FRANCIS IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE - Mancini,Skinner,Stein - "Truth Serum Swing" (1956)

Tonight, we've got a very special classic for you, starring the great Mickey Rooney, called "Francis In The Haunted House," and I don't know why, but for some obscure reason, this film is almost impossible to find today. The concept of a talking mule makes more sense than that!! Watching it these days is more difficult, but I loved the "Francis, The Talking Mule" movies as a kid!! Big kudos to Tabonga for finding us a copy!!

In the previous 6 Francis movies, the voice was done by Chill Wills, but for this last film in the series, they used the master voiceover and cartoon voice guy Paul Frees, and although there is a difference, it really doesn't affect anything much! Paul is almost able to nail it, but Chill Wills just always had that extra little gruff warble in his voice!

Mickey Rooney replaced Donald O'Connor in this last Francis outing. Donald had become increasingly unsatisfied with the series having publicly stated that after 6 movies and the mule gets more fan mail, it was time to move on!

Whether it's a good movie or not, "Francis In The Haunted House" sure has a star-studded cast by Dungeon standards, starting with Timothy(The World's Greatest Sinner)Carey here as the thug and henchman Hugo!

I'd be willing to bet that this Plymouth police car has more metal in it than 13 Toyotas put together!!

Hugo lowers the gate to the castle of evil, or in this case, the haunted house!!

David(The Fugitive)Janssen on the left, plays the part of Police Lieutenant Hopkins!

Here's more classic evildoers, the ever so recognizable Richard Deacon as Jason, on the left, and on the right, it's Charles(The Werewolf)Horvath, as the other assistant hooligan, Malcolm!!

How do you try and teach a mule to not look straight into the camera?

A lot of people don't, but I like Mickey Rooney in this role as David Prescott! I mean look at that mug, was this guy the consummate actor or what?

Gourmet chef Richard Deacon played the role of Dick Van Dyke's boss Mel Cooley, from 1961 to 1966, and was Fred Rutherford on 22 episodes of "Leave It To Beaver" among his many TV appearances!

In this scene, Jason tries to off David from the backseat, but is foiled!

David makes it to the police station just in time to tell them he has the suspect knocked out, and captured in his car....

...but when they go to check it out, Jason has been killed in an effort to make sure he doesn't start flapping his lips about what's been really going on!

The police bring in three experts to question David, since they don't believe all his gibberish about a talking mule, or his story about somebody trying to kill him, but when he doesn't change his story even after being hypnotized, they decide to give him some truth serum. It's at this point that the music is at it's best, swaying and swaggering like a drunken sailor! Uncredited musical bits and pieces go to Henry Mancini, Frank Skinner, and Herman Stein, but I don't know who composed this particular section, maybe it was Henry Skinnerstein!

Virgina Welles as Lorna MacLeod turns out to be a two timin' trollop of a girlfriend towards the end!!

If they look like they've just seen a ghost it's because the Director of "Francis In The Haunted House," Charles Lamont, had directed some of the very best comedy films of the 50's! He directed all the scary/funny Abbott & Costello movies(the 40's Abbott & Costello flicks were directed by Charles Barton), and worked extensively with Judy Canova and Ma and Pa Kettle!

In the end, Prescott and Francis have to take things into their own hands, and hoofs, and get into costume as the ghost and do battle with the real bad guys!

Francis the Talking Mule was actually a female named Molly, because the female of the spieces was easier to work with in the studio! Francis lead the way in the talking animal field of entertaining, and opened up the door for Mr. Ed and a whole slew of CGI chipmunks, cats, and insects!

THE BRAIN MACHINE / Howco Productions - 1977

Welcome to Friday Night Drive-In Frights & Freakouts here at the Dungeon, with your host Tabonga and his little 4-eyed hunchback tarantula helper buddy, Ralphie!

Howco also produced MESA OF LOST WOMEN, JAIL BAIT and UNTAMED MISTRESS!

Here's our story... "Four people with distinctly different backgrounds all volunteer for an experiment involving mind-altering and manipulation. The volunteers gather at a secret laboratory and are subject to a series of procedures that border on torture, including shock therapy and psychological torture. The final portion of the procedure involves the test subjects being exposed to an experimental device that alters their minds through the exposure of their innermost fears and darkest secrets."

