HENRY ALDRICH HAUNTS A HOUSE / Paramount Pictures - 1943

Welcome again to Moldie Oldie Monday, here at the Dungeon! Today, Tabonga and li'l helper Rufus the Gnat bring you a fun little comedy thriller with every mother's favorite son, Henry Aldrich. There were a total of 12 movies starring the Aldrich family, Jackie Cooper played Henry in the first two, then Jimmy Lydon finished out the series with with his signature nerdy crackling adolescent voice!

The plot goes like this... Henry drinks a serum to become super strong and ends up in a 'haunted' house.

This flick is one of over 700 Paramount productions filmed between 1929 and 1949 which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution!

"Henry!.. HENRY!"

"Coming, mother!"

Henry and mom are featured in Bob Clampett's BOOK REVUE Looney Tune from 1946! That cartoon is top 10 of all time, and, Mel Blanc was a better singer than most crooners!!!

Music is by Gerard Carbonara. Gerald had an above average career with 71 composing and 128 music department credits between 1928 and his last uncredited composition in 1960.

Some of the films he worked on are THE HAUNTED HOUSE (1928), YOUNG EAGLES, THE MOON'S OUR HOME, SKY PARADE, GIRL OF THE OZARKS, THE DEVIL IS DRIVING, ARTISTS AND MODELS ABROAD, STAGECOACH, GERONIMO, DR. CYCLOPS, THE MONSTER AND THE GIRL and AMONG THE LIVING!

Okay then, why don't we get this here Eariffic Earclip a rollin'... Today, Rufus is using a little mallet to hit the big red 'GO' button to start the dominos falling, just in time for!.. HENRY HAUNTS A HOUSE!

Can anybloody believe this is what high school used to be like?.. Hard to!!

As always, it's about guys trying to impress girls, and that's where the trouble always starts! But, we wouldn't have it any other way!

Henry's trying to impress Elise Towers, daughter of the local nutty professor!

Elise shows Henry some of her father's inventions and secret potions he's working on. When Elise leaves for a moment, Henry drinks down a bottle of liquid that makes him super strong. And, what better way to impress a girl, right?!

Henry, Elise and Dizzy end up at Creep House, which is supposedly haunted...

But, something weird actually is going on there!

Henry's not sure if he wasn't responsible for the disappearances.

Welp, it's back to Creep House, somebloody's got to get to the bottom of this mystery!

Like in Scooby-Doo, the gang gets separated, and Dizzy has his moments of terror!

Don't do that, you knucklehead!

Then it happens, Henry finds... A MUMMY!

Henry has to go see a shrink to evaluate how crazy he is!

The potion Henry drank did create an alter ego, and who's having lots more fun than Henry is!

Big mystery finally solved, that mummy's the guy everbloody's been looking for!..

And, Henry's back to his old, normal self!!..

***July 16th will be our phenominal 1000th posting, with a Friday Night Drive-In offering of a Corman classic from 1956 we've been saving for some special occasion!!

FROGS - Joe Sidore - "Ribbet, Ribbet" (1972)

Tomorrow is the 4th of July, so what better way to party than with a very odd movie from 1972 called "FROGS!" So just let me pour myself a Black Medallion and Diet Coke, and we'll get this 4th of July shindig rollin'!

Ray Milland as rich bigwig industrialist Jason Crockett and his family are getting ready to have their annual Independence Day bash at their ancestral home in the swamps of Florida!

"FROGS" is known as the first "Eco Horror" flick, and how horrifyingly ironic is it that it was filmed in a Florida state park that is located near the Gulf of Mexico?

I think it's funny that Dungeon stalwart Les Baxter gets credit for the music in "Frogs," since it is almost devoid of music at all, but what's even more curious is that the 'electronic sounds' that really set the mood were created by one of the finest musical madmen working today, Joe Sidore. Joe is a fellow who has some seriously unbelievable musical production and mixing credits, having worked with some of the coolest people ever, names like The Seeds, The Count Five, The West Coast Pop Experimental Band, Spanky and Our Gang, Harper's Bizarre, Van Dyke Parks, Norman Connors, Mel Tormé, Buddy Rich, Stan Kenton, David Bowie, and the list goes on and on and on!!!

Great shot of the swamp and all its hidden horrors! After years of spraying and other assorted means of wildlife destruction, Mother Nature is pissed, and she's got quite an array of soldiers bent on revenge!!

Outsider Sam Elliot as enviormental photographer Pickett Smith, and Joan Van Ark as family member Karen Crockett hit it off, but this ain't exactly a love story!

Just in case you forgot this was the 70's!

Nice product placement!! Gotta make some money one way or another!!

It seems Jason Crocket has some dues to pay, and it's just about time to write that check!! Ray Milland, as always, plays the cranky S.O.B. to perfection!!

Without warning, and like a fully orchestrated dance, step by step, the bugs, reptiles, birds, and all the other living swamp creatures, start picking off the Crockett household one by one!

Even a simple meal turns into a National Geographic terror tale!!

The Crockett family mansion is actually called the Wesley House and is located in Point Washington, Florida.

