FREAKS / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - 1932

It's another Freaky Friday Halloween Countdown 2013 wif' Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Director Tod Browning had a penchant for helming productions dealing with touchy subjects and came to Hollywood with the knowledge of a circus background.

Eegah!! sent over a fun little soundclip from this flick for our earjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there next to the big chicken woman, NOW, Rufus The Gnat! Here's an earfull of... FREAKS!

The story basically centers around a trapeze artist, Cleopatra, and Hans, a midget working in the sideshow who she's stringing along. She's only interested in the money Hans will be inheriting while she has an affair with the circus strongman, Hercules. Another performer, Frieda, knows she's really the one for Hans.

Some of the circus oddities dance and play in the forest after a stop.

Daisy and Violet Hilton were Siamese twins, here, they chat with the great Wallace Ford, who plays good guy, Phroso The Clown. When I was just a little tyke, like in 1951, I lived next to a girl named Buttercup!

Josephine Joseph plays the Half Woman-Half Man, she/he gets punched out by Hercules in a second for being too nosey!

Here's Johnny Eck as Half Boy.

Phroso tries out a new gag!

Zip and Pip always have something interesting to say...

Frances O'Connor plays The Armless Girl... So, who needs arms?!

Frieda pleads with Cleopatra to leave Hans alone. Look how Cleopatra mocks little Frieda with her facial expressions!

At the birthday party, Cleopatra gets drunk and spills the beans about how much she despises having to hang out with all you freaks! Angelo Rossitto brings her a queen sized drink that she then tosses back in his face as they are all laughing and mocking her!

Well, well, well... Bad move, maybe they'll just have to bring her down a notch or two!..

Cleo ends up the Chicken Woman, just another freak in the old sideshow!..

NIGHT OF THE COBRA WOMAN - "More Bang For Your Buck" (1972)

It's more like she sucked the life right out of this movie! Welcome to Day 16 of the 2013 Dungeon Halloween Countdown! Tonight's film is multifunctional, we get in another Year Of  The Snake film, and a  movie that personifies Halloween in The Philippines all at the same time! It's called "Night Of The Cobra Woman," and should definitely be considered venomous!

Time to once again get out that snake bite kit, you're going to need it after getting struck by this sucker!

How many movies have been made about cobra women over the years you ask? Well, in 1944 there was "Cobra Woman" starring Maria Montez, in 1955 there was "Cult Of The Cobra" featuring Dungeon fave Faith Domergue, in 1972, there was this movie "Night Of  The Cobra Woman,"  in 1976, there was "Eva Nera" (Black Cobra Woman), and in 2007 there was a video release called "Queen Cobra!" There have also been a large number of films made with the word cobra in the title, but I think that about covers all the women! There have also been films made about women and snakes that weren't cobras!

This movie is dedicated to Zilligord, El Presidente of the Joy Bang Fan Club! May his sardonic wit bless this blog again sometime in the near future! (Damn, I need a break!)

Joy's character is studying the effects of snake venom in the Philippine islands, when her boyfriend Duff comes to visit her for awhile! Joy might not look much like a rocket surgeon, but she actually quit the movies a couple of years after this movie was filmed and became a nurse!

Joy will always be remembered around here for her popcorn-chomping zombie victim performance in "Messiah Of Evil!"

So Joy's Beau Duff gets literally sucked into the cobra woman's lair! Duff was played by Roger Garrett who only has nine credits to his name, but still managed to work with some great ladies of TV and the silver screen like Elizabeth Montgomery in a "Bewitched" episode, Barbara Eden in an episode of "I Dream Of Jeannie," Jacqueline Bisset in the oddball movie "The Grasshopper," and those two beauties "Laverne and Shirley!"

Joy Bang was born Joy Wener in Kansas City, Missouri in 1945!

I give Roger Garrett a lot of credit! There's no way in bloody Hell you'd ever get me to do this scene!

The snake woman was played by Marlene Clark! Marlene was in "Beware, The Blog," "Black Mamba," "The Beast Must Die," and had a recurring role as Janet Lawson on the Redd Foxx TV series "Sanford And Son!"

Joy doesn't look all that happy to have a bunch of snakes as co-stars!

Maybe it's not snake bites at all that are affecting Duff, maybe it's the fact that he hasn't changed his shirt in two weeks! That kind of funk would make anybody break out with a skin disorder!

By no means should this film get confused with "Shitty Chitty Bang Bang!" So there you go, you get the idea! If you want to see the whole ordeal, it streams on Netflix! Gopher it!!

THEY CAME FROM WITHIN / Canadian Film Development Corporation - 1975

Welcome to Creepy Halloween Dungeon Countdown 2013 with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. We gots David Cronenberg's extra wild 'n' weird movie about bloody parasites that infiltrate a new housing complex in Canada, to devastating results! Alternate title is SHIVERS.

Eegah!! sent over an informative soundclip from this flick, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button there next to the caged parasite, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's our audio offering for... THEY CAME FROM WITHIN!

My print is from a VHS transfer, so, sorry about that...

Here's the new apartment complex for the modern apartmentite, complete with free mutant parasites even, what a deal! You can hear all the positive selling points for living there in the soundclip.

Paul (no ears) Hampton and Joe Silver play concerned scientists trying to deal with some odd occurances that are taking place in the apartment where Paul lives.

This poor lady was just trying to do her laundry when one of the slimy things jumps onto her face from inside the washer!

Did I mention sultry Barbara Steele is in this flick, in all her glory?

And, she gets her parasite in the bath tub!

Paul's girlfriend gets a visit from an infected neighbor... Anyone infected by the critters can become a total sex fiend bent on passing a parasite to another person!

One parasite crawled up this lady's cane and onto her arm! They are very aggressive.

Great shot of Paul as he races down one of the long hallways.

Just in an elevator ride to the ground floor, one infected dude is able to infect a mom and her young daughter! Then, the daughter proceeds to infect the doorman!.. That's Cronenberg for you.

Joe gets a face full of parasite and tries to remove it with pliers!

Are you ready for the freaks when they come to your door?!..

Paul is eventually cornered in the pool and his ex-girlfriend infects him!

Then, hundreds of infected maniacs jump in their cars to spread the good news to the surrounding area!.. Happy Halloween Countdown 2013, Everbloody!!

FIREBALL FUN - FOR - ALL - June Johnson - "Halloween Queen" (1949)

For this Saturday Night Special segment of the 2013 Halloween Countdown I saved this bit from Johnson and Olsen's 1949 TV variety show called "Fireball Fun - For - All" and this little ditty called "Halloween Queen!"

"There seems to be a slight discrepancy regarding Halloween, there's something oh, so wrong about it, but I can see right through the mystery regarding Halloween! Irving Berlin never wrote a song about it!"

"Jack O lanterns grinnin' and ghosts made of linen, it's Halloween, time for apple dunkin', those old gobblers cluckin', it's Halloween!

 

"Hey Junie, you're the gal we sing blues for!" Junie was June Johnson, Chic Johnson's daughter!

As you'll hear in the sound clip, June does what might be considered a very early precursor to rap! And indeed, she WAS the "Queen Of Halloween!"

Olsen and Johnson were so wacky, I always thought they misnamed this show! It was such a no holds barred affair, it really should have been called "Fireball Free - For - All!" Ok, we're almost halfway to the big day, so don't forget to vote for your own personal Halloween Queen before some zombie makes your mind up for you!