Amicus, Franco, Fulci and More!

September 16, 2025 by Jon Kitley in Movie Events and tagged A Cat in the Brain, Amicus, City of the Living Dead, Don't Torture a Duckling, Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, Dracula: Prisoner of Frankenstein, Erotic Rites of Frankenstein, Female Vampire, House by the Cemetery, I Monster, Jesús Franco, Jess Franco, Lizard in a Woman's Skin, Lucio Fulci, Murderock, Psychopath, The Beyond, The Gap Theatre, The Gates of Hell, The House That Dripped Blood, The Psychic, Zombi 3, Zombie | Leave a comment

I know we’re always promoting and talking about how great the Music Box Theatre here in Chicago is (because it is!), but I recently found out about a theater in Wind Gap, PA that seems to not only play some amazing genre films quite a bit, but they also have some mini fests coming up that makes me want to take a road trip! The Gap Theatre (click HERE to get to their website) has plenty of amazing titles, double features, and other screenings lined up on their schedule. But there were 3 different ones that had me drooling.

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Horror History: Alberto Dalbés

June 21, 2020 by Jon Kitley in Horror History and tagged Alberto Dalbés, Dracula: Prisoner of Frankenstein, Erotic Rites of Frankenstein, Hunchback of the Morgue, Jess Franco, Night of the Assassins, Paul Naschy | Leave a comment

albertodalbes Alberto Dalbés
Born Apr. 3rd, 1922 – Died Sept. 14th, 1983

Spanish horror from the early ’70s, especially that of Jess Franco’s work, probably have seen Dalbés’ face at some point. For me, I first became aware of him from appearing as the mad doctor in Paul Naschy’s The Hunchback of the Morgue (1973). He really was fun to watch there, playing a scientist so driven in his plans to create a new life form, that he had no care or whims about other people, even having them killed to be used to feed this beast he was creating. Great stuff.

He made his screen debut in 1943 in a film called Youth Kicks and worked in quite a few movies before moving to Spain, where he continued to appear on screen. He appeared in other genre films like Maniac Mansion and Cut-Throats Nine, both from 1972.

He seemed to work quite a bit with Jess Franco, appearing in quite a few number of his pictures, such as Night of the Assassins (1974), The Demons (1973), Tender and Perverse Emanuelle (1973), Dracula: Prisoner of Frankenstein (1972), The Curse of Frankenstein (1972), and so many more.

So the next time you find yourself watching a Franco film, you just might want to keep your eyes open to see if you don’t see Dalbés come onscreen.

Movie Review: Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein

January 12, 2020 by Jon Kitley in Reviews: Movies and tagged Alberto Dalbés, Dennis Price, Dracula, Dracula: Prisoner of Frankenstein, Frankenstein, Howard Vernon, Jesús Franco, Jess Frano, Luis Barboo, The Screaming Dead, Wolfman | Leave a comment

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Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein (aka Drácula contra Frankenstein, 1972)
Directed by Jesús Franco
Starring Dennis Price, Howard Vernon, Paca Gabaldón, Alberto Dalbés, Britt Nichols, Geneviève Robert, Anne Libert, Luis Barboo, Fernando Bilbao, Josyane Gibert

DPoF poster I know it is hard for some fans to think of Jess Franco as a highly crafted filmmaker, but there are more than a few examples in his filmography to prove that. This, however, is not one of them.

The first time I saw this film was from the Wizard Video VHS tape, under the title The Screaming Dead, which is quite different when comparing it to the DVD of Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein. Right away you’ll notice that it is extremely cropped with most of the opening names in the credits being cut off on the sides. The film is sequenced differently as well, having some parts in there that are not in the DVD version! For the sake of sanity, I’m just going to talk about the DVD version from Image Entertainment back in 2006. Continue reading →

Turkey Day 2013

May 17, 2015 by Jon Kitley in Turkey Day Marathon and tagged Black Roses, Dracula: Prisoner of Frankenstein, Frankenstein Island, Jess Franco, King Kong Escapes, Larry Buchanan, Loch Ness Horror, The Atomic Brain, The Visitor, Turkey Day Marathon | Leave a comment

You would think that after 10 years of holding these little marathons, putting movie viewers through some possibly horrendous films was not the nicest or smartest thing to be doing. Yeah…you would think. To those that think this just plain crazy, you are correct! But we do it anyway. The people that come out to help me celebrate my annual party are die-hard cinephiles that don’t mind getting on their hands and knees, drudging through the muck of cinematic garbage, or at least what some may call it. We try to find the higher points on these films, even though with some it is very tough to do that with, but we try anyway. It is our way to not only test our endurance, but also to highlight some of these hardworking filmmakers and their finished accomplishments. No matter how bad or good they might be, we feel they need to be remembered, even in the worse way.

We had no T-day virgins this year, but seasoned veterans that obviously are gluttons for punishment. While we thought for a while that Aaron Christensen wasn’t going to be able to make it due to an acting gig, he was able to work his way out for the first 4 movies before having to catch a train to meet up with his ride back to Milwaukee. That’s dedication. Honestly, I was thrilled that he did since it wouldn’t have been the same without him, since he has been here to every one of them since 2005. Also returning was Joe Wallace, Jennifer Kilzer, Craig Clark, Jason Coffman, Neil Calderone, and Brian Fukula. Brian also had to leave early, after the 3rd film, but we get him credit for making the trip out for what he could. My son Nick had to work this year, so he missed most of the movies, but did arrive in time to catch one of them. And of course, probably one of the real reasons these guys keep coming out for this event is all the amazing pizzas made by my wife Dawn, who was able to sit in the last few movies. We had the usual breakfast pizzas, Italian beef pizza, crab Rangoon pizza, but also some new ones like the chili rellenos pizza that was just incredible.

Once again, we got through 7 films, but managed to devour 12 pizzas this time. So with only 8-9 of us here for most of the day, we seemed to go through a lot more pizzas than last year. I’m sure the excitement of the movies just meant we were burning up more calories, making us hungrier. Yeah…sure…I buy that. But lets get to the movies.

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