SCREAM OF THE BUTTERFLY - The Emcees - "You'll Pay" (1965)

So it's Wednesday, WTF?! You know, one of the best things about writing this blog is learning new stuff, and tonight's feature is one of those things, and you can thank Something Weird Video, and Netflix for making it available. "Scream Of The Butterfly," although not a major release in 1965, was an early venture into the world of the gay community! That's right, a murder mystery with homosexual and bisexual tendencies, minus stereotypes! Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the director, Eber Lobato was originally a film maker in his native country of Argentina!

This is the star of the film, the director's wife, Nélida Lobato as Marla Williams!!! "I lied, I cheated, for YOU!! Marla's killer wasn't exactly outfront about his true sexual preferences!

Las Vegas, city of sin, and a whole lot of other very strange stuff!

The joint is jumpin' with the wild sound of that sax driven' and rockin' band, "The Emcees!" Man, that's a name that has turned out to be used a lot in the present day and age! I couldn't find any other musical credits, so you're on your own!

This is Richard Beebe as the venerable public defender, Ron Vesario. You might recognize Richard as the writer of that 1973 smash, "Economic Love-In."

John Richards has the role of Phil, the assistant district attorney, and man, does he have a familiar looking face, but actually John had only three other acting credits, as Paeblo, Bit, and Messenger!

And last, but not least, Robert Miller as district attorney Michael Farmer! Robert kept acting up into the 90's and was best known around here for his role as the gas station attendant in The "Incredible 2-Headed Transplant!"

This really must be Las Vegas, because how lucky can you get?? Two vintage station wagons in one shot!! That's some off the wall incredible luck!!

What a happy couple and also what a major pair of losers!! That's William(Where's Willie)Turner as Marla's husband, Paul Williams!

This is really not a bad movie, and they saved a lot of cash by bouncing back and forth between these guys discussing the case, and repeated flashbacks from the different participant's perspective!

There's just something peculiar about this guy Marla meets on the beach, but it's probably just the hat, but then again, you'd have to be pretty peculiar to even wear a hat like that, unless your name is Gilligan!

And while we're on the subject of peculiar.....

How would you feel if you found yourself in this situation? You've been married like three days, and your wife is making out with a gay guy on the beach, and you catch them! No, that's the other guy, so how would you feel if you caught your boyfriend.....?

Back to the club, and this time the oversexed Marla hooks up with another guy who likes the way she dances!!!

This gal at the club looks like when she leaves here, she's going to head on over to "Party Beach!"

For all you folks out there still reminiscing about the good old days, do you remember when you would go on summer vaction with your parents to a dump like this, and you would think it was the coolest paradise on the earth? Gee Whiz, they had a pool, what more could you ask for?

Nice pad, stark interior with nothing but a bag, two chairs, and four bottles of booze!! Believe or don't, the man behind the camera on this film was none other than Ray Dennis Steckler. Starting to make more sense now?

A touching moment where the unhappy couple ponders renewing their vows after a mere few days of marriage!

When your old lady goes stiff, she's trying to send you a message that she's either dead, or just not in the mood! Because of the big media coverup, a lot of people have forgotten that Las Vegas used to be on the Pacific Ocean!!

Sweet innocent Marla talks her husband William into going on a little sailboat cruise even though it's well known that he cannot swim! You can probably figure out for yourself what happens!

G'roovy portable record players always come in handy!

Nick Novarro as David is totally zoned out on the music, probably having flashbacks to his role in "Hootenanny Hoot" as Jed Morse, a film that featured The Brothers Four, Joe & Eddie, and the man in black, Johnny Cash!

As a kid, one of my favorite books, "Alice In Wünderbarland" not withstanding, was "Never Trust A Naked Bus Driver" by the fantastic comedy writer Jack Douglas. The moral of this story is, never trust a gay gigolo........

........How's that for a no brainer? Just like "Head" it ends where it started, and just in case you think I gave the whole story away, well, not really, because this film has a special trick ending you need to see for yourself!!

A WALKING NIGHTMARE / Monogram - 1942

Welcome everbloody to Moldie Oldie Monday here at the Dungeon! Today we gots a little cheapie from Monogram Pictures, A WALKING NIGHTMARE aka THE LIVING GHOST and directed by Dungeon heavyweight, William Beaudine!

Tagline reads "SPOOK CHASER... A reckless sleuth follows the trail of a white ZOMBIE!"

The story is about n ex-detective called out of retirement to investigate a recent kidnapping. Once on the job, one of the suspects gets a "paralyzed brain" and becomes a zombie-like hulk. Oh and, there's murder in the air, too!

Frank Sanucci gets the credit as musical director, so it's all stock music from Monogram's extensive library... And, it sounds like it, as you'll notice while you listen to today's Eariffic Earclip from Eegah!!

Lil' Rufus is in the room which means only one thing, time for the show!! Rufus came up with our soundclip's Twisted Title today! Hit the button Rufus!!.. LIVING NIGHTMARE vs WALKING GHOST!

We're looking for Brother Nick Trayne, The Sympathetic Ear!.. And, here it is! Can't miss it.

An ex-detective has to do what an ex-detective has to do! Whatta schtick!

Second bananas James Dunn and Joan Woodbury get to star in this lil' horror flick as Nick Trayne and Billie Hilton. Billie hires Nick to help her solve a weird mystery going on at her place.

Nick gets nowhere fast, talking with this old biddie!

The look on Nick's face is priceless as the doctor tries to explain a theory about zombies!

You know an out of tune piano when you hear it!

And, speaking of out of tune... Billie wears that weird looking striped outfit the same way John Agar wore that striped circus jacket in DAUGHTER OF DR. JEKYLL, too much! Costume director needs to be fired!

Nick and Billie get a lead and go to 547 Lansdale St.

Those damned coo-coo clocks!.. Jeez!!

The dude with the "paralyzed brain!"

Wow, they actually left this in the print! Cool!!

Each suspect has to record their voice because Nick came up with a way to identify the killer.

Okay, you guys think you're sho schmart, do ya!

Ahhh, young love, how sweet thou art!..

As always, the cop gets the last word!

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!