WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR - Kasha & Gaudio - "Born To Be Bad" (1965)

If you're not at least 40 or 50, you probably don't even know who these people are, but for anybody over 50, or any of you purists of Pop culture, tonight's Dungeon Saturday Night Special should be a real treat!

Made in 1965, "Who Killed Teddy Bear" is a very interesting movie, sleazy, arty, and packed with talent; the kind of a film that I don't even feel like explaining that much, and I probably won't!

The film opens with some hazy closeups of a guy who appears by all rights to have some real sexual problems!

The real problem is that he's not keeping them to himself! He's found himself a girl he's very fond of where he works, but he's a little shy, so when he calls her, he doesn't identify himself! He's a creep, and these homoerotic opening scenes set the scene quite nicely!

The triangle of talent in this film starts with the beautiful singer, dancer and actress,
 Juliet Prowse!
Here's some trivia from IMDB about Juliet Prowse you just can't ignore: In 1981 she was singing "Fever" at the Las Vegas Hilton when a fire broke out, and 8 people died!  In 1987, she was mauled by the same tiger twice on two separate TV circus shows, that required many stitches etc. She was also the first guest on "The Muppet Show!"

Juliet is Norah Dain! She spins platters in a local disco club, and what a place it is! I didn't hear any of that "Johnny Rivers Live At The Whiskey A Go Go" LP, but there is a whole lot of rockin' music in this movie that was written by two time Oscar winning composer Al Kasha, and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member, and one of the Four Seasons, the amazing Bob Gaudio!

Here's just a little over a minute of the musical talent I'm talking about!
"Born To Be Bad!"

Whoop, whoop! Let's give a big hand to cinematographer Joseph C. Brun for some excellent dance floor shots!! This whole club scene goes on for quite a while, and is a pretty damn interesting mix of peoples!

Some still unidentified sleazeball is calling Norah, and spying on her from another building not too far away! She has informed the authorities about the predator, and they are doing the best they can with their limited resources!

What a shot! We don't promote smoking! It's a horrible habit, but it was pretty cool back in 1965! It was just natural to have a cough back then!

The second corner of this triangle of talent is venerable game show host Jan Murray! Jan hosted one of THE best TV games shows of all time, "Treasure Hunt" from 1956 to 1959!" Jan was originally a comedian, and performed on the Ed Sullivan Show 10 times! From 1966 to 1980, Jan was a staple on "The Hollywood Squares!" It's all that, that makes it so unsettling to watch him in a seriously dramatic role like this! It's like the perfect amount of salt on your cupcake!

Jan is Lieutenant Dave Madden! He specializes in criminal deviant behaviour! His wife was raped and murdered by an unknown assailant! This is a shot of some of Lt. Madden's research library!

They have tapped her phone, and Lt. Madden has appointed himself as Norah's personal protector! He's not supposed to drink on the job, but he's willing to make an exception in her case!

Lt. Madden is so weird and obsessive , you really start to wonder if he's the one with the dual identity! He accidentally walks in on Norah as she's changing! He's starting to freak her out a little, because she's not sure who she can trust!

 

The third corner of this triangle of talent is Sal (THE GENE KRUPA STORY, REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, GIANT, ROCK, PRETTY BABY, DINO) Mineo! Sal released a few singles, and a couple made it into the top 40! Sal Mineo was stabbed to death on February 12, 1976 by a punk who robbed him in West Hollywood! The murderer was sentenced to life in prison, but was paroled in 1990! (Great justice system!) Sal is Lawrence Sherman, the creep on the phone, and that is his mentally challenged sister Edie by his side as played by Margot Bennett. Margot might have only three credits to her name, but she has some kind of magnetism that attracted the likes of Malcolm(A CLOCKWORK ORANGE) McDowell and Keir(2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY) Dullea as mates! That was Edies's face and teddy bear peering out of the holes on the title card! She fell down the stairs at a young age and suffered some brain damage, and now it's up to Lawrence to watch after her!

The meeting of these two groups at the zoo made for a supremely awkward moment! 

Edie's at the age where her hormones are raging! She might not be able to think straight, but she knows she wants to dress up nice and wear makeup, and Lawrence doesn't like it one bit!

Throw in an obligatory swimming pool scene and you can really show off your star's attributes!

One night we watch Lawrence as he prowls the streets, dives, adult book stores, and adult theaters of 1965 New York City!

Lawrence commits a horrifying act after he gets all charged up! He mistakes his and Norah's Boss Meriam for Norah, and he strangles her to death!  The magnificent Elaine Stritch has the role of Miriam! Elaine passed away less than a year ago! She was still actively working up to that time!

 

Norah and Lawrence are starting to get along pretty good as long as he keeps his real personality in check. There's no romance, they're just having fun together and Norah trusts Lawrence more than she trusts Lt. Madden at this point, which turns out to be a very poor choice! It gives the two a chance to show off some of their dancing talents!

Finally, he can't take it any more, and Lawrence gets carried away, and almost rapes Norah!

Lt. Madden finally puts things together and rushes over to Norah's flat in what seems just the nick of time, and bitchslaps Lawrence around like a little girl! When he goes over to comfort Norah, Lawrence darts out the door and out onto the streets!

Run Larry, Run!!

Lucky you, I searched forever before I ever found a copy of this movie in a dark alleyway in Chelsea, but just now, I did a quick search and found a pretty nice copy streaming on Youtube!  Your life is good!!

THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - 1970

It's Family Friendly Friday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Here's a weird little movie starring Butch Patrick and produced by Dungeon Super Hero, Chuck Jones, after he left Warner Bros. to work for MGM on Tom and Jerry cartoons.

