THE SKELETON DANCE - Walt Disney - Ub Iwerks - Carl Stalling (1929)

Yep! Believe it or Don't! Some people, present company included, just can't get enough of dancing skeletons, so here it is, "The Greatest Talking Picture Novelty Ever Screened!" even though there's no talking in it!

Here's another reason I like dancing skeletons, it keeps them out of mischief like this, and I don't have to worry about them!

Made in 1929, "The Skeleton Dance" was the first episode in Walt Disney's "Silly Symphony" series! It was also drawn of course by the great Ub Iwerks who also drew the 1937 color "Skeleton Frolic!"

WHO Go There?

It was a cold and windy night!!!

Ub used a very similar composition except for the spider........

..........in the opening graveyard scene in "Skeleton Frolic" too!

Dogs begin to bark and hounds start to howl, because when the moon comes up all kinds of strange shit starts to happen!

A good friend once told me that at night, cats go to the other side of the moon, and I guess this is what they do when they get there!

This skeleton dude pops up and scares the holy bejeeuz out of the two cats!

OK, Bring out the dancers! I think it's the Bones Brothers! As always, the music is by the amazing Carl Stalling, but this particular dance number was written by Edvard Grieg, and is titled "March Of The Dwarfs!"

Uh onea, Uh twoa, Uh threea, Uh four!

These boys have got some moves!!

Ring around the rosey and pirouettes too!  Have mercy!!

I was fine until they got to this part! Once the pogo stick part got started, I really started doubting this film's credibility!

Now you know why those two cats were so scared of the skeletons! This guy wants to play this cat like a cello, and he does!!

The dance winds down and the rooster crows at the break of dawn!! The skeletons all scatter!!

GOING!

GOING!!

GONE!!!

THE EVIL DEAD / Renaissance Pictures - 1981

It's Halloween Countdown Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Here's another wild 'n' weird movie from the mind of writer/director Sam Raimi, who was also responsible for productions like THE DEAD NEXT DOOR, LUNATICS: A LOVE STORY, DARKMAN and TIMECOP. This one stars Bruce (EVIL DEAD II and ARMY OF DARKNESS) Campbell. The story's about five friends go to a cabin in the woods and find supreme evil lurking there.

Eegah!! sent over a spook house sound clip from this crazy fun flick for our earjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button located there by our blood machine, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula!.. Here's a taste of... THE EVIL DEAD!

After a few adventures, the five friends finally arrive at the cabin for a weekend of fun!

They find a creepy illustrated book there called the Necronomicon, or, Book of the Dead!

They also find a tape recorder with the taped translation of the book on it, and, when played, it releases the evil waiting there in the woods!

One of the girls goes outside to check out some weird sounds she heard and gets attacked by some very horny vines!

Then, the thing in the cellar pops its ugly head out and they have to chain the door shut!

Ash's girlfriend is taken over by the evil, here, she licks the blood off a dagger!

Later, Ash clobbers her with a shovel while trying to bury her, causing her to explode!

Ash has to gouge the eyeballs out of his best friend or die because the guy's now an Evil Dead bent on mayhem!

Ash is being pummeled from pillar to post, his last chance is to toss the evil book fully into the fireplace. He uses a pendant on a chain to hook the book and eventually is just able to accomplish the task.

The thing in the cellar is out now and tries to get its slimy claws on our unwitting hero!

Finally, the book is burned to a point where the evil within starts losing its power!

The Claymation gang is brought in to show the Evil Dead frightfully decomposing right in front of our disbelieving eyes!

The real demons are forced to claw their way out of the corpses they inhabit and threaten Ash again just before they totally decompose after the book is burned to a crisp!.. WHEW!!

Tune in Wednesday for more Halloween Countdown antics!

HELL'S BELLS - Walt Disney - Ub Iwerks - Carl Stalling (1929)

Not to be confused with the 1969 biker flick "Hell's Belles," and "The Roughest Ride In Town"..........

............Nor the 1980 hit single by AC/DC, This Saturday Night Special is a Silly Symphony of a different colour!!

Forty years before "Hell's Belles," and 51 years before "Hell's Bells" came the original Disney Cartoon of the same name, give or take an e or two, drawn by the master Ub Iwerks! The only difference is that this one is actually about Hell!!

Welcome to Hell!!!

Here's a good shot of the legendary three-headed hound known as Cerberus, the guardian of the gates of Hades! You just know that this guy has got some serious fleas!!

It seems silly to say that Satan is just chillin' under these circumstances, so I guess I'll say that Satan is just heatin'!!

Satan has all these little devils running around doing things, this group is the band!

The band members have an odd array of instruments, and once again, the genius of Carl Stalling is the force behind the music!

Then, after a little shadow dancing, the performance starts in earnest!

"Hell's Bells" is essentially a musical, and the little devils are quite graceful! The music they're dancing to should sound very familiar to any fan of 1950's and 1960's TV, because it is the "Funeral March Of A Marionette" written by Charles Gounod that is the exact same song that was used as the theme song for 10 years on one of the most classic TV shows of all time, "Alfred Hitchcock Presents!"          

This dance number goes on for the majority of the cartoon!

Ub must have loved this gag, after the little guy runs into the wall and gets accordioned, he takes a step back, and then proceeds to do it again!

Man, this is making me thirsty, nothing like some fresh squeezed hot milk from one of the devil's cows!

Here's a good close-up of the big guy in charge, Satan, Beelzebub, the angel of darkness also known as Mephistopheles! He not only rules the Underworld, he cheats at cards, and is a nasty drunk too!!

The Devil gets all pissed off and starts taking it out on the little guys for no reason at all! I could make a gazillion comparisons here, but I'll just leave it right there!

After brutally feeding one of the little guys to Cerebus, Satan then goes after another one, but this one isn't going for it! Satan chases him to the edge of this cliff, but there's a tunnel and he manages to come back around and push the Devil over the edge!

I guess for the Devil to burn in Hell is pretty appropiate!

"Burn, Baby, Burn!"

There are 13 more days until Halloween, but for now......

....this is indeed THE END!!

There are more than a couple versions of "Hell's Bells" streaming on Youtube,  Here's the link to just one of them!!