HIGH SCHOOL CAESAR - "Mob Rule In A High School" (1960)

This week's Saturday Night Special is a classic juvenile hot rod film from 1960 called "High School Caesar."

 

Dungeon Hero John Ashley is a spoiled little rich kid named Mat Stevens. He's "Cool as a freezer, that's why they call him Caesar!" IMDB has his name as Matt, but according this poster, I beg to differ.

 

This is Mat's girlfriend Lita Owens as played by Daria Massey. Search as hard as you want, but all you're going to basically find about Daria is, "She was an actress," and a list of her credits. There's a Facebook click bait page based in Nigeria, that says she died last year, but I wouldn't go there unless you're really on the prowl for a virus! 

(After I threw out that challenge, our pal KD found this old newspaper clipping abour Daria. It doesn't really add any new info, but is still interesting as Heck! The movie mentioned in the article titled "The Magic Brain" was actually "The Magic Ring.")

 

The rockin' soundtrack was written by the phenomenal Nicholas Carras who composed the music for an incredible array of films like "Missile To The Moon," "She Demons," "Date Bait," "Frankenstein's Daughter," "The Astro-Zombies," and more!

 

The High School election is rigged, and Mat has his pals making sure that he wins!

 

 

Mat's best friend is called Cricket, and he wants to go out with this special blonde he likes named Wanda, and Mat guarantees that she will be Cricket's girlfriend, except Wanda has other plans!

 

 

The kids are all hanging out drinking Cokes at their favorite joint called The Wagon. That's Wanda on the far left. Wanda was played by Judy (Adventures Of Superman, Magnificent Obsession) Nugent.

 Mat's rich parents are out of the country, so he's running all kinds of rackets at the school. He's even mean to the service people employed by his parents.

It's gotta be depressing to be twenty-six, and still be in high school. That's how old John was when he made this film!

The most important thing in life to Mat is to keep his hair slicked back.

 

 

The kids all decide to have a hot rod race! Mat tells everybody that there is a $2.00 entry fee to race, and when they balk, he tells them that the winner will get this special coin that he has.

 The guy who was running for President against Mat wins the race, and the coin, but after the race is over, Mat with Cricket in the car, run Kelly off the road.

 

Kelly dies in the accident, and Mat retrieves his coin, and then Mat and Cricket will deny knowing anything about the accident.

 

One of Mat's rackets is that he sells stolen tests to any kid who has five bucks, and doesn't want to fail. A new test comes up that he needs a copy of, so he sends his goons to the office to get it!

The two dummies almost get caught by the Principal, and it really pisses Mat off!

This shot is iconic 1960! A stud and two dolls!

 

Wanda is walking down the street, when Mat forces her into the car. Cricket is in the driver's seat, and Mat tells him to take a hike. He tells Cricket he wants Wanda for himself and that Cricket can now have Lita. Cricket's not happy, but leaves anyway. In the meantime, the coin falls out of Mat's pocket.

 

Wanda has the coin and gets away, and takes off running, and at first Mat pursues her on foot, and then in his car! At one point she hides under this bridge with Mat standing right above her.

 

Meanwhile Crickets heads back to the club, and when he gets there he tells all the kids that Mat killed Kelly, and in the meantime Wanda goes back to the rest of the kids, and tells them that Mat had Kelly's coin. Steve (Agent For H.A.R.M.) Stevens is Cricket.

 

 

Mat gives up on finding Wanda, and heads back to The Wagon where they are supposed to be having a big birthday party for him, but nobody's there.

 

 

The kids all turn on him, and the guy who owns The Wagon calls the cops, and the blasphemous reign of the mighty Caesar is put to an end, once and for all! Kind of reminds me of recent political events, just on a smaller scale!

BEANY AND CECIL In "Sleeping Beauty And The Beast" - 1962

Welp, the clock on the wall sez it's time for Beany And Cecil... Today, Cecil goes to Fairytale Land where he battles Dishonest John and saves Sleeping Beauty from that dirty guy's clutches!

It starts with the Captain reading some fairy tales to Beany and Cecil. The story is Sleeping Beauty and The Wicked Old Witch. Cecil turns into Prince Chow Mein and heads off to find his dream girl...

Cecil finds Faitytale Land and goes ashore.

In the meantime, Dishonest John is playing the wicked old witch. He's out doing his 'good' deeds for the day, starting with knocking Humpty Dumpty off his wall.

Then he gives the old woman's shoe a hotfoot.

He turns the heat up on Jack!

DJ plays the mean old wolf and blows the 3 little piggies house down...

