TOMB OF THE TRUMPS #16 - Devil Priest Pack Part XVI

Welcome dear guys and ghouls, to the benighted world of Tomb of the Trumps! And I'm afraid my dearios, we are now reaching the end of this particular vault, with a pair of very bizarre characters brought to you by the letter Z! 

Now then, you would be forgiven for thinking that this particular card is merely the result of a nervous breakdown on the part of a rushed artist overcome by the fumes from his own magic markers. And indeed, many Horror Top Trumpologists have conclude that this is indeed the most likely explanation for the Zetan Priest! I mean, a cyclopean horror in a purple and orange cape made seemingly from the finest eye-ball searing 1970s wallpaper and wearing a nice lacy bonnet! Surely this clear evidence of an over-wrought mind affected by hallucinogen art materials! 

However as regular visitors to this den of terrible old tat know, unusual ocular features are a clear clue that this is in fact a disguised rip-off! And as it turns out, this alleged "Zetan Priest" is actually another denizen of the Doctor Who universe. It appears in the Third Doctor story Colony in Space which aired back in 1971, and  he/she/it is an alien from the planet Uxarieus in the year 2472, and surprisingly this walnut-bonced chap is actually a priest too. I particularly like the way that the Unknown Artist has turned the head ridges into lacy crinkles, and how if you look closely there's every indication he was going to do this fella with two eyes and then thought "sod it, let's go cyclops again!". 

Of course, we have no clue as to what all this Zetan business was all about, but in the companion deck it would crop up again... But more of that another another day. Meanwhile however we have the second half of our Z pair coming up next!  

Now then, as you may remember, a while back we encountered a similarly seemingly made-up for this deck clerical horror figure, the High Priestess of Zoltan (see here) and now, we have the lad himself! Quite why this green-faced, spikey-headed google-eyed freak warranted a High Priestess is sadly some thing I'm guess not even the deck's designers knew. However like his priestess, old Zoltan has his origins in demented early '70s horror. For as you can see, "Zoltan" is very obviously this creation from the 1971 Italian horror flick Lady Frankenstein.  

Now under all that latex is a Mr Peter Whiteman and, as far as I can tell, this was his only role. Funny that... Anyhow, this odd little movie introduces us to Baron Frankenstein's daughter Tania, played by Rosalba Neri, and this plot sees her returning from college to help out dear old dad, played by Joseph Cotton, with his notorious experiments. Of course, the first monster they make promptly runs amuck and escapes, and Tania continues her experiments by planning to transplant her lover's brain into a new younger body. Needless to say it all ends in tears, with a pitchfork wielding mob of villagers deciding they had enough of the Frankensteins' shit. 

Some have seen this movie as an attempt to put a feminist slant on the Frankenstein mythos, but I fear more have seen it as a chance to ogle Miss Neri with her kit off... It's a fine line between sexual liberation and sexploitation... But anyhow, Zoltan brings us to the end of the Devil Priest pack, but fear not dear friends, for our investigations will be continuing with the second deck, the Dracula pack, very very soon! 

TOMB OF THE TRUMPS #15 - Devil Priest Pack Part XV

Welcome to another exciting adventure into the strange and demented world of vintage Horror Top Trumps. We are now at the penultimate stop in our journey through the Devil Priest pack, but fear not dear friends, the lurid weirdness is by no means running out! I mean, just look at this! 

Ah dear old Venusian Death Cell! One of the most infamous cards in the benighted world of vintage Horror Top Trumps! Obviously this deranged vision lingered long in the minds of a generation of kids due to its marvelously gratuitous blood-gushing severed bonce, but it also bedeviled legions of young minds with tantalizing questions such as - what exactly was a "Death Cell"? Is that a sunrise on Venus? Is mauve now in fashion? And why were Venusians so pissed off with us anyway? 

Of course, for many of this deck's owners who were in the UK, there was another question - "Hang on, that's a ruddy Sea Devil from Doctor Who isn't it?" 

Well, yes the "Venusian" is indeed a Sea Devil. This race of intelligent marine reptoids, a sea-going cousin of the Silurians by the way, first appeared in the Third Doctor adventure "The Sea Devils" which aired way back in 1972, and have been a firm fan favourite ever since, making several comebacks over the years.   

