DESTINATION SPACE / Paramount TV - 1959

Tonight we have a sci-fi TV pilot that failed to score a series. Although fairly ambitious in scope, it was just plain old boring. Plus, it relied heavily on stock footage from another movie from 1955 for it's space scenes and hardware!

The space music was composed by Van Cleave. Although Van worked mainly for TV, he also composed music for these movies: WHITE CHRISTMAS, CONQUEST OF SPACE, THE SPACE CHILDREN, THE COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK, ROBINSON CRUSOE ON MARS and William Castle's PROJECT X!

Rightee-O then, here's that lil' 4-eyed hunchback freak Dungeon pet, Ralphie The Tarantula, to push that big red 'GO' button wonst again to start the show!! Here's tonight's Eariffic Earclip to... DESTINATION SPACE!

Rocket ship... spinning wheel, seeming nothingness, yadda yadda, 500 miles... BB...

If the scene looks familiar, that's because it's from George Pal's CONQUEST OF SPACE!

Hey look, it's the same guys working in front and in back of John Agar and Harry Townes!

They're talking to these bozos back on Earth. There's Cecil Kellaway on the left, you'll remember him as Prof. Thurgood Elson in THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS.

Holy crap, look at the size of that blip!.. And, it's coming right at us!!!

Whoa!! Dude's got three legs!.. No, but seriously, I bet he's really glad he wasn't a girl in a short skirt in that shot!

Dealer, put all my chips on... hiccup!.. 23 red...

Sadly, this role is completely wasted on John. Exactly 10 days later, INVISIBLE INVADERS was released. Check out the hair cut, exactly the same as Major Jay's!!

Aww, ratz!

It'd be funnier if they had put... 'BENEDICT'S BILLIONS BLASTED, BATTERED & BELTED BY BIG BURNING BOULDER'

What do you mean, there's a picture stuck to the top of my head?

Here, Benedict tries to pitch his 'awesome' new sci-fi TV pilot... DESTINATION SPACE!

The problem was that CBS wasn't sure if it would be a good idea to have a series about the US space program where everything was always blowing up!

So, for punishment, it's back to space for Benedict!

Son of a bitch!!.. I cannot for the life of me, figure out what the hell time it is!.. ARRRGGH!!!

Four nice stills from CONQUEST OF SPACE.

In the future, Mini-Men will have their own charging units and can even go potty in privacy!

Babbitt...

Oh... BABBIIIIITT!!

Hmmm, I'll just chip away the ice on the dilithium modulator box here, and we'll be on our merry way!.. Hey, I know, I'll tell 'em I had to fight off a monster!!

Dude, it's official, like, we're cancelled!..

Benedict gives the bad news to Edward Platt, Ed's probably best known for his role as 'Chief' in GET SMART.

Ghoulnight Everbloody!..

THE MAD BOMBER - Michael Mention - "l'uomo Sputato Dall'inferno" (1973)

We dig Mr. B.I.G. down here in The Dungeon, and "The Mad Bomber" is just one more of the many reasons why! The music for tonight's WTF?! feature was composed by Michael Mention, who in later years would work as assistant to Maurice Jarre on some of his electronic compositions, and the hippie song, "Reaching Out" was written by Dan Yordan and sung by Nancy Honnold, who played "The Mad Bomber's daughter Anne Dorn in this movie!

Bert I. Gordon is known for his classic BIG monster movies, but the films he stuffed in between always seem to have some BIG elements too, like how about a normally likable BIG star like Chuck Connors, as a ruthless and mean spirited bastard, who doesn't like litterers or rude people!

Chuck Connors is William Dorn! He collects clocks! He keeps them in a cool spot similar to where Anton Diffring kept his medicine in "The Man Who Cheated Death!" He's mad at the world in a BIG way because he lost his daughter to drugs!

Chuck Connors was a BIG dude, at 6' foot 5 1/2" tall, and before acting, played center for the Boston Celtics from 1946 to 1947! He then became a minor league baseball player who finally moved up, and played with the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs for a short period of time, before deciding he was better suited towards acting!! He was elected to the "Cowboy Hall Of Fame" in 1991 for his classic roles as Lucas McCain in "The Rifleman," and later as Jason McCord in "Branded!"

"The Mad Bomber" is unmerciless, he even blows up schools, and mental hospitals, he's that pissed off at the world!

Here's another BIG star of the time, Vince Edwards as Geronimo Minneli, the cop who just won't give up! Look, he even had an iPad back in 1973! In the 1960's, while Vince was shooting 153 episodes of the TV series "Ben Casey," he also found time to make six MOR record albums.

"The Mad Bomber" strolls past the corner of Cattaraugus and Snuffleupagus! No wonder he's a lost soul!

The Los Angeles studios of "Kindness, Happiness, and Joy," aka KHJ the Boss 93, circa 1973!

In their heydey, back in the 60's, KHJ might have been Top 40, but look at the names of some of those bands, Them, The Sir Douglas Quintet, The Kingsmen, The Zombies! Top 40 good was good! Now 93KHJ is out in American Samoa somewhere, where listeners can lay on the beach and watch the "Southern Lights!"

