CRAZY KNIGHTS - "Ghost Crazy" (1944)

Shemp Howard was one of the original Three Stooges, but was replaced by his brother Curly when Shemp decided to pursue a solo acting career, and so it went for years until Curly could no longer go on because of a heart condition!

This 1944 feature titled "Crazy Knights," and later released as "Ghost Crazy" was about three quarters along in Shemp's career that included many colourful zany characters with names like Dopey, Clem, Lefty, Smokey, Shemp, Henry, Knobby, Happy, Wacky, Gabby, Dizzy, Dingbat, and Mumbo!

 

 Shemp and his pals are a bunch of small-time hucksters!

It's a side-show act featuring a super intelligent gorilla named Borneo!

To make the act legit, they have a real gorilla, and his body double in a gorilla suit that Shemp wears when they ask the gorilla questions! (Of course, the REAL gorilla is a guy in a gorilla suit too!)

They might be small time con men, but they have a really nice woody that would make any surfer green with envy!

Any student of 1950's TV will recognize Minerva Urecal who was Tugboat Annie, and Jim Bowie's Mother! Among her 275 credits are a couple of other gorilla suit movies, "The Ape," and "The Ape Man!"

Billy Gilbert played Billy, with Shemp as Shemp, and Maxie Rosenbloom as Maxie, in more than a couple of movies with titles like "Three Of A Kind," and "Trouble Chasers!" 

So it looks like somebody in a ghost outfit is trying to scare the boys!

But then the ghost disappears into the night, and into this grave, and you begin to think that this a story about the supernatural, but after this, it's just guys in ghost costumes again!

Billy finds a ghost costume and proceeds to scare the pants off of Shemp!

The rest of the cast from left to right are Bernard Sell who had small roles in the ultra-classics "The Day The Earth Stood Still," and "Them!" It's pretty amazing how many roles Bernard also had as just a guy somewhere in a bar, or a restaurant, a nightclub, a casino, or a guest at a party!  Then there's the blonde and beautiful Jayne Hazard, whose first role ever was as a party girl in another great ape flick, "The Monster And The Girl," and who, if it hadn't of been for the war years, might have been a name as recognizable as Marilyn Monroe today cause she is drop dead gorgeous, and finally John Hamilton, who even though he had 346 acting credits, I only can think of one thing when I see his face, and that is Perry White in 102 episodes of "The Adventures Of Superman!"

Shemp puts on his gorilla suit to try and stir up some truth, and Barney the gorilla escapes from his cage at the same time, so you can imagine how much havoc that creates! The guy inside the Barney suit was Art Miles who donned the hairy tuxedo in at least three other movies or shorts, "The Gorilla," "Moon Over Vegas," and "A Bird In The Head!"

 Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom might have been a buffoon in the movies, but in real life he was a championship boxer whose career spanned 16 years, and ended with a record of  274 fights, with 207 wins, 39 losses, and 26 draws! Maxie wasn't a big knockout artist and only had 19 KO's out of all those fights, so that means he went the distance in about 90% of those bouts! He was one tough dude!

"Ghost Crazy" comes off as one long extended Three Stooges episode with Billy and Maxie replacing Moe and Larry, and makes you realize why the Three Stooges shorts were so good, because they had the good sense to make them only 15 or 20 minutes long!
If you've got nothing better to do, you can watch "Ghost Crazy" for free on Youtube and transport yourself into better times some 72 years in the past! Pretty amazing we're still here!

GIANT INSECT & SPIDER MONSTERS From The FIFTIES!!

Here's a batch of movies from the fifties, all featuring big bugs and spiders, and, what made for a ton of fun for us kids back when...

MESA OF LOST WOMEN is our first entry from 1953. Man, what else can be said about this crazy movie and all its characters, love this flick forever!

WB came out with THEM! in 1954, always a crowd pleaser with a nice budget. Exciting stuff, sad though when James Whitmore gets killed.

Universal's TARANTULA from 1955 scared the crap out of me when I saw this one at the theater when I was just 7 years old! For me, John Agar was perfect for the lead role.

MONSTER FROM GREEN HELL came out in 1957, this one has giant wasps as a result of some of the little critters being shot into space, then landing back in Africa!

1957 was a banner years for classic monster movies and the year THE BLACK SCORPION hit the screen. Saw this one at the theater, it was an awesome treat for a 9 year old monster nut!

Bert I. Gordon's BEGINNING OF THE END in 1957 was about a giant locust invasion, growing to enormous size due to feeding on grain laced with atomic radiation... That poster is a prime example of just how appealing they made it for the kids!

