Monday, April 20, 2009

ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET THE MUMMY - Gertz, Mancini, Maury, Salter, Russell, Brooks, King - "How Stupid Do You Want Me To Be" (1955)

OK, what day is it, and where the Hell am I?? Been wandering thru the burnin' desert sand, picking the cactus thorns out of my eyes for so long now, I guess It doesn't matter anymore, because tonite we're going into a place in space and time still not fully explored to this day! It's the place where "Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy!"

SOUNDCLIP NO LONGER AVAILABLE

It all starts off in this club with the most raucous act, that is still to this day as wild as any live set you've ever seen, performed either by The Mazzone-Abbott Dancers or Chandra Kaly and his Dancers, a detail I've run out of time trying to find out about, but whoever the Hell they are, they crack me up every time I watch this! It's an interactive act that ends up right in Lou's lap!!

All that combined with one of the most classic of Bud and Lou's exchanges, just makes for an extra fine good time!!!

The gal with the amazing eyes and more, Marie Windsor tempts Lou more than once!!

One, Two, Cha, Cha, Cha, Three, Four, Cha, Cha, Cha!!!

Eddie Parker as Klaris The Mummy, was an actor in 276 movies dating back to 1931!! Wow!!

Just to keep it lively, right about the middle of the film they toss you this splendid little tidbit sung by Miss Peggy King, "You Came A Long Way From St. Louis!"

Here's a couple of nice shots of the whole gang!! Talk about classic, that's Michael Ansara on the left of Bud and Lou, and Richard Deacon on the right! There's enough combined credits to fill a bank vault!!

In The End they have a freakin' Mummy band, now what was cooler than that in 1955! It would be over 30 years later before the concept would arise again with any success!! Here's what's happening with "The Mummies" today!!

Personally, this is one of my favorites of the "Abbott and Costello" meet series, just because it's so perfectly stupid, you can watch it 100 times, and you are still going to laugh every time, and that's a money back guarantee, and you can actually get a copy pretty easy!!! Go for it!!!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

ROBINSON CRUSOE ON MARS / George Pal - 1964 / Music by Van Cleave

Here's one movie that you don't think of right off the bat, but, what a classic! Actually, the Dungeon gang saw it together back in the day. There's lots of eye candy stills tonight, plus, some extra stuff at the end, hey, no reason not to show some of it!

The music's by the great Mr. Van Cleave, who we've already featured a number of times, including CONQUEST OF SPACE, THE SPACE CHILDREN and COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK, which can all be searched within our Dungeon archive!

SOUNDCLIP NOT AVAILABLE

Here's our favorite guy, the real Batman himself! Of course, Adam's still going strong today doing voiceover. He's a good sport!

It always helps when the spaceship interior looks authentic! Mona and Paul Mantee are there, too!

The landing goes awry and only Mona and 'Robin' make it out alive... (Adam had to get back to the BATMAN set!)

Luckily, he has Mona, as he finds out he may not be rescued. (and... I have my Freddy Cat!)

He tries to make the best of it by having fun while taking a bath, you should try it!! Just don't take an electric guitar in there!.. Wow, that's one psyched-out padinski!

But, wouldn't you know it!.. THE MAN!!!

Robin helps Friday escape from the work site, then, brings him back to his place.

He shows Friday how to keep an eye on his oppressors... Perdy danged slick!!

There's always plenty of salt, too!

Odd that the poster artwork shows round disks instead of the WAR OF THE WORLDS models!

Paul Mantee's wife helped with artwork, writing 'Robin' on her pieces, and, since Adam was part of the cast, maybe she was thinking Batman and 'Robin!'

Lots of great detailed art studies were created for this production, giving an authentic feel to it!

You could even buy a Channel Master tape recorder like Robin's!!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

CHAMBER OF HORRORS - William Lava - "One Hand Is Better Than Two" (1966)

"Chamber of Horrors" was a big studio Warner Brothers production, so they had enough money to do some extra stuff!

Obviously, some marketing genius came up with the concept of having a 'warning' system, hence you have the "Horror Horn" and the "Fear Flasher" which were both used to give the viewer a chance to turn away, or in other words, completely remove any chance of being scary or suspenseful! Pretty stupid, really, but unique!!! Then, on top of that, the scenes you are warned about, are not really that scary as to warrant such attention!! Oh, well, it's still a fun movie to watch!!!

Essentially, "Chamber Of Horrors" is a battle of wits between House Of Wax owners, and amateur detectives Anthony Draco and Harold Blout, with the assistance of their little buddy Señor Pepe De Reyes and the devious killer Jason Cravatte, who was also known as Jason Caroll! Draco was portrayed by Cesare Danova, Wilfrid Hyde-White was Harold, and Tun Tun played Señor Pepe!

Patrick O'Neal turns in a killer performance as the two Jasons! At the end of the movie there is written credits for 'The Cast' and Patrick's name is not even on the list!!! That's how evil he is!!

These are some of the attachments that Jason is able to use with what used to be his hand!!

The most happening place in town, "Delano's!!!"

It's a twisted little tale with some bizarre features that they don't warn you about, like, out of nowhere, in what is basically a cameo role, you have an uncredited Tony Curtis playing cards in a Cathouse as Mr. Julian for a couple of minutes!!

M.A.S.H.'s Trapper John, Wayne Rogers has an unusual role as a heroic but dumb cop!!

This is a pretty funny scene where Jason pretends he's just another wax head on the shelf and is hiding from Draco in the big chase scene!!!

The lovely Laura Devon adds a lot of class as Marie Champlain, the woman stuck in the middle!! Laura worked mostly in TV, having only made 5 films, and retired shortly after this movie was made!!

In charge of the music was a man we've written about before, because he has well over 300 credits including a slew of cartoons and TV shows! You name it, William has done it, "Daffy Duck," "Bugs Bunny," "Pink Panther," "F-Troop," "Disneyland," "Mickey Mouse Club," "Cheyenne," just to name a few, and in the 40's he was composer for "The Mummy's Curse," "House Of Dracula," "The She-Wolf Of London" and so much more! What an incredible career!!! This one's for Bill!!!

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??