Check out the high-tech computer the cops have, and the wealth of information it spews forth!!

Vince takes care of business, and disposes of a BIG shot wannabe!

The third BIG star in this film is that guy with the distinctive face and classic growly voice, Neville Brand!! Neville was one of THE most highly decorated soldiers of World War II, and had really planned on having a military career, but after doing a couple of Army training films, he got the bug and decided to become an actor! He was in one "Twilight Zone" episode, but is known more for his many iconic cowboy roles like Reese Bennett in the TV show "Laredo." He was also chosen for the role of Al Capone more than a couple of times! Why Neville Brand is not in the "Cowboy Hall Of Fame," I have no idea, probably the same reason Link Wray's not in the "Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame!!" Bad Boys!! Here he is as George Fromley, killer/rapist, and the only guy who can identify "The Mad Bomber!"

No Shit! He's going to blow up the Women's Lib luncheon! Now, that's really bad in a BIG way!

When he's not out getting into all kinds of trouble, George Fromley likes to hang out in his cool little poolside pad, where he likes to watch homemade movies that star his wife! Ilona Wilson is the sexpot with the glasses as Mrs. Fromley!

Geronimo is starting to get tired of "I don't know" and all of George's stupid games! He wants to find that bomber!

Hours and hours of the good old composite identification technique finally produces an image that George can identify! "That's him all right!!"

Still got time for one more BIG BOOM!!!

This last shot is the best, and it cracks me up! It's shot from the ground up, and Vince Edwards looks as BIG as "The Amazing Colossal Man!" That Bert I. Gordon is one wacky cat! Lucky for all of us, we've still got more B.I.G. stuff yet to come, so stay tuned in!!!

DEAD OF NIGHT / Ealing Studios Limited - 1945

Hello everbloody, we gots another Moldie Oldie Monday classic flick coming at'choo! ...Gesundheit!! DEAD OF NIGHT is the granddaddy of all British horror anthologies and predates movies like DR. TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS, TORTURE GARDEN, TALES FROM THE CRYPT, VAULT OF HORROR, TALES THAT WITNESS MADNESS and THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD by about 20 years, and utilized four directors!!

The story goes like... Walter Craig, played by Mervyn Johns, an architect, goes to the country for a weekend but it seems he's been there and met the same people before in a recurring dream. Each of the five other guests then tells a story about their own encounter with the supernatural...

This long movie clocks in at 103 minutes. When released in America, it was trimmed down to 77 minutes with two complete stories deleted!!!

The music is by Frenchman Georges Auric, Georges had a hefty total of 124 composing credits between 1930-78! A few other titles he worked on are MYSTERIES OF PARIS, STORM, GAMBLING HELL, SMALL KIDNEYS, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, SILENT DUST, THE QUEEN OF SPADES, THE SPIDER AND THE FLY, THE LAVENDER HILL MOB, MOULIN ROUGE, ROMAN HOLIDAY, FLESH AND DESIRE, THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1956), THE CRUCIBLE and SERGEANT X OF THE FOREIGN LEGION!

The clock on the slab says it's time to start tonight's Eariffic Earclip! Translated it means, here's lil' Dungeon helper pal, Rufus The Gnat, to push that big red 'GO' button once again, so wif'out any further delay... Here's DEAD OF NIGHT!

Here's everybloody at the country inn, all snuggled inn and ready to tell some stories about their experiences with the supernatural.

The story about the haunted mirror is fun but is said to have messed with the minds of a lot of kids. When looked into, it shows a different place than where it's hanging!

Okay, now the girls!

This one's for you Eegah!!.. Pip, pip, and cheerio, old bean!

This guy loses a bet playing a round of golf, so he walks into a water hazard and drowns himself!

Of course, "The Ventriloquist's Dummy" with Michael Redgrave is the pick of the litter. Here, he tells the police about his involvment with a missing person, a Mr. Hugo Fitch... In the 1964 flick DEVIL DOLL with Bryant Haliday, the dummy/missing person's name is Hugo Novik!! I guess Hugo's a good name for dummies!

Here's Maxwell and his dummy Hugo on stage, they seem like a happy couple.

This is American born singer Elisabeth Welch as Beulah, who you will hear in the soundclip!

This one would get the kids good I bet, a biting dummy!!!

Take that, you freakin' knotholehead!

In 1954, Danny Kaye starred as a ventriloquist in the comedy, KNOCK ON WOOD! ...Coincidence?

At the end, Walter is caught in another nightmare with more insidious playmates.

Boy, if you weren't paying attention, you might think the last 3 stills were from CARNIVAL OF SOULS! Speaking of COS, we have a color version we'll be featuring one of these days on Friday Night Drive-In, here at The Dungeon!

Good old 'Hugo' comes out smelling like a rose!

Walter gets the last word. Oh crap, it was a comedy!

Ghoulnight Everbloody!..