After all his deeds are done, he goes back to his castle where he keeps Sleeping Beauty asleep!

Cecil arrives at the castle. When he tries to enter, DJ pulls the draw bridge up on him!

Next Cecil gets a guillotine on his rear end, exposing his cute little butt.

So, Cecil chases DJ out of the castle. As DJ runs along the road, Humpty Dumpty hits him with a big old creme pie to get his revenge! That's Simple Simon there supplying the goods.

Then Little Boy Blew blasts a note on his horn that sends an electric charge up DJ's spine.

Cecil hops in the old lady's shoe and stomps off after that dirty guy!

The sea serpent blocks DJ's attempted escape, he then kicks DJ into the air...

And he comes down square into the powder room. Jack turns up the heat, and...

The room is now a rocket ship and it heads into space with DJ inside. After knocking the cow over the Moon, the missile is swallowed up by the Man in the Moon.

Back at the castle, Cecil gives Sleeping Beauty a big sloppy lick and she comes out of her coma! In the best possible way, woo woo!!

After an adventure like that, Cecil needs to get some sleep... Join us tomorrow where Eegah!! obliviously has something cool for us, here at The Dungeon!!..

DATE BAIT - "One Way Or The Other" (1960)

 This week's Saturday Night Special is a movie from 1960 called "Date Bait."

 "Date Bait" - Kind of like a combination of Jail Bait and Date Rape 1960's style!
What the heck, the words rhyme, so it doesn't really need to make sense.

 Check out the license plate, it looks like it was hand drawn! I found it interesting that both the two main guys in the movie don't drive hot rod Chevy's or Fords, but drive MG's instead.

 So the kids are all down at the club having a good time when psycho drug addict Brad decides to join the party!

 You know when you're just groovin' and dancin' with your girl, it's always a bummer when some weirdo asshole like Brad tries to cut in. The cute couple being hassled is Gary Clarke as Logan and Marlo (Dragstrip Riot) Ryan as Sue.

 Time for big brother to show up and bail out Brad one more time!

 Gary Clarke should be your hero because the three movies he was in prior to "Date Bait" were "Dragstrip Riot," "How To Make A Monster," and "Missile To The Moon." He was also a regular on the TV show "The Virginian" for 63 episodes. If I did the math right, Mr. Clarke will be 87 years old this years, and believe it or not, has a short and a TV movie in production this year.
Have you ever wondered why actors change their names? Gary Clarke is a good example. He was born Clarke Frederic Lamoreaux!

 Years ago I won something like this at a Walther League meeting, but mine wasn't full of heroin! 

Mine was a little cardboard box with a clown on the front that said "Jerk In The Box," and when you opened it, there was a mirror inside that exposed who the real jerk was!

And while we're on the subject of jerks, if you looked it up in the dictionary, there might be a picture of Brad as an example! Dick Gering had the role of Brad. With only 13 credits to his name, Dick was in some TV shows like "Mike Hammer," and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents."

 1960's L.A. with a classic Studebaker parked out front!

Sue's parents are uptight social racists, as I like to call them. The proper term is 'Classism,' or people who are prejudiced against someone not because of race or color, but merely because of social position! In other words, they don't like their daughter Sue going out with Logan because he's from the wrong side of town, even though he drives an MG!

 Brad's badass big shot brother has to sit at a midget table which doesn't make him look like such a big tough guy!

 Life is pretty crappy these days but the air was literally this bad in Los Angeles back in the 1960's from smog!

 There's still enough ime to cut a rug!!

Logan and Sue can't take it any more and decide to run off to Las Vegas to get married, even though they are both underage. This is not going to make her parents or psycho Brad very happy.

Sue emerges from the gas station bathroom all decked out and ready to tie the knot!

The happy couple gets hitched but can't find a place to stay because they lack I.D.'s

I just had to throw in this classic Mary Kaye Trio album cover!

Logan and Sue finally get a room at the "Motel Glen Capri."

 Upgraded room has a radio in it, but you still have to put a quarter in if you want it to work, and no free Wi-Fi!

Sue's a little trepidatious about her first night in the sack with her new husband, but she's glowing the following morning!

All you needed was a couple of Cokes, a cigarette machine, and a juke box, and 1960 was like paradise!

Brad is such a junkie loser, but don't worry, he gets what he deserves, and I'm not talking about treatment!


Associate Producer Nicholas (Missile To The Moon, Frankenstein's Daughter, The Astro-Zombies) Carras is also responsible for the cool soundtrack, and the title song was written by John Neel and Oscar Nichols, was performed by Reggie Perkins, and released on Raynote Records.