However the rip-off don't end there! For as we have discovered in previous installments of this epic journey into old horror tat, quite often assorted victims and/or body parts have been pinched from other sources too! And this card is no exception, for I believe that the glorious blood dripping noggin is directly inspired by this illustration for Oscar Wilde's Salome by the great Victorian artist Aubrey Beardsley 

Considering that Mr Beardsley was no stranger to controversy and his illustrations frequently caused outrage, I'm sure he wouldn't mind his work being pilfered for a children's card game that upset many a parent... But moving on now, here we have a familiar furry face but with somewhat less than familiar accouterments! 

Now obviously the Wolfman needs no introduction, after all, he is one of the famous Universal Monsters. However I don't think this particular image is actually based on any stills of the great Lon Chaney Jnr. - for this lycanthrope appears quite different from the wolvish form of old Larry Talbot. In fact it doesn't really match any screen werewolves terribly well, and the fact that he is carrying an axe and wearing an overcoat rather suggests a non-lycanthropic body is the source picture. Facially however, there is a certain resemblance to this publicity still from Hammer's classic Curse of the Werewolf -

However the real puzzle in this card is what the hell is that weird shape with a googly eye in the bottom left-hand corner? I mean, what the hell is it? And what's it doing there? Other than a fragment of another drawing erroneously left stuck onto the Wolfman art, my only guess is that this is a bizarre homage to Star Wars! No, seriously! Could it be a guest appearance from the Dianoga from the Deathstar trash compactor?

OK, that's a long shot, but the first movie was all the rage when these cards were produced... And if you have any other better ideas, do get in touch!

UPDATE!

Mr Adrian Hird, Mr Griffin Madill and the Reverend Peter Organ (of the bOrgcast) got in touch to advance the theory that the strange floating eye is part of a foreground silhouette! And Adrian reckons that it might be Frankenstein's monster too, as seen in this handy diagram he sent me via the Twitters! Case closed I reckon!

TOMB OF THE TRUMPS #14 - Devil Priest Pack Part XIV

Welcome back once again to the cavalcade of scary monsters and super creeps that is the Tomb of the Trumps! And this time we have some freaky folks that have proved over the years to be somewhat fiendish for students of Horror Top Trumpology to identify! First up we have this fishy fellow!

Now then, this weed-wreathed chap has foxed many folks, and this is down to a couple of key reasons. Firstly the still it is copied from doesn't appear to be anywhere online bizarrely - yes, hard to believe as it is, not everything is online! And secondly, although he (and indeed his weedy brethren) do appear in a reasonably well-known cult movie, he is never shown for very long on screen, and more importantly in the pose seen in the card. For the still the card is based on was a special publicity shot showcasing the creature design rather than a shot from an actual scene in the movie. 

But having seen the aforementioned publicity shot in a couple of horror movie tomes in the '70s, your humble scribe recognised him instantly - for this is a gill-man from City Under the Sea (1964) also known as War-Gods of the Deep in the US. City Under The Sea took its name from the Edgar Allan Poe poem of the same title, and hence fits loosely into AIP's cycle of Poe movies. Like the classic Corman productions that preceded, the movie stars the legendary Vincent Price, and was also was the last movie made by noted director Jacques Tourneur. Co-starring alongside St. Vincent was Tab Hunter, Susan Hart and David "Mr Banks in Mary Poppins" Tomlinson in a tale of Victorian folks who discover an undersea proto-steampunk kingdom of shipwrecked sailors run by Price, a Captain Nemo style maverick. It's a very fun slice of gothic SF, and the only downside to the movie really is that the wonderful gill-men costumes aren't ever seen quite to their full advantage - although they do look very menacing in the underwater sequences. However here he is in his full glory! 

So then, with that marine mystery wrapped up, let's move on to one of the most perplexing cards in the Horror Top Trumps world...

Alright, I appreciate that several pressing questions immediately spring to mind on seeing this card; ranging from the reasonable "what's the Norse god Thor doing in a horror themed deck?", to the more blunt - "what in the seven names of the fuck is that?!?"  And the answer to both these queries I'm afraid is that I have no bloody idea either! I can only assume that the fumes of the paints and pens used to create these cards were very potent indeed...

