CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST - William Sharples - "To Boo Or Not To Boo" (1951)

With a little less that a week left in the Halloween Countdown, it's time to get down to the really scary stuff!

So welcome to the Dwrayger Dungeon Tunnel of Fun featuring Casper the Friendly Ghost in a 1951 cartoon with the very literary title, "To Boo Or Not To Boo!"

"To Boo Or Not To Boo" is a really good Halloween tale with witches and ghosts galore!

How can you not like Casper? He's cute and innocent and always gets himself into all kinds of trouble which is never his fault except for the fact that he's misunderstood!

And he's trying so hard to fit in!

1951 was a much more comfortable time in American history! Mom could greet the trick-or-treaters with her hair wrapped up in a towel, and her bathrobe on!

You just gotta love the eye-poppin' effects when this woman realizes Casper is a ghost, not just a kid in a costume!

Pretty much the same thing happens when the kids Casper joins up with figure out the truth!

Lost and alone, Casper stumbles on a barn dance Halloween Costume Party! Well, the sign sez "Everybody Welcome," so let's go!

Casper figures out that if he dips himself in paint that he looks more solid, and might have more than a ghost of a chance of blending in!

A cute little girl named Lou welcomes Casper to the party! Lou's voice is provided by the the Queen of female cartoon voices, the marvelous Mae Questel!

Casper gets a real kick out of playing Pin The Tail On The Donkey!

The joint really gets a jumpin'!

Everybody get yer partner for the square dance!

William Sharples wrote the music for this cartoon and 790 more, and the list obviously goes on forever. Here's just a few of the amazing array of titles and puns: SULTAN PEPPER, TOONERVILLE TROLLEY, BOLD KING COLE, WIMMIN IS A MYSKERY, THE FULLA BLUFF MAN, ELECTRIC EARTHQUAKE, THE MARRY GO-ROUND, RODEO ROMEO, ABUSEMENT PARK, MADHATTAN ISLAND, PRE-HYSTERICAL MAN etc etc etc!!!

The two animators on this short create an interesting look through a combination of their individual styles! Myron Waldman's career went all the way back to the early 1930's and Betty Boop style cartoons, and Larry Silverman's career made it into the early 1980's and stuff like 13 episodes of "Blackstar" in 1981 with titles like "Tree Of Evil" and "The Zombie Masters!" They both had stops along the way with some memorable and some not so memorable characters like Popeye, Superman, Skunky, Milton the Monster, Ebenezer The Freezer, Batfink, Clint Clobber, Hashimoto, Hector Heathcote, and Beetle Baily! What a list!

It saddens me to know that 99% of you will never have the chance to go to a barn dance, drink beer underage and promenade right and do-si-do with some sweaty gal three times your size and your age that you never met before and you will never see again! Trust me, it's a memorable experience!

Aw Crap! Why's that always gotta happen when they finally realize Casper is a real ghost!

But....This Halloween tale has a happy ending! As it turns out, Lou is a ghost too, so everything works out just fine!

As an extra added bonus, here's a short cut from the brilliant CD released last year by a guy who just happens to be having a birthday today, and the guy who inspired me to do this blog, the Reverend Tom Frost, and a frightening little ditty titled  "FRE'RE JACK!"      Happy Birthday Rev!!

If you hurry, you can probably still buy a copy right HERE before the whole bloody world goes up in flames!!

EL GRITO DE LA MUERTE aka THE LIVING COFFIN / Alameda Films, Young America Productions Inc. - 1959

It's time to go south of the border for our Halloween Countdown Continuation, here's a western style horror story from 1959 shot in color concerning the legend of "The Crying Woman" as our cowboy hero Gastón and his sidekick Crazy Wolf investigate an attempted murder in a small Mexican town...

Eegah!! sent over a little sound clip of the theme and more for our earjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button over by our regular coffin, NOW, Rufus The Gnat!.. Here's a taste of... THE LIVING COFFIN!

Gastón and Crazy Wolf meet the ranch family that's supposedly haunted by spirits and vampires! That's a portrait of the woman they believe is haunting the place.

Gastón, played by Gastón Santos, and his friend go to the saloon and encounter two bad hombres that threaten them. In a great barroom brawl, Gastón knocks them both out, big time! Santos was also in THE BLACK PIT OF DR. M and SWAMP OF THE LOST SOULS, movies we have already posted, here at The Dungeon.

The crusty old witch shows up, and, she murders an older women living there in the house!

After another tussle with the bad hombres, Gastón falls into some quicksand but is saved by his super intelligent horse that doesn't even get a freakin' credit!

The dead are buried in the tomb beneath the house, but, are they really dead?!

Here, Crazy Wolf stays with the horse while Gastón goes through a large panel in the wall which leads to an unknown part of the underground structure. Guess what?!.. The horse found the entrance!! Seeing Crazy Wolf with his holster and guns reminds me of playing cowboys with friends when I was a little guy.

Gastón shows Maria that what she thought was a ghost is just a mannequin!

Crazy Wolf uses his revolver to conk the bad guys in the head after they show up for the fun!

The Witch then grabs Maria and tries to claw her eyes out before being saved by Gastón!

The Witch tries to escape but is met by Gaston's horse, it rises up and comes down on the old hag with it's hoofs and stomps the crap out of her!!

And, we find out that she is a he, part of the gang of crooks responsible for the mayhem!

Tune in tomorrow when Eegah!! brings us another one of his special Halloween Countdown posts!

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!!!