CITY BENEATH THE SEA - Suzan Ball - "Handle With Care" (1953)

 

Tonight's Saturday Night Special is an undersea action and adventure tale in Technicolor from 1953 called "City Beneath The Sea!" Don't look for any giant octopi!

"City Beneath The Sea" would become a very popular title between 1953 and 1971. There was a TV series in 1962 that was a different story but had the same title, then there was a failed pilot for another TV show in 1969, and finally, the king of disaster movies, Irwin Allen came out with a TV movie by the same name in 1971.

Can't beat the location!

Here's our heroes! On the left is Robert (Captain Nemo) Ryan, and on the right is Anthony (Quasimodo) Quinn! 

They're better at deep sea diving than they are at driving!

Lalo (Touch Of Evil) Rios is the First Mate called Calypso! You can tell he's First Mate by his professionally made uniform!

There are three ways to explore the ocean! Surface level snorkeling, mid level scuba diving, and deep deep down deep sea diving.!

Special 1953 equipment!

 The most exciting part of the movie is this song from the club with the stunning Suzan Ball performing "Handle With Care!"
The club singer's name is Venita, aka Mary Lou Beetle! Suzan's life was a super sad story that you couldn't possibly make up. Suzan was Lucille Ball's second cousin, and a singer and a dancer. During a dance number she hurt her leg, and later fell and broke it. It was then discovered to be full of tumors so they had to amputate it, but the cancer quickly spread to her lungs and she succumbed to the horrible disease some six months after her 21st birthday! What a real tragedy!

 After that great song, a fight scene breaks out, and the band just keeps on jamming!

Since this movie is not a fantasy, the underwater city is uninhabited! There's the remains of some civilization and a ship that was hauling a million dollars in gold, and that's about it! No dancing girls!

Robert Ryan's love interest is the Captain of the boat they're using to look for the gold who is played by Mala (The Unknown Terror, The Colossus Of New York) Powers!

This voodoo dance scene looks like one of Tabonga's abstract paintings!

The voodoo element is kinda creepy, but they never go anywhere with it! These two shots are pretty krazy though!

They do find the gold, then they lose it, and then they are offered an opportunity to go find it again!

Happy couples!!

Happy ending!

I'm not a big fan of the underwater movies genre as I've stated here before, but despite that, I still liked this movie! Great colour, great club scene, and Anthony Quinn's character is over the top macho 1953! How the Hell can you possibly go wrong? It's just good fun, and I just love the fact that the two gals in this lobby card are not the two they end up with!

SCIENCE FICTION THEATRE / The Strange People At Pecos - 1955

Here's an episode from the first season of SCIENCE FICTION THEATRE that I remember seeing for some reason, I watched it way back in 1955 on TV, so, on with the show...

Here's host Truman Bradley introducing the episode with a little science related to the story.

Our tale's about a high-strung radar operator (Arthur Franz) who's convinced that UFOs are following the test rockets he monitors at a secret facility in Pecos, New Mexico. His kids' new playmate, an odd little girl who feels no pain, causes him to jump to conclusions... He's sure the girl and her family are spies from outer space!

We begin with this vintage military sign to let you know where you are... You're here! And, keep the Hell OUT!!

Here's Arthur as Jeff Jamison, he's grumpy with his family at home because of some problems at work. He's seeing things on the radar scope that can't be explained, and he's bugged because he thinks they could be UFOs!

His boys are little brats, the oldest makes fun of the new girl on the block because she says that they should try using telekinesis to throw a baseball, which doesn't sit well with them...

In the meantime, Jeff comes home, he's been ordered to take a week off because of his strange behavior at work. He's talking to wifey, when...

A commotion is heard, they go outside and find the girl in the road, she's been hit by a truck while playing ball with the boys!

They take her inside and she's unconscious. Suddenly, she opens her eyes and says that it's time for her to go home, she just gets up and leaves!.. What The Hell?!