However, I do have a possible answer to that third question hammering inside your skull - why does in the name of Loki does he have four eyes?  Well, as we have already seen, and will see again, a favourite trick employed by the Unknown Artist who did these decks to disguise the fact that he was simply copying off various stills and pictures Top Trumps probably had no copyright clearance for whatsoever, was to add or subtract assorted ocular organs. Hence poor old Babs Steele went all cyclops when a pic of her from Curse of the Crimson Altar became High Priestess of Zoltan (see here for details).

So then, the quad-vision this strange figure is equipped with is a dead-giveaway that despite all evidence to the contrary suggesting that this is a product of a deranged imagination, "Thor" must have a basis somewhere in reality! Albeit a very heavily disguised one! For look closely at the card.... go on, I dare you! Observe the extremely shaky physique! And all those weird lines that suggest that our Unknown Artist was attempting something else before deciding to give up and just cover the lot with spikes and weird sketchy armour? Is it armour? Buggered if I know! However being no stranger to the pencil case and paint box myself, I can spot the signs of an artist improvising to cover-up a massive cock-up any day of the week! 

For "Thor" I believe began life as a copy of the famous Frank Franzetta painting "The Barbarian". Now I know that seems unlikely at first... but the more you look at the two images the more similarities you will see. Both have the same pose, and the sword hilts are identical. And their silhouettes are the same shape too - which is why Thor's head and helmet are so weird-looking. Indeed you can see traces of long hair underneath the helmet, and other signs that he was doing a more faithful copy but got the arms so wrong he decided to improvise wildly. Hence the Barbarian's spiky necklace becomes a weird goatee, and there's a liberal, almost frantic application of eyes and spikes in the hope that no one will notice he's attempted to rip off Franzetta and cocked it up royally!

Ah well, I suppose we getting near the end of the Devil Priest pack and I'm guessing a deadline was looming! And that might explain the lurid and bizarre offerings we're looking at at next time...     

TOMB OF THE TRUMPS #13 - Devil Priest Pack Part XIII

And welcome back to the shadowy realm of cobwebbed festooned tat that is Tomb of the Trumps! And we start the New Year with a real puzzler!

Oh Sorcerer, how thou dost tantalize us! So familiar and yet so unplaceable! Much like the Slime Creature, many of my predecessors in the field of Horror Top Trumpology have simply thrown up their hands in despair and claimed this is just a generic Bad Wizard pic, one of the those rare original pieces by the artist of these decks. 

However there is something nagglingly familiar about the Sorcerer. For a long time I had the feeling that perhaps he was cribbed from a '70s comic book, but alas, despite searching high and low I still have never found a doppelganger for this rogue. But looking at him again recently, another possibility suggested itself - consider those arched eyebrows, that pronounced nose, and that pencil mustache - could this be a very rough image of the great Vincent Price? From the lurid lighting, black robes, and the pustules on his face I'd guess perhaps a still from the classic Masque of the Red Death, directed by Roger Corman in 1964... However unfortunately I can find no corresponding still to match. But, if any of you recognize the Sorcerer, do get in touch! 

However to identify the next card we will be delving in the extensive back catalogue of that wizard of low budget film making Sir Roger of Corman! 

Now this was one of those cards that instantly rang a bell for me, as I knew I had seen the photo this was copied from before. And after much leaving through tomes by the likes of Alan Frank and Dennis Gifford, I finally found the original! It's a still from an obscure SF/horror flick, produced by Roger Corman in 1958, and scripted by his brother Gene! 

Night of the Blood Beast was the directorial debut of Bert I Kowalski, who is now perhaps best remembered by movie buffs for the 1969 disaster movie Krakatoa, East of Java, and by monster movie fans for 1973's killer man-snake flick Sssssss. As the titular beast, this wasn't actually it's first screen appearance - previously it - well, the same costume - appeared in another Corman movie Teenage Caveman, filmed a mere fortnight before! Sadly however after this, the work dried up for 'Talon'... such are the perils of being a B movie monster! 

TOMB OF THE TRUMPS #12 - Devil Priest Pack Part XII

Well it's been a while folks, but once again the becobwebbed door is creaking open, allowing us entry into the strange and dank realms where gaudily coloured drawings with dubious titles gleefully splash blood an gore across the history of horror! Yes, it's time for another trip to Tomb of the Trumps! 

