the World of Terror!

BRING ME A VAMPIRE
Although it was the last genre he delved into, K. Gordon Murray may be most fondly remembered by most cult film afficionados for his importing of some 30 horror movies from Mexico. With lurid titles, bizarre plots and weird dubbing, these strange and incredible cross-culture curiosities have become true cult film legends.

SOUNDLAB
One of the most exciting things about Murray's productions, especially the horror films (aside from the melodramatic and peculiar source films themselves), is the rich and evocative dubbed dialogue. According to several sources, this virtually poetic interpretation of the original-language screenplays was almost solely due to the efforts of one man, Reuben Guberman.

Guberman, a self-proclaimed "fat Jewish maverick", had a long and varied career in film production, public relations and various other trades. His work for Murray consisted of translating the original (usually Spanish) language scripts into workable English dialogue for Murray's voice actors to then dub onto US release prints.

"Reuben was amazing," recalls Murray colleague Sheldon Schermer." He could crank out a Spanish-to-English script in a night. And sometimes, he did." The lush, even florid dialogue which ensued can be counted amongst cult film's treasures, and is also an homage to the largely lost art of dubbing, which has fallen out of favor, due to PC art-house goons who feel that dubbing ruins the integrity of a foreign film (yet insist that intrusive, obscure, often misspelled subtitles somehow do not).

Guberman, who passed away in 2000, was also responsible for some of the great TV moments of the mid-60s, lending his linguistic arts to dubbing scripts for beloved anime TV series PRINCE PLANET and EIGHTH MAN, among others.

Two other luminaries in the Murray universe are Bill Rogers and Paul Nagel, both actors who supplied many voices for the Murray fairy tales and horror films. In addition, Rogers played Preacher Fallon in Murray's potboiler, SHANTY TRAMP.

Paul Nagel was the head of the Drama department at the University of Miami for many years, and he and his wife Marge (as well as some of his students) are credited with many voices in the dubbed Murray productions.

For an excellent interview with Mr. Nagel, get a copy of Video Watchdog #02, now available in a affordable reprint from Video Watchdog Online.

Bill Rogers has had a long and colorful history in the Florida filmmaking community. He may be most fondly remembered as the hero(?) in Herschell Gordon Lewis' vampire opus A TASTE OF BLOOD. Rogers was recently featured in a book about Lewis, aptly titled "A Taste of Blood", which we highly recommend to anyone interested in this most important figure of indie filmmaking.

Although the first several Mexican productions which Murray picked up for US release were redubbed at Churubusco-Azteca, the huge studio complex on the outskirts of Mexico City, Murray soon realized he could save a great deal of money by having his own sound production facility nearby. He subsequently rented a tiny office in nearby Coral Gables, and dubbed it "Soundlab".

Soundlab was one of the first facilities dedicated exclusively to the dubbing of foreign films into English. "It wasn't much", recalls Roy Jonas, a longtime friend of Murray's, "Not like a real studio or anything." Nevertheless, these facilities produced some impressive results which are the rival of much being done today.

One of the striking innovations Murray and Company fashioned from their experience at Soundlab was the "looping" technique of dubbing, in common use today but virtually experimental at the time. Instead of dubbing long stretches of dialogue at one time, inviting fatigue and error, films were cut into short, one minute segments, and spliced into a loop. The voice actors then would watch the film over and over, and get the feel of the scene. The sound would be duly recorded, the eventual goal being a perfect take.

The result, in many cases, is astounding. As ludicrous as much of the dialogue is in Murray's dubbed productions, one senses that there was great care taken to be honest to the original script, while at the same time matching the on-screen actors' mouths as much as possible.

"Ken was a stickler for accuracy. He really cared that the dialogue match the mouth movement as much as possible," recalls Roy Jonas (who participated, with his kids, in the dubbing of the Murray fairy tale LITTLE ANGEL). "He had us do some scenes over and over and over! But the result was nice."

YOUNG AMERICA
Murray cannily predicted that the upcoming bonanza market for the independent film producer would be films for "Young America", the baby boomers, the children born during America's reckless post-war expansion.

It is thus fitting that Murray presented most of his horror films under the banner "Young America Productions", knowing that children and teens would be the primary audience for these fun, weird spook shows, both at drive-ins and matinees, and later on TV.

Although Murray's fairy tales were the predominant product for kiddie matinees during the 1960s, several of his horror films hit the matinee circuit as well, the most memorable double bill being THE ROBOT VS THE AZTEC MUMMY and THE VAMPIRE'S COFFIN.

THE WORLD OF TERROR
Beginning in 1962 with the "Nostradamus" series, Murray released his dubbed versions of these strange Mexican films to Television, in a package called "The World of Terror", which grew to 28 titles by the late 60s.

However, Murray also released several of the titles to drive-ins and kiddie matinees in eccentric double bills, three of the most famous (infamous) being:

1/ THE ROBOT VS THE AZTEC MUMMY/
THE VAMPIRE'S COFFIN (1965)
2/ THE BRAINIAC/CURSE OF THE CRYING WOMAN (1968)
3/ THE LIVING HEAD/THE WITCH'S MIRROR (1969)

Since at least a few of these titles had already received extensive play on TV by the time they were shown theatrically, drive-in patrons must have felt an odd sense of deja-vu as they paid full admission to watch a creaky old monster movie they had just seen last month on The Late Late Show!

SWAMP OF LOST MONSTER MOVIES
When we began this site in 2001, many of Murray's horror films were difficult to find in legitimate venues. In the past two years, however, the market has been literally flooded with product from the Murray catalog. It seems the time was right for a revival after all!

Two of the more interesting releases were the low-budget Beverly Wilshire Filmworks / Telefilms DVD releases of late 2000. These no-frills DVDs are from old tape transfers, and feature so-so quality with no extras. Still, for the price ($5.00), you can't beat them. For awhile, sellers were getting outrageous prices for these soon out-of-print titles, but with luck you can now (as of early 2003) get them for $5 or less!

Even better, Something Weird Video, in association with Exclusive International Pictures, released beautiful prints of the Murray fairy tales and horror films to VHS video tape. These 2002 releases were digitally enhanced, many from original 35mm theatrical prints, and are, in a word, stunning. If you are looking to get any of these great films on video, search for the Something Weird releases (which were sadly discontinued in 2003 due to copyright disputes).

All in all, it is truly a golden age for cultfilm enthusiasts, and for K. Gordon Murray fans in particular, it's been a veritable gold mine. Many of the "thought lost" films are now available, in pristine prints yet. It don't get much better than that!

So, click on any of the titles below to begin your journey through K. Gordon Murray's "World of Terror!"