THE HORROR OF IT ALL / Lippert Pictures - 1963

Hello everbloody, an' welcome to another Friday Night Drive-In with Dungeon host Tabonga and lil' Dungeon hunchback helper, Ralphie The Tarantula!.. Our feature stars Pat (JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH) Boone and a great British cast!

Our storyline tonight from this hard to find flick (another Prof. Grewbeard 'find') is pretty simple... "American salesman Jack Robinson falls in love with Englishwoman Cynthia Marley and they visit her family so he can ask for permission to marry her. She points out to him that her relatives are rather eccentric and, by the way, a cousin has just died."

Directed by Terence (THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN) Fisher and Ray (MR. SARDONICUS) Russell was the writer.

The music is quite jazzy and the gratuitous "The Horror Of It All" is sung by Pat, which would be a perfect pick for RADIO 13!!!..

The music is by Douglas Gamley, he had a decent run of 36 composing credits from 1956-83, and includes TOM THUMB, PORTRAIT OF A SINNER, THE UGLY DUCKLING, HORROR HOTEL, TALES FROM THE CRYPT, ASYLUM, MADHOUSE and more!

Ralphie just informed Tabonga telepathically that it's time to send you our Eariffic Earclip to yer awaiting earifice, and for the total satisfaction of that big organ of yer's called.. yer brain! So, why would Tabonga disagree wif' dat?! Hit der 'GO' button, Ralphie!.. THE HORROR OF IT ALL!

On the way to meet his fiancee's relatives in England, Pat, who plays John J. 'Jack' Robinson, crashes his car and has to walk the final distance to his destination. Once he gets there, the note reads... "NO peddlers allowed! Ring bell at your own risk!!"

Once inside the mansion, Jack and Cynthia get to talk about their plans to be married...

Sultry beauty Andree (BRIDES OF DRACULA) Melly plays Natalia Marley, the crazy but sexy cousin! Andree's brother was British jazz singer George Melly.

Jack gets to meet the rest of the family and some of their ancestors!

Jack gets caught in a giant man-trap!

Natalia sure knows how to enjoy herself!

Grandpapa Marley has his own mad lab, what else?! Jack's very interested in what's going on in there...

And, here's Pat singing the aforementioned novelty tune... "The Horror Of It All!"

Grandpapa ends up having just a little too much fun!

Jack finds some interesting things in the basement.

We always love these sneaky peepers here at The Dungeon!

What good is a horror flick without a human-crushing elevator room?

There are a few more surprises for Jack before the story winds down!

All the dirty little secrets are revealed at the end, then Jack and Cynthia get to hear their wedding bells ring!!

MUMMY'S BOYS - Roy Webb - "Why Don't You Look Where You're Lookin" (1936)

Oh, No, not another Mummy Movie!! Welcome to WTF!? Wednesday! Most people probably think that Boris Karloff's 1933 version of "The Mummy" was the first Mummy Movie ever made, but in reality if you count cartoons and shorts, there had been Mummy characters in 13 previous releases dating back to 1889! "Mummy's Boys" would be #22 in the list, and "Abbott And Costello Meet The Mummy" would be way down at number 43! "Cléopâtre" was the title of the 1899 short where a man cuts up a mummy, and brings back to life a woman inside!

7 time Oscar nominated Roy Webb composed the music for "Mummy's Boys!" Roy Webb had 264 composing credits beginning way back in 1929, with about half of them uncredited! That's just the way they did it back in the old days! Some of the more famous titles are "Millionaires In Prison," "Mexican Spitfire Out West," "A Girl, A Guy, And A Gob," "I Married A Witch," "Curse Of The Cat People" and the Roky Erickson inspiring "I Walked With A Zombie!"

Vaudeville comedy team and lowly ditch diggers Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey need to try to come up with a better gig for themselves. Woolsey is the wise-crackin' stogie smokin' guy with the glasses, and his pal Wheeler has a most peculiar attribute, he can't remember a damn thing. Thoughts and events come back to him hours or days later, and sometimes if he just goes to sleep, he'll remember when he wakes up! In the top picture, Wheeler is trying to remember where their lunch box is, but the Boss just thinks they are goofing off!!

After they get fired, they see this ad, and decide to apply for something they have experience at, digging!! Their headgear proves that they know what they are doing!

Once the boys land in Egypt, they immediately have conflicts with the locals! Tried and true, they handle the situation with their respective 'wise guy' and 'I can't remember' routines!

The always amazing Willie Best as Catfish is brought in for some comedy bits like here where Woolsey sez to him, "I'm surprised at you believin' in ghosts" to which Catfish responds "I'm surprised at you not believin' in 'em!"

Time to go to the site of the dig, dig, dig-a-rooni, because you know that's where the action is, and speaking of action, how come they never had a song and dance number in this film? That was one part of the whole vaudeville routine they left behind for some reason!

Wheeler gets the map tattooed on his back so he won't forget where it is!

Time for the standard Egyptian death warning! If it seems kinda formulamatic, it's probably because Director Fred Guiol had been doing shorts and flicks with the likes of cats like Laurel and Hardy since 1923. Check a couple of these short titles just for kicks, "The Haunted Honeymoon," "Flaming Flappers," "Aching Youths," and "Ukulele Sheiks!"

Finally they make it to the entrance of the tomb........

.......But you guessed it, somebody's watching!!!

Moroni Olsen as Dr. Edward Sterling puts the fear of God in Catfish! This was an odd role for Moroni, a gifted actor who normally stuck to much more dramatic features. Born John Willard Clawson, and being deeply religious, John changed his name to Moroni, which was the name of the the Angel, who Joseph Smith, founder of The Mormons said, revealed to him the location of the Book of Mormon. Pretty heady stuff!!

Just like in a lot of other horror/comedy type films, "Mummy's Boys" has no real monster, but instead just some evil henchman in disguise, in this case, Moroni Olsen!

Even though Dr. Sterling did a fine job of wrapping himself up like a real mummy, in the end, it's the boys, and a rather large vase that prevail!! Before I forget, this post wouldn't have been possible without the assistance of the one and only Professor Grewbeard, so Thanx, and Rock on Prof!!

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!!