Here's a sound clip from this cartoon flick for your approval, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button over by our scary Trollbooth ride, NOW, Rufus The Gnat!.. Here's a little taste of... THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH!

Fantastic lineup of the most awesome voice talent in the whole freakin' world here!!

So, like, what's to become of Milo?! He's a boy who's totally bored with life...

One day he comes home to find a tollbooth in his room! Having nothing better to do after another boring day at school, he gets in his toy car and drives through after paying the toll, only to emerge in a world full of wild adventures.

Milo starts his journey and comes to a crossroad. Which way should he go, George?

Then, he gets bogged down in this creepy cartoon swamp that's full of little gooey critters! You can see one of them lounging in the slime there.

Milo gets to meet Kakofonous A. Dischord, he likes loud noises, as heard in the sound clip!

He hooks up with his pooch pal, Tock. Time out for a nice meal at this fancy dining room.

The adventures get even creepier, and scarier! Chuck Jones and his crew were masters of detail when they designed and rendered these great looking scenes and creatures.

Then, Milo is confronted with some fun monsters that chase him and his pals around!

Milo finally makes his way to the crystal palace of the Princess of Sweet Rhyme and she makes it possible for him to find his way back home...

And, hurray, here he comes!! We're back tomorrow with more from The Dungeon!

FALLGUY - Jaime Mendoza-Nava (Theme) - Tony and Joe - "The Duck Walk" (1962)

Stomp, shout, and work it on out, cause it's Whipping Boy Wednesday, and a movie about a poor schmuck who ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time, and turned into being nothing more than...........

 ......A Dupe, a Patsy, a "FALLGUY!" 

That too cool theme song was written by Jaime Mendoza-Nava, a man with some credits to match his chops! Just a couple of Jaime's credits include ORGY OF THE DEAD, EQUINOX, GARDEN OF THE DEAD, HOUSE OF TERROR, you know, all those places you don't want to go!

"Fallguy's" got everything! It's got whores!

It's got clearly marked buildings!

 And it's got a local dive called "Kordanes" where all the kids hang out! Makes me hungry just looking at that "Fried Shrimp" sign!

The kids at "Kordanes" are rocking out to the novelty song recorded in 1960, and released on Gardena Records by Tony(Johnny J. Colonna) and Joe(Buddy Motola), "The Duck Walk!"  If you wanna see the 45 sleeve and record label, then cruise on over to 45cat! It's worth the trip! These are the kind of scenes that made me want to do this blog from the get go! Quack, Quack!!

 Joe Cool leaning on the jukebox is Ed Dugan as the fallguy Sonny Martin! This would be Ed's only filmed acting gig!

 Sonny tells his best girl he has an appointment, and he has to split, but rest assured, he will be back in an hour, but he's not going to make it!

On the way to his appointment, Sonny is passed on a windy road by a couple of fast moving cars shooting guns! When one car goes over the side, Sonny goes down to see if he can be of any help! The guy in the car just happens to be a big mob boss, and he pulls a gun on Sonny, and makes him drive to the house of a Doctor friend of his! Before he can be treated, he pulls the gun, there's a scuffle, and the Doctor shoots and kills him! Sonny manages to escape from the house and runs like Hell!!!

One of the few real actors in this independent Donn Harling Production is George Mitchell, in fact, George might have more appearances on "The Twilight Zone" than any other actor I can think of! He was in all these episodes, THE HITCH-HIKER, EXECUTION, JESS-BELLE, AND RING-A-DING GIRL! George just might also hold the record for being in the most "Twilight Zone" episodes with hyphenated titles! George is the Big Boss Carl Tamin, and just like that other big boss guy in "The Turkish Spiderman," Carl doesn't like to be bothered when he's working either!

Pretty slick bachelor pad Carl has! These three have got it all figured out! Joining Carl on the left is Dr. Sam Johnson played by Don Alderette in his solo outing, and in the middle is corrupt and crooked cop, the Police Chief as played by Louis Gartner! Louis has some interesting numbers, he was only in two movies, FALLGUY, and THE STUNTMAN! He was born in 1928, and died in the reverse year, 1982!

I guess this out of work basketball player needed a 15 minute job!

Nice shot of the dash and the AM radio in this car!

Carl the Boss is so distracted by the ladies, it's hard to figure out how these guys get anything accomplished!

While there's a lull in the story, might as well throw in a good old fashioned catfight to lively things up a bit! They're fighting over Carl, of course!

They're trying to have a very serious business meeting with murder on the agenda, and the Boss just cannot believe what the Hell is going on!

Sonny is on the run, and ends up here!

You know you're in trouble when they send 'The Indian'  out to get you!

Sonny finally convinces Dr. Sam's daughter the hard way that he's not there to hurt her! Madeline Frances is June Johnson in her only theatrical appearance!

The stupid Police Chief starts shooting his gun into the house and he wounds Sonny and June. This scene where the Doctor is trying to revive his daughter looks like something in a real cheap Frankenstein movie!

Carl almost falls into an empty elevator shaft, but that would have been too difficult to film so....

.........He trips and falls down a short flight of stairs instead! Either way, he's dead!

After everything gets sorted out, and Sonny is off the hook, Sonny and June fall in love, and he sees her off at the airport when she goes back to school! It's easier for Sonny to fall now because he only has one leg after getting his kneecap blown off by 'The Indian'! "Fallguy" is just one of six "Weird-Noir B-Movies" available from Something Weird in a tight little package and a giveaway price almost too good to be true! A good investment if you have about 8 hours to kill and want a little more bang for your buck!