DIARY OF A MAD HOUSEWIFE - Alice Cooper - (What's The Consequence To Be Free?) (1970)

"Diary Of A Madman" with Vincent Price came out in 1963, and was a pretty scary movie, so when "Diary Of A Mad Housewife" came out in 1970, I had high hopes for a similar viewing experience! Boy, was I wrong! Not that it's a bad movie, and even though some of these characters really deserve it, nobody gets killed or even modestly threatened, because "Diary Of A Mad Housewife" is not a horror movie, unless you count the horrors of a modern society! So why is this film on this site?

Here's the happy couple! Richard (WESTWORLD, CATCH-22) Benjamin as stick up his ass attorney Jonathan Balser, and Carrie (THE FURY, TRICK OR TREATS) Snodgress as his misunderstood wife Tina Balser!

The prefect family with the prefect spoiled and brattiest kids on the face of the planet, but there's something weird going on here, between the two of them, Frannie Michel as Liz Balser, and Lorraine Cullen as Sylvie Balser, they only have a total of 6 more acting credits! This film might have had that kind of effect!

So off the Balsers go to party with the innest of the in crowd, and it's pretty obvious who needs to smooze, and who would rather just go back home!

At the arty farty coolest of the cool party they couldn't get The Velvet Underground, so the next band of choice was none other than ALICE COOPER!!

Tina Balser is totally turned off by the sexual arrogance of Frank (DRACULA) Langella as hip author George Prager!

Alice Cooper "Pretties For You" one more time!! That pillow over there turns into one monstrous pillow fight!! The Alice Cooper band was fleshed out by Michael Bruce on guitar, Glen Buxton on guitar, Dennis Dunaway on bass, and drummer Neal Smith!

You'd have to be John Holmes to be a bigger dick that Richard Benjamin in this flick!

At the next "Be there of Be square" party they go to, Tina Balser runs in to George Prager again, and he starts really coming on strong to her! Her stupid husband is just so proud of the fact that she can hang with somebody so intellectually superior, nothing else matters!

This is what it looks like when rich dicks are sick!

I once knew a really nice older man named Richard Peters! One of the last times I saw him, he was wearing a Cox cable hat! He had no idea!

In 1970, if you were exceptionally cool, you had one of these power shoe shiners!

You know you've made it when a Nobel Prize winner steals your shit! Jonathan throws a big party to try and impress the top of the heap, but as luck would have it, everything he pays big bucks for is already passé, and the omelets by the best chef who didn't show up, are already last year's model! Who the Hell serves omelets at a party anyway? Unless they had caviar and lobster in them, I make a better one here every Sunday morning for about nine thousand dollars less!

Very simple but effective shot from Director Frank Perry and Cinematographer Gerald Hirschfeld!

Tina finally cuts loose, and lets her husband know how she really feels about all his bullshit!!

The seductively sweet and stunning Carrie Snodgress (For years I thought it was Snotgrass), undresses and gets dressed again at least 4 or 5 times in this film, and that's not such a bad thing! Carrie was rocker Neil Young's girlfriend for four years, and was the Mother of their son Zeke! She passed away in 2004 at an age of 59, which I consider very young!

The last word is that if Tina was really such a mad housewife, she would have pulled out a giant butcher knife and done away with both her annoying husband, and her eloquent and embarrassing assholish lover, and got away with it, but instead she ends up in therapy with Peter (THE DREAM TEAM, THE MONITORS) Boyle! I doubt it's a coincidence that this film is almost impossible to find!

THE SCI-FI And HORROR MOVIES Of Director HERBERT L. STROCK

It's time to pay some homage to the director who gave us some of our favorite sci-fi and horror movies from the fifties. Besides his work in movies, he also directed 19 episodes of SCIENCE FICTION THEATRE for TV and more..

Here's one they played a lot on local TV in the fifties, it always freaked me out near the end, and loved the magnetized lawnmower in the hardware store. Herb was uncredited for his work on this one as he was an up and coming director in 1953 for this Ivan Tors production.

A year later in 1954 Herb worked as assistant director ( directed by Richard Carlson ) on RIDERS TO THE STARS. This is another movie they played a lot on TV back then. What I remember most is this astronaut that gets toasted by a meteor! Really creepy part for a six year old.

Also in 1954 Herb was the director for GOG, filmed in 3-D, wow! They also played this movie a lot on local TV, soon after it's theatrical release. It had some crazy moments to be sure.

Then in 1957, Herman Cohen called on Herb to direct this all time classic horror flick, can't remember when it played on TV for the first time. Herb stated that he loved working with Whit Bissell, always on time, knew his lines and could play any character he was assigned. The amputated leg was almost considered too shocking for the kids!

