THE WACKY WORLD OF DOCTOR MORGUS (1962)

Well, here we are on the last night of this years 2012 Halloween Countdown, and what better time to ramp up the WTF?! quotient a couple of percentiles than with yet another feature brought to you via the omnipotent and venerable Professor Grewbeard, a man of 100% honor, and no shame, "The Wacky World Of Dr. Morgus!"

Like Zacherley and Ghoulardi, Sid Noel as Dr. Morgus was a horror host! He worked out of New Orleans, and when they made this movie in 1962, it was really only meant to be a regional thing! It's quite obvious they weren't shooting for mainstream acceptance, nor did they achieve it, but if you've got $19.95 that you've got nothing better to do with, you can get yourself a copy right HERE!

At the beginning of the movie, the doctor is getting his portrait done in exchange for some brain surgery, and during the credits, this is some of what you'll hear!

Rednose's surgery was about as successful as the movie itself!!

This character is Dr. Morgus's loyal assistant Chopsley played by Tommy George! Chopsley wears a hood, because after an unsuccessful plastic surgery job by the good doctor, his face caved in!

The doctor's girlfriend is hypnotized, in a trance, or comatose, take your pick, it really doesn't make much difference!

The doctor and his girlfriend dance, well, he dances anyway, and moves her arms around for her!

Local reporter Pencils McCane tries to get the lowdown on an exclusive story without a great deal of success! Pencils was played by Dan Barton, who actually had a decent career in television before and after this movie!

The Magnificent Morgus has invented a machine that reduces tissue into sand, to which he can them reconstitute it at some later time back into it's original form! The sand in this photo was previously a cat!

Genuinely New Orleans, here we are at the corner of St Louis and Bourbon streets!

Some of the local talent is beyond reproach like "Chris, Queen of Cha-Cha!"

"The Wacky World Of Doctor Morgus" might not be the best movie in the world, but some of the music is pretty hot!

The "Cha-Cha Queen" sharpens Pencils' lead!

Here's where they screwed the whole thing up by actually trying to have some kind of storyline! The rulers of the country called Microvania have caught wind of the Doctor's machine and want to use it to reduce their army to sand and then secretly introduce it into another country in an effort to turn the government inside out!

I could almost swear that Neil Young's goofy character in "Human Highway" was based on Dr. Morgus! Either that, or they just happened to be two of the nerdiest guys in all of history by chance!

One by one, the Microvanian army is reduced to sand!

But when they attempt to ship the sand in this crate, it gets dropped like it was being handled by UPS or the post office, and they end up sweeping it up and not knowing that it is actually humans, it gets deposited in one big sand pile!

So instead of being turned back into soldiers, the sand is delivered to the site of this groundbreaking ceremony, and used when they lay the cement!

Just like this movie, the "Mighty Men of Microvania" never stood a chance! Do the Doc a favor and go get your own copy! Hollow Happyween!!

TWILIGHT ZONE / The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street - 1960

It's the last Monster Monday Halloween Countdown 2012 with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. So, what better way to end it than with this classic episode of TWILIGHT ZONE that my whole family watched when it originally aired on March 4, 1960?!.. Pretty cool, huh?

Eegah!! sent over a soundclip for our listening enjoyment, therefore, you can push the big red 'GO' button located directly under the poster of THE CREEP, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's Rod Serling filling us in on the skinny... The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street!

The nice quiet day on good old Maple Street USA is disturbed by a mysterious UFO landing nearby. Claude Akins plays neighbor Steve Brand, he and the others are very curious about what they just experienced... Kinda weird, kinda spooky!

Then, all the electricity goes off, Tommy reads lots of comics and says that he thinks it's an alien invasion from space!

And, when odd things start happening, like this guy's car starting all by itself, well, maybe there's something to Tommy's story about aliens living on the block in advance of an invasion!