Now first up we have a truly shocking revelation! Stone me, if it isn't actually a card that firstly bears an accurate representation of a famous monster, and what's more, it even has the correct ruddy name! Completely the opposite of what we've come to expect from these vintage Horror Top Trumps decks! But hey, credit where credit's due - for accuracy aside this is a wonderfully atmospheric portrait of eveyone's favourite ancient Egyptian undead - the Mummy! 

But before we break out the Tana leaves for a celebratory brew-up, which Mummy actually is this? For there have been countless movies featuring the bandage-swathed walking dead, and contrary to the received wisdom (and luckily for me) they don't all look exactly alike! So whose Mummy is this? 

Well, first we can rule out many low budget efforts as this Mummy features some fairly elaborate wrapping. And it's very distinctive too! Secondly, unlike many movie mummies, this one has no visible mouth, and that too really narrows down the field. Sadly the background is too shadowy and composed of generic old skool temple/ruins to be much use. But luckily we do have enough to go on... 

...Yes, this card is based on the classic first Hammer Mummy movie made back in 1959.  And although you can't tell from the card, it's the late great Sir Christopher Lee under all that the wrapping! 

However after that tour de force of art and accuracy, perhaps inevitably the next card would see a drastic reversal of fortunes...

Oh Slime Creature where are you? Yes, this is one of those rare cards that has all aficionados of the Horror Top Trumps completely stumped! Many have tried and failed to identify this somewhat melancholy looking creature, and I must confess it has defeated your faithful scribbler here too! Now most commentators have concluded that the Slime Creature is a rare wholly original escapee from the deranged imagination of the unknown Horror Top Trumps' artist. But judging by the big googly eyes and the large metal girdle the beast is wearing, I'm guessing this was possibly lifted from the pages of some forgotten '50 SF comic...

However I can make a positive id of his/its victim! The fellow on the receiving end of the oddly angled spear has been teleported in from another Hammer movie! This unfortunate chap is Christopher Matthews, playing a rakish young gentlemen called Paul Carlson. Paul has taken shelter in an old castle, he encounters the delectable Tania, played by Anoushka Hempel. And being a red-blooded young fellow, he can't resist seducing Tania, unfortunately (for him) immediately after making love, she gets a bit peckish... 

Now if you thinking, getting bit by Anoushka and maybe spending eternity in undeath with her might not be so bad, sadly that's not Paul's fate. For the master of the castle returns - it's Dracula, Prince of Gooseberries! I mean, Prince of Darkness! And the Count is not pleased... But that's another story! 

TOMB OF THE TRUMPS #11 - Devil Priest Pack Part XI

Yes, it's time once more to delve into the toybox of yesteryear, and have another pair of terrors from the original Horror Top Trumps. First up, we have this beaming down... 

Now then, here we have an genuine rarity! For despite looking up assorted alien invaders down the decades, I have yet to find a decent match for this chap! The lightning flash on his tunic certainly suggests an origin in the 1950s  but so far no matching monsters, Martian or otherwise, have yet been found. Some have suggested it is based on the titular Creature of Destruction (1967) but I remain to be convinced of anything other than a very flimsy passing resemblance. Most likely I think if the Martian Warrior has a definite origin, then it's a panel of an old and obscure comic book. In the mean time, keep watching the skies!

Now our next card is a similar cause of some confusion! Enter Mistress Vampire!

Now then most commentators have swung the direction of the legendary Ingrid Pitt - and let's be honest who can blame them! For Indeed Ingrid Pitt played some of the sexiest vampires ever to grace the screen, and it is hard not to think of her whenever female bloodsuckers are mentioned. However trawling through the assorted stills of her undead appearances in the Hammer classics Countess Dracula (1971) and The Vampire Lovers (1970), there isn't really a good match for the Mistress Vampire. Instead the closest we come is the following famous picture from her guest appearance in the celebrated Amicus anthology flick The House That Dripped Blood (1971).

However noting that this still only bears a slight resemblance to the card, another popular guess hails from the same era of Brit horror - another Hammer flick and a sequel to The Vampire Lovers - Lust for a Vampire (1971). Here's Yutte Stensgaard as Mircalla Herritzen the reincarnated/resurrected Carmilla Karnstein that la Pitt played in the earlier movie. 