The same year he worked on another Cohen movie, BLOOD OF DRACULA. This movie is one crazy murder fest featuring the song "Puppy Love" by Jerry Blaine, who also contributed the song "Eenie Meenie Miny Moe" for I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF.

Cohen called on Herb once again in 1958 to direct one of my favorite movies, HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER. It starred Robert H. Harris as the bad guy, Pete, Paul Brinegar as his helper Rivero, Gary Conway as the Teenage Frankenstein and Gary Clarke as the Teenage Werewolf.

In 1962 Herb directed Lon Chaney in THE DEVIL'S MESSENGER, which has the devil using his rolodex where he has the names of all the souls assigned to Hell. This is one boring movie and comes across as some TWILIGHT ZONE episodes.

Herb even worked for Joseph F. Robertson by directing this insane little movie. Here's some awesome trivia... Burt Reynolds did two screen-tests for the role of the teen character, Paul Lawrence, but his acting was so wooden, Rod Lauren got the part!!! Wild.

In 1980, Herb was assistant director on MONSTROID, which starred James Mitchum, John Carradine, Philip Carey and Anthony Eisley. This cursed film was started in 1971 and it was up to Herb to finish it up. I think I read that Andrea Hartford, the love interest, committed suicide soon after wrapping up the production, over insecurity and being dumped by her lover, so sad!

Last on the list is this sexy horror film also from 1980, based on everyone's favorite novel "Conjure Wife" by Fritz Lieber. It stars Teri Garr, Richard Benjamin and Lana Turner. So, here's our little salute to the fifties monster movie director, Herbert L. Strock.

THE OUTER LIMITS / "The Special One" Season 1 Episode 28 - 1964

In today's classic TV episode, the parents of a child science prodigy are approached by a mysterious 'government' official called Mr. Xeno, who offers to give him special private tutoring. Unknown to them, Mr. Xeno is actually an alien from another planet who wants to use their son's talents for an evil purpose, to help them invade the Earth!

With this one, we've posted the complete first season of The Outer Limits on DWRAYGER DUNGEON, and, we have only nine more season two episodes to complete the entire series!! So, search our huge archive for all those other great adventures.

It stars Macdonald (THESE ARE THE DAMNED) Carey as the dad, Richard (PREMATURE BURIAL) Ney as the alien, Flip (PLEASE DON'T EAT THE DAISIES) Mark as the kid, Marion (HAPPY DAYS) Ross as mom and Edward (BLACK ZOO) Platt as the head of the education program. By the way, Richard Ney was married to and divorced from Greta Garbo.

After Mr. Xeno hypnotically kills off an angry dad in the teaser, he pops in here to pursue the next child in his unearthly quest...

He then arrives unannounced at the Benjamin residence where he shows them his Dept. of education credentials, he's there to tutor their super smart son, Kenny, in science.

But, Mr. Benjamin's getting a weird vibe from the man even though he's happy for his son.

Things are moving along quite well with the tutoring taking place in Kenny's room, with the door shut of course. The kid can already walk through walls!

Mr. Xeno shows Kenny (who already knows Mr. Xeno is from another world) how he breathes, being from another planet and all. He has two flaps below his neck, yuck, with tongues!

Kenny's dad is beside himself with Mr. Xeno's intrusion, something is just, WRONG!.. He goes to see Mr. Terrence, the head of the gifted student program and finds out that the school DOES NOT send out private tutors to any of their students!.. He tells Mr. Terrence that a Mr. Xeno has been coming to his house as many as three nights a week! And. he finds out that they don't have any Mr. Xeno working for them! Dad's acting a little too frantic and is kindly axed to leave.

Mr. Xeno gets aggressive after he's confronted by dad. They live in a high rise, so, what better way to get rid of the pain in the ass than by having him jump out the window!

But before that can happen, Kenny changes the air in the room into an unbreathable mixture for Xeno, using an alien machine he has built and mastered!

So cool, the alien is choking to death on his own device made to use against Earthlings!..

His gill lips or whatever just ain't working, somethin's all haywire!.. (pillow feathers)

Mr. Xeno takes a fall down the stairs and is nearly dead, when, Kenny turns the machine off... You see, Kenny figured out what Mr. Xeno was doing early on and was just playing along until things were right.

He allows Mr. Xeno to leave and go back to his planet, and, he'll turn the device over to the military for development in case they try to come back! The kid's the hero this time! Tune in again on Wednesday for more new May Pole Posts, here at The Dungeon!!..