WHAT’S GOOD FOR THE GOOSE (1969) – Well, is it?

 

Greg Goodsell here -- what we have in the Dungeon tonight is a vintage British sex farce that seems a tad too naughty for these here parts.  WHAT'S GOOD FOR THE GOOSE also went under the title GIRL TROUBLE in the States or NORMAN - GIR DEN GAS in foreign territories!

Yes, our man Norman Wisdom plays banker Timothy Bartlett ruled by his humdrum, workaday routine. For a British sex quickie, however, WHAT’S GOOD FOR THE GOOSE has quite a pedigree! It’s produced by horror film producer extraordinaire Tony Tenser, released by his Tigon Studios. Tenser had a hand in such classics as WITCHFINDER GENERAL (1968) and BLOOD ON SATAN’S CLAW (1971)! Director Menachem Golan would later join forces with his cousin Yorum Globus to forge the incredible bomb factory known as Cannon Pictures in the 1970s! He died on August 8 at the ripe old age of 85 this very year! But we’re getting ahead of ourselves -
 

 To borrow a phrase from an old Kinks ditty, “What are we living for? Two-roomed apartment on the second floor.” Norman’s three adorable kids ignore and don’t appreciate all of his hard work -- can you feel a mid-life crisis coming on?

Sent to a conference by his ailing boss at the coastal town of Southport, trouble comes quickly! These two British lolly birds are about to get our friend Norman into all kinds of trouble! LET THE CARTOON BEGIN!

Adjusting their sunglasses, Nikki (Sally Geeson) and Meg (Sarah Atkinson) size our Norman up as a repressed old prude! That’s about to change in a very big way –

Yup, a little bit of leg will get any girl far in this world. Norman here feigns disapproval –

Geeson, the lovely brunette in this shot is the younger sister of distinguished British actress Judy Geeson of HORROR PLANET/INSEMINOID (1980) infamy! She would only appear in a few more pictures until she chucked acting all together in 1972 to pursue a teaching career!

The girls ply their wares and let slip that they will be partying in town that weekend. You can see the bug slip into Norman’s ear at this point!

There’s a lot more from where that came from?

Out and about to pick up a pack of fags -- that’s CIGARETTES, for you yanks, Norman stumbles into a -- literally -- underground nightclub called the Screaming Apple!

As you can see, poor Norman is a real fish out of water in this kooky comedy as he takes to a psychedelic hippie joint in black bowtie and tuxedo!

As plainly evident, there are a lot of British hippies who were having FUN FUN FUN in this nightspot where patrons can swing on inner tubes! Looks unsafe …

The enthusiastic British hipsters welcome Norman with open arms, because -- HE HAS MONEY! YAY!

Here is why this film is remembered, if at all -- it features the noted and celebrated psychedelic and blues rock group the Pretty Things! The Things contribute four songs to this film’s soundtrack. As you can see, these Things aren’t particularly “pretty” -- but neither is rock and roll!

What is good for the goose REALLY is good for the gander, as this male waiter, in the manner of other swingin’ female birds of the time, goes “topless. “

Why, even a member of the house band also goes the Tarzan route!

And here’s our fave “it” girl again, trying to convince Norman to stop being such an old fuddy-duddy!

Bedding down with his lovely for a night of extramarital sex, a lock of her hair strategically placed foresees the macho street clone look that would become popular in the following decade!

Norman afterwards embraces the youth counter-culture. A bit of booze and some Carnaby Street clothes make the man!

Yours truly is ashamed to say that he, at one point, wore vests like that -- as late as 1976!

Feeling remorseful, Norman drags his wife (Sally Bazely) to Southport for some hippie clothes and free-wheeling fun, but as she slathers on some cold cream, our hero realizes -- you can’t go home again! Is what’s good for the goose REALLY good for the gander? You’ll have to see the movie to find out! This is Greg Goodsell – over and out!

IL POZZO DI SATANA (Satan's Pit) / Toei Company - 1965

It's Friday Fright with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. We gots kind of a Japanese version of THE HAUNTING with breathing doors among other disturbing things! Alternate titles include HOUSE OF TERRORS and THE GHOST OF THE HUNCHBACK.

Here's the evil dude in his coffin, with a flower in his mouth. His wife tries to remove it but she cannot, then, him and the coffin are burned in an incinerator...

Eegah!! sent over a fun sound clip of pure insanity for our earjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button over by our atomic powered hunchback servant, NOW, Rufus The Gnat!.. Here's a taste of... SATAN'S PIT!

The wife goes back to the house where a team of experts in paranormal activity joins her.

The hunchback is there as the servant, he has remained in the house since his master's death.

The team inspect some grave sites in search of clues about the causes of the eerie goings on in the old dark house.

The hunchback seems to know about the happenings and the team interrogates his ass!

Then, a local wandering psychic pops in to give his take on the situation!

There's a séance with the psychic, he channels the evil spirit and turns into a demon!

Then, the master returns in the hunchback's body. He tells the group of his plans...

He also tells them about what has caused him to turn evil, the woman here will betray him for another and have him imprisoned in Satan's Pit!

The group finds Satan's Pit in the basement and discover the remains of the ghost.

There are lots of creepy items in the house, including this statue of a demon!

I just like this shot, that's all... Sex is a big deal in this movie!

