LIGHTS OUT: The Martian Eyes - NBC - 1950

It's Halloween Countdown Friday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Here's a fun little episode starring Burgess Meredith from the early horror TV series that was originally a very popular radio show from the 1940s.

Eegah!! sent over a fun little creepy sound clip for our earjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button over by our own Atomic Eyeball, NOW, Rufus The Gnat!.. Here's a taste of... THE MARTIAN EYES!

Here's your host, Frank Gallop, setting up this little sci-fi tale about life on other planets and the possibility that aliens could already be here, living on Earth!

Burgess Meredith plays the very strange Professor Lyman, he's convinced that Martians are on Earth and that he can see their 3rd eye with his special infra red glasses. He's telling Mr. Sorrel, a photographer, all about his weird theory and that he's been following the other guy there in the bar and convinced that he's a Martian! The stranger then suspiciously walks up behind them as they watch him in the mirror.

And, by the way, Blogger The Gremlin is back, randomly tinting some of the photos sepia again! What a maroon!

Here's Pat O'Malley as the bartender, he had a small part in INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS and is often confused with the very popular Disney actor, J. Pat O'Malley.

The stranger then follows Sorrel to his place and wants to know what he's up to!

Professor Lyman sneaks in a conks the stranger on the head, killing him, because, you know, he's a freakin' Martian! Lyman tells Sorrel that he's going out back to dig a grave for him!!

Confused as Hell, Sorrel then has to deal with a nosey cop who's interested in photography!

After the cop leaves, Sorrel decides to snap a photo of 'the Martian' with his special infra red Kodak (remember them?) film, to get a look at that 3rd eye!

In the meantime, Lyman tells Sorrel to bring the body out back to be buried.

Sorrel goes back in the apartment to take a glance at the Martian's extra eye in the photo, and, guess what?!.. Right, there's no 3rd eye!!

Professor Lyman comes up the steps and tells Sorrel that the graves are now ready!

Frank Gallop then exposes his own 3rd eye just before blowing out the candle!.. More Halloween Countdown on its way tomorrow!

BETTY BOOP - The Fleischer Brothers - "Is My Palm Read" (1933)

 Well, the Countdown's about halfway done, so before it's too late here's some scary stuff from 1933, Betty BOO!p style!

You can find Halloween wallpaper like this and lots of other cool stuff at the Betty Boop Pictures Archive!

Now it doesn't sound like a very scary title, but "Is My Palm Read" is filled with all kinds of ghosts and other weirdass unexplainable phenomena, and it's all brought to you courtesy of those wacky guys, the Fleischer Brothers, with Dave doing the directing, and Max doing the producing!

The only member of the cast that gets any credit is the marvelous Mae Questel who did Betty's voice in over 150 different films! If that's not enough, Mae was also the voice of Olive Oyl too and a ton other voices like Sweet Pea and Little Audrey too! I'm just assuming there is a shrine to her somewhere, and if not, why not??

This is about as sweet and innocent as Betty Boop has ever looked! She looks like she's going to church on Easter Sunday!

Betty is all decked out because she's going to get her fortune read!

Here's how perverts Bimbo and Koko assist Betty, by looking through her dress when the light is right!

Bimbo predicts Betty's future using a crystal ball, and there never is any palm reading, just the Fleischer's taking a little artistic license with different factions of mysticism!

First thing that shows up in Bimbo's crystal ball is a butt nekkid baby Betty, followed by this ship that is just about to go under!

Betty was on that ship and she's about to find herself on some strange desert island, where even the waves reach out and pat her butt as she's washed ashore!

"Is My Palm Read" exploits two genres of film that would turn out to both be very popular, Jungle movies, and Horror movies!

How can you go wrong with ghosts in the jungle? Not possible! (Except maybe for Clutch Cargo!)

This living 'Hut Of Horror' snatches Betty right up and deposits her inside!

More ghosts, and a spider makes web bars on the window so that Betty is trapped!

Betty's pretty resourceful, she writes help on a board and burns it in the fireplace, and the smoke sends out the distress call in very nice cursive handwriting!

Bimbo picks up the signal and is able to rush in and rescue Betty and  make himself look like the big hero!

Back at the parlor, Bimbo then reveals to Betty that he is the psychic reading her future!

But then out of nowhere, the ghosts show up for real this time and drag Betty and Bimbo back to the jungle prophecy!

Betty and Bimbo lead the bevy of ghosts on a wild chase through the jungle......

..........that culminates in a hollow log that Betty and Bimbo are able to exit, but the ghosts get bounced on by Bimbo one by one and go down to the bottom of the gorge to their untimely demise for the second time!

Here's a parting shot that will also make for some fine wallpaper from another completely unrelated cartoon, "Have You Got Any Castles" from 1938 that I was going to do for the "Countdown To Halloween," but decided against! It's not really a scary cartoon, but there was this one small scene that included this killer Gruesome Foursome that I just couldn't leave behind!

THE THING / Universal Pictures, Turman-Foster Company - 1982

It's Halloween Countdown Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Here's a creep fest I saw at the theater back in 1982, it's a nonstop tilted bumper car ride without bumpers and no ambulance. It stars Kurt Russell as part of a dysfunctional scientific expedition at the Antarctic that come across a real terror from another world.

Eegah!! sent over a sound clip from this wild flick for our earjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button located there by our atomic flame thrower, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula!.. Here's a taste of... THE THING!

It starts with some seemingly mad Norwegians in a helicopter trying to shoot a single huskie who runs to the safety of the Americans. It all ends in disaster for the foreigners!

After the dog mutates that night, the guys figure out that they have an alien life form that needs other animals and humans to inhabit! So, they fly to the Norwegian camp to see what clues to the mystery they can find there.

And, they find more than they bargained for! They take a pile of twisted flesh back to their camp to study.

It always cracks me up when a dude in 1982 smokes pot and no one even cares! To me, it was a big middle finger up to Ronnie and Nancy!

They find the giant saucer discovered by the Norwegians that had crashed in the ice.

I like this weird mutation that has teeth in the eye sockets!!

While trying to revive this dude, the doctor finds out the hard way that the Thing was hiding in him, and, gets his hands bitten off!

Then, the Thing turns into this hideous mutation and it simply creeps out the door!

After the Thing has taken over a number of the crew, MacReady comes up with a plan to tell who's a human and who's a Thing by testing everyone's blood with a hot metal rod! If there's no reaction to the blood, then, you can be trusted. This is one of the best scenes and is really gut wrenching to watch!

It's over for this guy, the Thing opens up it's huge mouth and swallows half of him, his legs kicking wildly!

Welp, Macready blows the place up and one can only hope the Thing is dead, a very somber ending... I like THE THING from 1951 sooo much better than this version, many eighties flicks have ending where nothing gets solved. Give me good old fifties writing where problems are always solved!

Eegah!! is up Wednesday with another Halloween Countdown Surprise!..