AFRICA SCREAMS / Huntington Hartford Productions - 1949

Welp, here's another Moldie Oldie Monday feature, this time with Tabonga's very favorite comedians when he was just a little twig! My aunt used to show 8mm shorts back in the day, and Abbott and Costello were in the lineup...

The music is by Walter Schumann, he's best known for 36 episodes of TV's DRAGNET he composed for, but he also worked on BUCK PRIVATES COME HOME, THE WISTFUL WIDOW OF WAGON GAP and THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER.

In keeping with our comedy theme, here's our lil' Dungeon helper pal, Rufus The Gnat, to push that big red 'GO' button (he's flexing his bicep to indicate he's ready) and start tonight's Eariffic Earclip rollin' along, and straight into your awaiting earifice!! Hit the button, Rufus!.. AFRICA SCREAMS!

This flick has some interesting actors in it! Here are brothers Max and Buddy Baer. Max, on the left, was World Heavyweight Champion for 364 days, losing the title in 1937. And, father of Max Baer, Jr. Buddy was the younger but larger (6'7") bro and was the GIANT FROM THE UNKNOWN! Here, they swing a deal for a grand with Lou, who plays Stanley Livington, pretend big-game hunter and book salesman.

Buzz and Stanley have to go meet their meal ticket, and who answers the door? That's right, Joe Besser, he plays the butler and bartender, Harry. Later, him and Stanley get in a tangle with some Chinese fingercuffs!

Stanley makes a complete ass out of himself when he acts like he's a famous big-game hunter in front of the real Clyde Beatty!

Buzz and Stanley finally get to meet the money person, the beautiful Hillary Brooke... Oh, and there's Shemp Howard!

Shemp plays Gunner, the almost blind hunter with coke-bottle glasses. He pretends to shoot Stanley and Stanley falls for it!

We get to watch a line being drawn on the map to show their progress into the deep jungle. Along the way, Stanley gets acquainted with some of the local inhabitants!!

Whatever the hell happened to hammocks?!

Stanley and The Ape meet, face to face! The Ape was played by Charles Gemora, a very interesting character to say the least, and was one of Hollywood's premier gorilla imitators! He played a simian in such films as THE CIRCUS KID, WHY GORILLAS LEAVE HOME, SEVEN FOOTSTEPS TO SATAN, THE UNHOLY THREE, INGAGI, GHOST PARADE, MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE, ISLAND OF LOST SOULS, THE MONSTER AND THE GIRL, WHITE WITCH DOCTOR and played a Martian in THE WAR OF THE WORLDS!! He suffered a heart attack during the filming of PHANTOM OF THE RUE MORGUE in 1954! And, he played one of the aliens in I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE and even got a make-up credit!! Talented guy!!

And now, it's time for a morning dip in the old stream!.. Hey, Babbit!!!

Then, there's this little lion act with the real Frank Buck!

Buzz and Stanley are about to end up on the menu as Jungle Gumbo, but The Ape comes to the rescue!

What great costumes!

I'll give you such a pinch, ya craa-zy!

It's always fun when the big tough guys turn against each other, you can almost feel the ground shake here!!

Stanley's curiously looking at the natives, he can't figure out why they stopped chasing him...

It's unbelievable, how really, really, really bad the set behind Jumbo looks!..

Still used today!.. "It's right behind me, isn't it?!"

Notice Lou's thick black eyebrows, hey, want to make sure and capture that expression!!

At the end, Stanley, now rich and famous, drives up to his own building in his lil' jungle car. When he opens the door to his top floor office, The Ape has the blocks stacked perfectly! Cut!.. Print!.. That's a wrap!!

THE MOUSE ON THE MOON - Ron Grainer - "Moonwise I'm Sure" (1963)

Among everything else, we've got a lot of great comedy films to showcase in the upcoming months, and so, just to get everybody in a good mood for the end of summer, we're going to do nothing but side-splitting horror comedy films for the next two weeks, starting with tonight's feature. It's the sequel to the riotous and very popular "The Mouse That Roared," the equally zany, but also spacey, "The Mouse On The Moon."

If the man of the hour, Ron Grainer had done nothing more than compose the themes to the British TV shows, "Dr Who" and "The Prisoner," he probably could have retired!

Not one to rest on his laurels, this child prodigy would never have been satisfied with just those major accomplishments, and he went on to be one of the most beloved composers in British TV history!

They make great vino in the Duchy of Grand Fenwick, there's only one problem, it's explosive!!

"Blithe Spirit" Margaret Rutherford is amazing in her portrayal of the Grand Duchess, Gloriana XIII. Margaret is probably remembered mostly as Miss Jane Marple, a role written by Agatha Christie, that Margaret would reprise a couple of times in her career. In fact, she was so perfect in the role that Agatha Christie dedicated her 1963 novel, "The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side" to Margaret!

So just exactly is going on here anyway? "The Mouse In The Moon" is a farcical flick about the 1960's Space Race, you gotta remember, this is way back even before John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and the United States and Russia were at each other's throats, so in this mouse tale, the small country of Grand Fenwick uses the keen competition between the two countries to get money donated to them for their own space program, but in reality they just want to fix up the plumbing in the royal palace!