In the end, this pure and innocent woman is the only one that can stop the evil! Tune in tomorrow when The Virus Man is back with a very cool flick from good old 1969.

R.I.P. RICHARD KIEL - Sept 13, 1939 - September 10, 2014

Thanx to Douglas McEwan for informing me that our hero, and my namesake Richard Kiel as "Eegah!!," passed away yesterday at the age of 74, just three days short of his 75th birthday! I had always hoped we'd do an interview with Richard one day, but that just proves you need to act on these things if you want to get them done! Good-Bye big guy, we're gonna miss you!! Here's just a handful of shots from Richard's wildly entertaining career!

Richard Kiel as "Eegah!" (1962)

Ricard Kiel as 'The Giant' in "House Of The Damned!!" (1963)

Richard Kiel as Dr. Kolos in "The Human Duplicators!!!" (1965)

Richard Kiel as Otto in "A Man Called Dagger!!!!" (1968)

DETOUR - Erdody - "Get Back On Track, Jack" (1945)

 "DETOUR!"

You're going one way, and your life decides to take you a completely different direction, and there's nothing you can do about it, except go along for the ride!

"Detour!" What a great title and what a great word! Nobody knows where a detour is going to take them, unless it's a route they travel every day, and that's exactly what this film is all about, being lost!

Well, you can't get much more lost looking than this poor slob known as Al Roberts, and for good reason, considering his bio, Tom (The Brute Man) Neal might not have had to act so hard to look this miserable! As an amateur boxer, he had a record of 44-3 with 41 Knockouts, so he was a pretty tough guy, but in 1965 he let things get out of control and he was convicted of shooting his wife to death! He got off on involuntary manslaughter and served 6 years of his 10 year sentence! He didn't even make it another year after his release before dying at the age of 58 with a bad ticker!

"I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me" written by Jimmy McHugh and Clarence Gaskill is playing on the jukebox, and it's about to drive poor Al Roberts beserk! Most of the rest of the music in the movie was written by one of those people who liked to only go by one name: Erdody!!

Flash back to better times when he was performing the same song with his sweetheart Claudia (The Face Of Marble) Drake as Sue Harvey! If he could only turn back the hands of time!

Sue is heading off to California to try and better her singing career, and she's leaving Al behind!

It doesn't take long before Al gets the bright idea that he ought to head on out to California too, and join the girl of his dreams! Right about here is where the "Detour" begins!

Al gets picked up by a nice enough guy who talks too much, pops pills, and has some big gnarly looking scratches on the back of his right hand, but he's headed all the way to California, and that seems great as far as Al is concerned! Let it be known that Al is also broke!! Al's new friend is named Charlie Haskell Jr. and was played by Edmund (The Invisible Man Returns) MacDonald. Six years after "Detour" was made Edmund would be dead at the age of 43 from a brain hemorrhage!

Sue's career seems to be heading in all the right directions!

 Al's meantime, not so! Don't know if it was the pills, or if Charlie just had a heart attack while Al was taking his turn at the wheel, but whatever it was, he's of no further use to this world! Al hits the panic button and decides that they would never believe the story of a poor hitchhiker, so he ditches the body and pockets Charlie's dough, and decides that until he gets to California, for now, he's going to be Charles Haskell Jr.! They didn't have picture IDs back then and the description on the Driver's License was close enough!

When you're out driving around and you don't know where you are, and then you have to take a detour and end up God knows where, and if that's not confusing enough, the detour has a detour, well, that's what's about to happen to Al Roberts, when he coincidentally runs into the crazy mama of all detours when he stops to get some gas! She seems innocent enough! Omigod Al! Don't fall for it!!

Meet Ann (Scared Stiff) Savage as simply Vera! Day or night, Vera doesn't change, she's very pretty, but there's something brewing inside her, and it's a strange brew, no doubt!

It's not long before Vera lets Al know that she knows he's not Charlie Haskell. She should know, because she's the reason he had all those scratch marks on his hand! How incredibly lucky Al was to pick her up!

Vera's got all kinds of plans for Al posing as Charlie, but it's all about to come to a head, and essentially she is holding him as a kidnap victim, and he better cooperate or else she will tell the authorities that he killed Charlie!

After seeing this newspaper clipping, Vera gets the big idea that Al should pose as Charles Jr. after the old man kicks off, and collect a big inheritance that they can share!

Al doesn't like it, and feels like he's stuck in between a rock and the big house, so one night when they're drinking and playing cards, the happy couple gets into an argument, and Vera says she's going to call the cops, and storms off into the bedroom with the long phone cord trailing behind her! Yeah, I know that you kids today don't know what a phone cord is, so look it up, it's essential to the story!

Psycho bitch Vera is drunker than snot, and kind of trips over the bed with the phone cord all wrapped around her and passes out!

The door is locked, so in an attempt to stop Vera from calling the police, Al starts yanking on the phone cord hoping to make Vera let go of it!

Whoa! Major Bummer! The cord was wrapped around Vera's neck, and now she's deader than a doornail!

And that's why Al is in the shape he's in! Two deaths, one by accident, and one by association, but in the eyes of the authorities, he will be guilty as Hell! Life is filled with detours, the last one I took brought me to Amazon Prime and this movie, I hope the next one is as good! (Surprise, Surprise, an even better detour, I just found out that "Detour" also streams for free at the Internet Archive!) Now you don't have any reason to not watch it!