Now if you can tear you eyes away from Yutte - c'mon you can do it! - yet another Hammer horror has been mooted as a source for Mistress Vampire. This time it's Lalla Ward, who would become more famous a few years later as the second Romana in Doctor Who. Here she is in Hammer's off-beat undead tale Vampire Circus (1972) 

Definitely closer, I think you will agree! However I think there is actually a better fit - and it is from The Vampire Lovers but surprisingly not Ingrid Pitt's Carmilla. Rather it's that character's previous incarnation who we see menacing Douglas Wilmer in the prologue, played by Kirsten Betts (later Kirsten Lindholm)

Yes, here I believe we have the winner, despite some (ahem) stiff competition from other memorable ladies from the early '70s blood and boobs era of classic Brit horror!

TOMB OF THE TRUMPS #10 - Devil Priest Pack Part X

Welcome dear friends once again to the Tomb of the Trumps! Tirelessly tracking down the image sources that were ripped off, I mean, provided inspiration for the Unknown Artist who created the art for the two Horror themed packs of Top Trumps back in the late 70s. 

First up, we have quite a tricky one...

...which  has bamboozled many other searchers over the years, with some pointing to the bony-faced killer in 1964's The Phantom of Soho as the true identity of the Living Skull. However the source for this grinning ghoul is actually not quite that obscure, but is very easy to overlook all the same. It is in fact a character named Dr Death who appears in the 1974 AIP flick Madhouse which starred Vincent Price and Peter Cushing. In this movie, Vincent Price plays an aging horror star, Paul Toombes, who made his name appearing in a series of movies which had the character of Dr Death as the main hero/villain. However when the franchise is to be restarted with Toombes coming out of retirement to play the role, the good Doctor seemingly steps off the silver screen to commit a series of bloody murders... Anyhow the mystery killer appears in the movie like this - 

And you can hear more about this movie, alongside some other Vincent Price gems, on my podcast here

But moving swiftly on! We have another card that proved to be a bit of a challenge but for entirely different reasons!

Now this scaly fellow I more or less recognised straightaway back when I was a nipper, for I recognised it from a still I'd seen in a monster movie book I'd had out from the library. It was in fact copied more or less exactly, with the only artistic flourish on the card being the deliciously over-the-top dribbles of blood. The still in question was from the classic 1958 SF horror It! The Terror From Beyond Space. However when I came to write this week's edition of Tomb of the Trumps, could I find that picture anywhere? Could I hell! I was beginning to think I'd imagined it, when a good friend offered to go through his collection of monster movie tomes, and thankfully for my sanity, we discovered the elusive still in Dennis Gifford's A Pictorial History of Horror Movies, a fantastic tome that has many rare stills reproduced within. 

Anywho, what of the movie? Well, It! The Terror From Beyond Space is a smashing tale of some brave astronauts who after touching down on an alien world to mount a rescue mission, discover they have picked up an monstrous hitchhiker, which lurks in the bowels of the ship. The unwelcome guest proceeds to chomp down on the crew one by one. And it... I'm sorry, I mean... It! nearly scoffs the lot of them until our heroes come up with the cunning plan to blow the ugly bugger out into space through the airlock! 

And if you are thinking old Mr Jim is getting a bit befuddled and confusing a '50s monster flick with a certain Ridley Scott classic, think again! For It! The Terror From Beyond Space was indeed a prime influence on Alien - indeed I recall reading reviews of that movie back in 1979/80 which didn't hail Alien as a modern classic but actually dismissed it as merely a gorey remake of It! The Terror From Beyond Space. How times change! Anyhow you can hear more about the movies that were ripped off by, I mean, which inspired Alien here

TOMB OF THE TRUMPS #09 - Devil Priest Pack Part IX

Welcome once again to the dark and dubious world of Tomb of the Trumps! This week our investigations of the inspirations of the infamous vintage Horror Top Trumps, first dumps us in a very dank dungeon, the domain of Killer Rat! 