These two photos show the missile that the USSR donated to the cause!!

The "Mouse" series was written by remarkable Irish author Leonard Wibberley. Three more entries, "The Mouse On Wall Street," "The Mouse That Saved The West," and "Beware The Mouse" were never made into films!!

June Ritchie had the role of Cynthia.....

....And Bernard Cribbins was the unlikely astronaut Vincent Mountjoy! Bernard's next role in a film would be "Carry On Jack" as Midshipman Albert Poop-Decker! Besides 94 acting credits, Bernard made quite a career out of playing himself, which he managed to do quite nicely in about 41 different TV shows!

The occasionally brilliant Terry-Thomas pops in as UK Spy Maurice Spender! You probably don't know that his real name was Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens!!

Director Richard Lester would end up directing two movies by The Beatles, "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help!"

In the musical segment included, the band is torn back and forth between whether to hail the Russians or the Americans, and it makes for a pretty funny musical bit!

With the help of David Kossoff as Professor Kokintz Vincent Mountjoy is eventually on his way to the moon!!

Both the Russians and the Americans watch the proceeding attentively!

Grand Fenwick is the first to land on the moon!

A lot of people think that if Peter Sellers would have been in this second "Mouse" movie that it would have been a lot better, and more popular. Personally, I don't think it would have mattered, and Bernard Cribbins does a fine job as Vincent! Here he gazes wistfully at the Russian and American spaceships getting ready to land on the moon too!

The Americans and the Russians land at the same time in a tie for second place! More than the lack of star Peter Sellers, probably the real kiss of death for this flick was it's political commentary about the financial futility of the Space Race and the idiocy of politics in general! Remember, it would still be another six years before we actually did go to the moon!

It translates as "TOGETHERNESS - MOONWISE" - "Th, Th, Th, Th, That's All Folks!"

CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA In Color / Roger Corman - 1961

Whellcome everbloody, to a Special Colorized Friday The 13th Friday Night Drive-In here at The Dungeon, wif' yer host Tabonga and lil' Dungeon hunchback helper pal, button pusher, and all around good bug... Ralphie The Tarantula!

Our colorized feature is that Roger Corman favorite... CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA! This little germ was written by Dungeon fave Charles B. Griffith. Roger even has an uncredited boom operator credit for this shoot! With the same cast and crew, this flick was shot back to back with LAST WOMAN ON EARTH in 1960, but released the following year... Also, one that Eegah!! and Tabonga! saw in 1961 at the Sierra Theater after they teamed up!!

What we have for your listening pleasure tonite is Betsy Jones-Moreland singing the song "Creature From The Haunted Sea," written by Carole Eastman for the scene where a distraction is needed when they're confronted by an armed Cuban military speedboat. You can reminisce as you browse the fun stills of memory lane! Enjoy... Hit the button, Ralphie!.. CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA!

Before the credits roll, there's the scene where Renzo and Happy Jack receive the stolen loot from the government of Cuba, and are then chased by manical Cuban soldiers in a Volkswagen as they make their getaway! Monte (BEAST FROM HAUNTED CAVE) Hellman gets a Second Unit Directing credit for this part.

Safe at sea...

Renzo and his gang of misfits, Pete Jr., Happy Jack and Mary-Belle!.. Italian born Antony Carbone was the perfect Renzo Capetto, and was also the perfect Leonard de Santis in A BUCKET OF BLOOD!

Renzo is pure slick!..

Robert (LAST WOMAN ON EARTH) Towne plays Sparks Moran, he's infiltrated the gang and is there to spy on them for the American government. Beach Dickerson plays Pete, Jr. He walks in on Sparks as he's transmitting a report to Washington. Sparks must then relinquish a pickle with a transmitter tube hidden in it to Pete, as to not raise suspicion!

Beach was also in some cool flicks like ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS, ROCK ALL NIGHT, WAR OF THE SATELLITES, TEENAGE CAVEMAN, T-BIRD GANG, VISIT TO A SMALL PLANET, THE TRIP, THE DUNWICH HORROR and CRAZY MAMA!

Sparks spends most of the movie trying to save Mary-Belle from herself!

After the fake monster attack, Renzo and the gang see if they can get their Cuban guests to swallow it. And, they do! The guy sitting in the chair there is General Tostada!

In order to get Pete to fully understand and then repeat the plan back, Renzo gets his attention by waving a Tootsie-Pop in front of him!

Renzo and the boys capsize the boat near an island and toss the treasure overboard to save it for later, while they come up with their next strategy...

Renzo and Mary-Belle talk about all the things they're going to do with their cut of the loot.

Corman used a lot of underwater scenes. These are great here!

Two excellent group shots!!

In the end, Renzo gets his and the monster wins... Yay!!

Beach was responsible for designing and building The Creature, but I don't think we'll ever know who was inside the suit!!

*** If anybloody cares or wants to know, Tabonga has lost his accent because Rodan's brain was recently transplanted into Tabonga's skull. Done mainly to save space!!