Things get dangerous fast, that's Jack (THE INCREDIBLE MR. LIMPET) Weston as Charlie and Jason (CAPE CANAVERAL MONSTERS) Johnson as the old man.

Charlie overreacts, he shoots and kills their neighbor Pete, who went out on a scouting mission earlier! That is not black powder.

Charlie gets stoned by the neighbors for killing Pete!

Then, Tommy gets attacked because he knew everything from the beginning, he must be the alien!

Everybloody just starts freakin' out!

Then, the ding-dang lawn mower starts up and begins mowing the lawn all by itself!!.... Bibida, bibida, bibida!

Just in case it slipped your mind where you are.

Monsters from the Id pay a little visit to the 300 block of Maple Street!

As we pull back to a nearby hillside, we see two aliens who have just finished their work, seeing how easy it is transforming peaceful Earthlings into bloodthirsty maniacs. I swear, after watching this again, I could only think of one thing... Fox News!

The outfits worn by the aliens and this saucer are from FORBIDDEN PLANET, only, the saucer is upside down.

CURUCU, BEAST OF THE AMAZON - Raoul Krushaar - "I Don't Believe In Snakes 100 Feet Long" (1956)

Tonight's Saturday Halloween Countdown special is one of the last of the real 50's classics we haven't covered yet! It's called "CURUCU, Beast Of The Amazon," and it was written and directed by Curt Siodmak! When you consider some of Curt's other work like "Donovan's Brain," "I Walked With A Zombie," or "The Wolfman," it's pretty weak by comparison, but still a classic nonetheless!

No secrets here, the monster ain't that great so they show it to you right out of the box!! It looks kinda like a cross between a platypus, and a giant magpie on steroids!

AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!

Those giant claws are lethal, and John (REVENGE OF THE CREATURE) Bromfield as Rock Dean and Tom (LOVE SLAVES OF THE AMAZONS) Payne as Tupanico are just as confused by all the deaths as the police are! What John really has on his mind is he wants to have a cigarette, and Tupanico has got a bit of a chip on his shoulder because he doesn't like being played by a white guy!

Ah, the good olde days when you could still smoke in the Doctor's office while getting a shot!

Rock Dean asks The Doctor played by the wonderful Beverly Garland out for dinner, and smokes a couple more cigarettes while he's at it!

Hubba, hubba!! Vivian, the dancer in the club, and one of Rock's old flames of course, is played by Larri Thomas! Larri has been a dancer of some sort in at least 13 of her 37 roles! The music you'll hear from the club scene was written by Raoul Kraushaar, a man you've read about here many times before for his work on films like "Invaders from Mars," "Billy The Kid vs. Dracula," and "Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter!" Raoul had many non-horror credits too, like "Highway 13," and sometimes worked as Ralph Kraushaar or Ralph Stanley!

Not to be outdone, Larri has a smoke on her break while she explains to Bev that after smoking cigarettes, Rock's favourite pastime is sex!!

Tupanico is Rock's trustworthy guide who is going to lead him out into the jungle where he can smoke to his heart's content! He even helps Rock out by giving him a light!

The Doctor wants to go too, but Rock says no!! Of course she ends up going along anyway, otherwise there wouldn't be much of a story at all!

Curucu strikes again!!

Rock thinks you shoot a rifle the same way you smoke a cigarette, but Tupanico straightens him out!

There's lots more scary things out in the jungle too!

Not green screen, "CURUCU, The Beast Of The Amazon" was actually shot on location in Argentina and Brazil!

Well, as fate would have it, the monster is fake, and Tupanico is behind the whole thing, committing the murders to prevent further colonization of the native lands!

Rock and the Doctor manage to escape, and when she wakes up, she is safe and sound again!

Rock puts the make on the Doctor, and this time she goes along with his advances, having lived through a series of harrowing adventures! A native whose life the Doctor saved brings them a token of his appreciation!

And just what was in the basket? That lousy rotten bastard Tupanico's stinkin' shrunken head! What a happy ending!