"Another one bites the dust, Hey, hey....

...and another one's gone, and another one's gone, another one bites the dust!"

Right down to the end, Jason Crockett thinks that "Man is still master of the world!"

Now this is a novel way of trampling the flag!

I really didn't know there were rattlesnakes in Florida until I saw this movie, because I thought the deadly coral snake was bad enough, but they actually have quite a few spieces of rattlers including the Dusky Pygmy Rattlesnake! Watch out for those little bastards!!

Hollis Irving as irreverent butterfly collector Iris Martindale meets up with some snakes that were not invited to the party!

I would venture to guess that about 25% of "FROGS" is made up just of shots of different swamp critters!

The home team is ahead about 7 to one at this point in the game, and there are just a couple of time periods left on the clock!

Sam, Joan and the kids finally wise up and decide to get the Hell out of Dodge!!

In the end, DJ Froggy went a courtin' but Jason Crockett couldn't stay alive long enough to appreciate his deft turntable skills!!!

GOOD AGAINST EVIL / ABC TV - 1977

Welcome to Friday Night Drive-In here at the Dungeon with host, Tabonga, and li'l hunchback helper, Ralphie the Tarantula! It's time to get this one out of the way, and, it ain't bad for a TV movie... It's actually a rip-off of two films, THE EXORCIST and ROSEMARY'S BABY. Tabonga's favorite writer, Jimmy Sangster, penned this little horror-romance psycho drama.

This flick is an ABC-TV pilot about a writer, Andy Stuart (Dack Rambo), teaming up with an exorcist, Father Kemschler (Dan O'Herlihy), to battle Satan and a group of Devil worshipers led by Mr. Rimmin (Richard Lynch).

It was meant for a projected television series that did not come about mainly because it offered nothing new for the viewer.

The music is by Argentinian born heavyweight composer, Lalo Schifrin. He also appears on 60 soundtracks!! Lalo composed music for THE WAY OUT MEN (TV), DARK INTRUDER, WAY... WAY OUT, MURDERERS' ROW, COOL HAND LUKE, BULLITT, PUSSY CAT, PUSSY CAT, I LOVE YOU!, THE AQUARIANS (TV), THX 1138, EARTH II (TV), NIGHT GALLERY (TV), THE NEPTUNE FACTOR, MAGNUM FORCE, VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED, THE MANITOU, THE CAT FROM OUTER SPACE, THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, THE NUDE BOMB, CAVEMAN, DOCTOR DETROIT and THE DEAD POOL!

Alright then, on wif' da show!.. Ralphie has his little claw raised and ready to push the big red 'GO' button, so here it comes... GOOD AGAINST EVIL!

As you listen to the oboe strains in the theme, you can start to understand this movie's problems... I mean, come on! Isn't that the Kolchak theme and a scene out of THE EXORCIST?!

We'll skip the nutso birthing scene and go directly to where mom tries to escape from the hospital but is attacked by a black cat and falls down the stairs... and dies!

My work here is done.

Richard Lynch is the consumate evil guy! Other movies Richard was in are THE HAPPY HOOKER, GOD TOLD ME TO, DEATHSPORT, VAMPIRE (TV), THE FORMULA, MANIMAL (TV), NIGHTFORCE, THE BARBARIANS, BAD DREAMS, ALLIGATOR II: THE MUTATION, TRANCERS II, PUPPET MASTER III, MERLIN, SCANNER COP and NECRONOMICON: BOOK OF THE DEAD!

Everbloody's favorite little hellion, Beelzebub!!

Dack Rambo plays Andy Stuart, writer, wanderer and love interest in SF, 1977. He lives in his van, something that you might do back then. I was actually related by marriage to Dack!

Andy meets Jessica Gordon, who is actually the baby taken by the brood 22 years ago, and she's promised to be the devil's bride, unbeknownst to her. Andy wants to get their fortunes told...

Listen up everbloody!.. If Tabonga ever was forced to do this schmuck's 'job,' he would consider harakiri!!.. Anyway, the dude had bad news for the young lovers...

Perfect example of a TV version of a horror alter. Jessica (in the photo) even has a pentagram drawn on her forehead!

Wherever Jessica goes, bad things happen, like this ex-boyfriend that got trampled to death after that same black cat attacked the horses while out riding!

It's messed up if you can't ever relax while taking a freakin' bubble bath!

They can't even mess around without the ceiling window crashing down on them!.. WTF??!!!

Gee, I wonder who was behind that one?!

Hey, I need a fill up!........ Is somebloody there?! Fill up, I need a fill up!!.. HEY, IS ANYBLOODY LISTENING TO ME!!

I swear, that looks like a car wash down on Chester Avenue!

Father Kemschler is brought in to see if an exorcism is what it's gonna take to snap this li'l gal out of her funk. You can hear him overact in the soundclip!

Papers fly around the room and the Father fights a pillow, but we're not sure if any of his participation did any good. Tune in next... Oh, that's right, it wasn't picked up!

Looks like those bed posts were the most important part of the scene!!