Later, we find the girl's dad dictating on a tape recorder. The great Dabbs Greer is Mr. Kern, considered a real thinker of the time, he's contemplating life forms not of this Earth. Unknown to him, Jeff's oldest son is listening in to his musings, and runs home to tell pops!

Then, the Kern family sits around and plays with their helium filled space station that floats around the room! This is actually the part I remember, this cool model space station, I was really into building models even at age 7.

Anyway, the son is constantly spying on the family and telling his dad about it. The best part is at the end where Jeff confronts Mr. Kern with his questions about his strange neighbors. Let's just say, Mr. Kern puts him in his place!! Check in again tomorrow when we'll have more cool stuff for you!..

GERTIE THE DINOSAUR - Winsor McCay - "Cartooning Pioneer" (1914)

Welcome back to the Wednesday version of The Dungeon! Tonight we're gonna go back over a hundred years! Is that something the human mind of today can even comprehend?  Doubtful! I love this poster, but it is slightly exaggerated in more ways than one!!

 The short cartoon I want to tell you about tonight was called "Gertie," and it was made in 1911! It was not Winsor McCay's first film!

Winsor McCay's first film was made in 1906 and called "Dreams Of A Rarebit Fiend." It was a tale of a drunken nightmare, and it wasn't a cartoon but it did have stop-action effects in it!

After that, in 1911 he made "Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and His Moving Comics" aka "Little Nemo," his best known character. and the actual first cartoon, I think!

Want to watch it? Here's the link!

Little Nemo! 

 Next up for Winsor in 1912 was 
"How A Mosquito Operates!"
I really hate mosquitoes!

 

 Originally, it was just the line drawing cartoon, but they later added the real life footage to make it more palatable to the public! The story line they came up with has Winsor and his buddies cruising around, and then their car has tire trouble, so they stumble into this natural history museum!

  Winsor McCay lays down a challenge!

 

 It's not difficult to tell even from these crude drawings how talented of an artiste Winsor was!

In the last picture Gertie was free form dancing but rock and roll wouldn't be around for at least another 40 years! Follow the link, and see for yourself!

Gertie The Dinosaur! 

 The memory of the first dinosaur cartoon character of all time would probably be lost forever if it wasn't for this ice cream stand in one of the Disney theme parks!

THE OUTER LIMITS - O.B.I.T. / Season 1, Episode 7 - 1963

Today we gots another great episode from THE OUTER LIMITS, this time, Captain Harris is mysteriously strangled at a military base while operating the Outer Band Individuated Teletracer, or O.B.I.T. machine. Senator Orville, played by Peter (THE CRAWLING HAND) Breck, arrives at the base to investigate the murder and learns that there are several bases with the O.B.I.T. machine, which can monitor in a video display the privacy of any person, anywhere! During his investigation, the Senator asks for information about O.B.I.T., such as who is the manufacturer, price, who bought them, but, no user has any information about the machine.

Here's Captain Harris using the O.B.I.T. machine to check out what certain people are up to, when...

Out of nowhere, a horrible monster creeps up and strangles his ass, then, disappears!

Senator Orville arrives to investigate the murder, he greeted by the General and the supervisor of the project, the very weird looking Mr. Lomax.

Besides the strange glasses, Mr. Lomax, played by Jeff (IN COLD BLOOD) Corey, has super hairy hands, kind of a clue that something isn't quite, you know, right!

The Senator questions a number of people, Mr. Lomax is last on the list...

Lomax shows the Senator, who's fascinated by its capabilities, how the infernal machine works. I threw in the second photo because it's just plain weird!

Dr. Scott, played by Harry Townes, breaks down and shows the Senator how to locate the one person the machine couldn't trace, and, he exposes the monster!.. Wait, what?!

Lomax starts ranting and his movements are the same as the creature in the monitor! He sez that puny Earthlings are doomed, and, his race is coming to take over!!

Then, he changes into the monster and simply disappears! I'm a little confused, but...

The Earthlings are stunned, what in the Hell are we going to do, we're doomed, God help us... Well, that's a wrap, we will be back on Wednesday with more Wild 'n' Weird Dungeon Cargo!