Flick stars tons of TV actors, including James (uncredited crewman in FORBIDDEN PLANET) Best, Barbara (THE LAST PORNO FLICK) Burgess, Gerald (NIGHT OF BLOODY TERROR) McRaney and Marcus J. (KEEP OFF MY GRASS!) Grapes!

Jim Helms did the 'music' for THE BRAIN MACHINE and also worked on WOMEN AND BLOODY TERROR, THE PSYCHO LOVER, THE NIGHT OF THE STRANGLER and NIGHT CREATURE!

Today, Ralphie came up with funny soundclip title, so hit that big red 'GO' button and start the show, lil' pal!.. DAS BRAINZ MUSHEEN!

When you try and expose criminal activity in government sponsored weirdness, expect to be relentlessly tracked down! Filmed in Mississippi.

There are some great CIA jokes here, but we don't do political humor!

James plays Rev. Emory Neill. He had a similiar role in SHOCK CORRIDOR where he was in a nut house with various characters! Any time we feature James, it'd be funny to end the soundclip with Sheriff Rosco Coltrane's goofy laugh!

What good is a horror flick without showing some kind of weird looking skull?!

Interesting shots!

Okay, so, here's a great shot of the group... Before... Aw crap, the big door that seals them off is coming down... Sorry!

Dude got a little too close to the truth...

That's camera 3, right?

Tabonga swears, a lot of today's 'music' sounds like some of the stuff our band came up with after we got a digital delay!!

James gets his mind blown all the way to Hell!

OOPS!!

When you're the supreme pizza commander of the universe, you can easily have someone else framed to take the blame for your mistakes!

The ultimate fate of the volunteers and the people that know what's going on, is, well, you know... Not that great!

This is America, signing off!..

One of these days, we'll own the whole mutherfucker!!..

Right, boss!

**In a never-ending quest for cosmic balance, we're changing our lineup again... You are warned!

FOG ISLAND / PRC - 1945

Welcome again to another Wednesday Oldie Moldie B+W Bijou Flicktime Theater, here at the Dungeon wif' Tabonga and lil' helper, Rufus!

FOG ISLAND was released about 6 months before the end of WWII, and when the atomic bomb was nearly completed! Stars George (VOODOO MAN) Zucco, Lionel (MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM) Atwill, Jerome (THE JUNGLE CAPTIVE) Cowan and Veda Ann (REVENGE OF THE ZOMBIES) Borg. Storyline is basically... A man invites a group of 'friends' for a holiday at his creepy fog-ridden island home (it has secret passages and hidden doorways) and he intends to exact some twisted revenge after being released from prison, framed for embezzlement by these once trusted associates.

Music is by Mr. Karl Hajos who had a total of 85 composing and 142 music department credits! Here are some other movies he composed for - THE HAUNTED HOUSE (1928), THE LOVE DOCTOR, THE DUMMY, THE STUDIO MURDER MYSTERY, WOMAN TRAP, GRUMPY, THE SEA GOD, SUPERNATURAL, EIGHT GIRLS IN A BOAT, WEREWOLF OF LONDON, CIRCUS GIRL, HITLER'S MADMAN, CHARLIE CHAN IN THE SECRET SERVICE and THE MISSING CORPSE!

Lil' Rufus the Gnat yell real loud at Tabonga to tell him that he ready to push big red 'GO' button and make today's Eariffic Earclip roll up the hill to start show... So, here we go! Notice how Rufus have Tabonga change name of soundclip because he think it so funny!.. FROG ISLAND!

What Tabonga can say? Ta da!.. Fog Island!!

George Zucco lives with his stepdaughter in this creepy old house on Fog Island.

There's plenty of stereotypical characters, the dude with a hat looking in the window and the suspicious looking butler!

Veda Ann and Lionel are somewhat leary about being invited to George's house for the weekend!

And, old Georgie boy's working away with some boobie traps and such for his friends for after they arrive!

Such cleverness, all topped off with Geronimo's stolen skull!

What the eff!..

April Fool!

At the reunion party, George gives out special surprises for everbloody!

Great mug shot as George threatens Lionel.

Skeletons in shadows always disturbed Tabonga when he was lil' twigster!

This trap is an underground drowning pool!

Nice parting shot!! Happy screams, everbloody!