan covers drew me to Robert E. Howard's barbarian hero. Though that "skull-cap" hairstyle Bama gave Doc in his paintings had me wondering at first what kind of stories they'd be.
















I much preferred Doc's look on the original pulp covers by Walter Baumhofer.
The one thing that I always regretted not seeing by either artist was the Man of Bronze in mortal combat against a gorilla ala' Tarzan. But since no such scene occurred in the original pulp stories there was no reason to have seen such a scene illustrated.

 
And speaking of Tarzan, just about any (but not all) the actors who portrayed Edgar Rice Burroughs' Lord of the Jungle could have done double-duty portraying Doc Savage. I've long imagined Buster Crabbe playing Doc in a 1930s serial.

Graphics by Vance Capley

In the alternate universe that runs through my mind Crabbe was hired by Street & Smith to pose for publicity pics as the Man of Bronze soon after he won his Olympic gold medal in 1932.

Herman Brix, Lex Barker, and Jock Mahoney all might have been good as Doc Savage.

Heck! Ron Ely did play both pulp heroes.

 

Can you imagine a cover for Phillip Jose Farmer's novel A Feast Unknown with an artist illustrating both Lord Grandrith and Doc Caliban to resemble Ron Ely.

Knowing how much I always wanted to see the Man of Bronze battling a gorilla my buddy Vance Capley created this bosso-keeno faux Doc Savage comic book cover. Enjoy.

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Mexican Psychotronica by Dave Goode

God bless K.Gordon Murray! Not only did he bring el Santo and the Aztec Mummy to America, but the "movie broker", who was known as the "King of the Kiddie Matinees", also brought a number of children's fantasy films from other countries like HANSEL & GRETEL (1954), RUMPELSTILTSKIN (1955), and SANTA CLAUS (1959). He also brought the Little Red Riding Hood series to American audiences. This trilogy consisted of LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD (1960), LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD AND HER FRIENDS (1961), and LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD AND THE MONSTERS (1962).

The third film in the trilogy LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD AND THE MONSTERS is an incredible piece of Mexican psychotronica. It has the Queen of Badness (Ofelia Guilmain) putting the Wolf (Manuel Valdes) and the Ogre (Jose Elias Moreno) on trial for not being bad enough. So it's up to Little Red Riding Hood (Maria Gracia), Tom Thumb (Cesareo Quezadas), and Stinky the Skunk (Santanon) to rescue their friends from the evil queen ,who is a dead ringer for the evil queen from Walt Disney's SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937), and her minions. Oh did I mention this fantasy/adventure is also a musical? It is.

The movie is fun. It's sort of like the Batman television series of the 1960s that if you watch it at a certain age it's an entertaining fantasy/adventure. At another age it's just high camp fun. Not as good as THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939). Or as much demented fun as THE 5000 FINGERS OF DR.T. (1953). But it's well worth watching.

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