Now this was a very tricky fellow to track down! Indeed many of my predecessors who have probed the mysterious and arcane origins of the Horror Top Trumps concluded that this was a rare example of a wholly original piece by our Unknown Artist. And in all fairness, there seemed a reasonable assumption as there was no relevant rat-man in any monster movie that could have served as a model for this beastie. However there was something naggingly familiar about him, something I recognised even when I had these cards as a nipper, but could never quite place... That is until now! 

First up, the whole rodentine thing is something of a red herring, for what we have here is a bit of artistic collage. Yes, this is actually a rather better known monster disguised with a new head. Now the actual rat bonce could have been copied from almost anywhere - not wanted to sound rat-ist here, but they do all look alike! However given our Unknown Artist's usual selection of sources for images to copy from, I'd reckon a still for either killer rat flick Willard (1971) or its sequel Ben (1972) as the model for the rat head itself. But the main figure comes from a rather less obscure source. 

Now the key clues here are the barred window and the ripped white shirt. Ring any bells yet? No? Well, how about this... The bars suggest a scene in a prison cell, while the style of the shirt, one of those floppy affairs favoured by Romantic poets, suggests a ye olden days settings. Furthermore the fact it is torn rather suggests a violent bodily transformation has occurred. And the image of a rodent headed man does in itself conjure the words 'wererat'. So then, given that the rat head is paste-on job, we should be looking to werewolf cinema! 

Now then, can you name a movie in which a man transforms into a werewolf while in jail? Well, if you are in anyway acquainted with cinematic lycanthropy, I'm sure you know the answer - Hammer's 1961 classic Curse of the Werewolf. So then, I began scouring stills from that movie, and just for good measure it's demi-remake from Tyburn Legend of the Werewolf  (1975), which also features a floppy shirted wolf-man. However rather frustratingly I could not find a photo that matched, and it looked like the trail of the Killer Rat had gone cold...

...Until I remembered our Unknown Artist' previous form for cribbing from 1970s monster mags. Then it clicked - and I knew why this image had always been oddly familiar. In 1976, British comics maestro Dez Skinn launched the House of Hammer, a monthly mag devoted to the legendary horror film studio. And as well as articles and features on classic horror flicks, each issue boasted a comics adaptation of a classic Hammer movie by some of the finest creators working in the field at the time. Now Issue #10, published in March 1978, saw a gorgeous comicstrip version of Curse of the Werewolf, with art by the great John Bolton, and flipping through my aged copy, I found at last the template for the elusive Killer Rat! 

Note the pose and the distinctive shirt tatters - large drape on the left, and a pointy shred flapping out to the right!  On a purely personal and utterly self-indulgent note, I must say it's so satisfying to finally find the origin of Killer Rat - this one has been bugging me literally since I first got the Devil Priest pack three decades ago!

Thankfully the next exhibit in our rogue's gallery is far easier to identify!  

Now I'm sure this chap needs no introduction to kaiju fans, for "The Living Gargoyle" is in fact one of Godzilla's famous foes - the intergalactic space bastard Gigan. In the original cycle of Big G movies, the Showa series, this cyborg kaiju was first summoned to earth in Godzilla Vs. Gigan (1972) by aliens from the M Space Hunter Nebula, and called in once again by undersea miscreants from Seatopia the following year in Godzilla Vs. Megalon (1973). He would later appear again in more recent times in the third cycle of Godzilla movies, the Millennium series, in Godzilla: Final Wars (2004), actually the final Big G movie from Toho (well, at least for now). In this flick, which features a whole array of famous kaiju, Gigan got to appear in two forms - in his original incarnation, and then later resurrected with new cybernetic enhancements, most notably twin chainsaws replacing his hook hands! Fun fact - Gigan was the first of Godzilla's foes to make the Big G bleed! And he was an utter bastard too - aside from some distinctly dirty fighting techniques, twice the big cyborg abandoned the monster we was allied, fucking off back into space when Godzilla was winning! Yes, there was a large element of chicken in Gigan, and not just in his design! 

However we do have a further possible mystery in this card. As we have discovered previously, our Unknown Artist was prone not just cribbing the monsters but also their victims. And given  the prone chap on this card has a very distinctive hand shape on his out-thrown arm, I rather suspect he has been copied from a movie still. But so far I've been unable to place the poor disemboweled sod... But if you recognise him, do drop me a line!