Holy cow!! My dad took me to see THE FLY in 1958 when I was 10, this is like one of the five movies I saw at the theater in the fifties that absolutely blew my mind. What people always forget, is, what is was like to be there at the time, not now for cripes sake, back then!

I saw THE DEADLY MANTIS in 1958 with my neighbors, it really was a special treat for us, a terrific movie back then!

Saw EARTH vs THE SPIDER at the theater in 1958, it seemed a little schlocky to me. Great poster though!

The British COSMIC MONSTERS also hit the screen in 1958, aka THE STRANGE WORLD OF PLANET X. This one's filled with lots of big ugly bugs and spiders!

THE WASP WOMAN aka WASPER WOMAN was maybe the first monster flick Eegah!! and I saw together in 1959. This is really a nice little movie, but, if they could have just made her makeup better!

Saw RETURN OF THE FLY in my home town of Tulare, CA with my cousins in 1959, my favorite part was when the inspector gets mixed up with the guinea pig!

I'm including HORRORS OF SPIDER ISLAND since it was really shot in 1959, and, has a very unique German monster. Well, that's all folks, tune in again tomorrow for more from the Dungeon Gang!

MY FRIEND THE MONKEY - Betty Boop and Pudgy (1939)

 Everybody loves Betty Boop, but this cartoon is more about her dog Pudgy!

 Back when living in the city wasn't such a horrible experience! How romantic, an organ grinder and his buddy, the monkey, outside your window to entertain you!

 Betty Boop requests that the monkey does a little dance!

 So the monkey does a wild little song and dance number that sounds like this!

 

 Then he hops up on the windowsill to collect his reward!!

 Aw, what a cute little feller, he looks like a perfect playmate for Betty's pooch Pudgy!

 Pudgy is a happy little pup!

 But he's a little taken back at first by the presence of a monkey in his home!

 The two seem to getting along famously!

 So Betty tries to buy the monkey for two dollars, but the hurdy-gurdy man wants three dollars!

 Meanwhile, the monkey is turning out to not be nice at all! He's pretty smart though! Here he uses a clothes wringer to squeeze every last drop of goodness out of a piece of pie!

 The monkey is actually a sadistic little bastard!

 Now it's time for Pudgy's big surprise!

 Being totally naive about what's been happening, Betty buys the monkey so Pudgy can have a permanent best friend!

How Mortifying!!
Have a great week! It's back to moving for me!

THE ADVENTURES OF EEGAH!! & TABONGA! Part 1 - 1959-66

Here's a look at some of the things that two monster dudes were up to in a small agricultural town in central California. There really weren't any other kids that could match our fervor for monster fever, we stood alone.

My dad was a good sport, he took this classic photo of us in 1964... Monster Dudes, man!

This is one of my favorite pics, we also let the spider monkey out to chase around!

Here's a pic I had to get off a slide, you can see that I have the image reversed, but, big deal. This photo is from 1960, we had already surrounded ourselves with the world of Famous Monsters!

Here I am in my closet, consoling my little monster head I created for art class. Check out the VOODOO WOMAN poster on the door along with some FM covers.

This is another picture I love, the jacket was literally falling apart. Eegah!! took this one with his parent's Polaroid camera.

My back yard had some interesting structures my dad built, we definitely used them to our twisted advantage!

Two cool pics of Eegah!! made up as a devil, my dad called Eegah!!.. Mel.

This photo booth pic was probably taken in 1959, the year we met in 6th grade... Crazy kids!!

This is a drawing that Eegah!! drew of him laying on his bed, reading a sci-fi novel. The drawing is accurate considering we both had paperback book shelves, there's even his poster of CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF!

Okay, this is what we used to do in German class, we sat next to each other in the back, we called these tag team art, we liked cars. Eegah!! would start with a wheel or two, hand it back to me, I'd do a few things, hand it back to him, like that until we were done. We did about 16 of these, still have them. We just wanted to have fun, that's it!!

One of my favorite drawings from back then, the Ymir from 20,000,000 MILES TO EARTH, I cut it out and mounted it on the red background, really made it pop!

I would just get out my crow quill pen and ink and let it go, making up monsters is so cool.

This is my first oil painting, done I believe in 1964. I love shading and oil paint blends much better that acrylic. I'm still very proud of this piece.

Here's a good story... I had a few beers one night and decided to do a painting while under the influence of alcohol (pot came to our town in 1967). I disliked this acrylic painting so much that I have never drank before doing art ever again!

Eegah's!! mom was a costume whiz, she came up with our attire for our Sadie Hawkin's dance. We're supposed to be press reporters but Eegah!! is carrying a violin case with a freakin' machine gun inside! Wouldn't you know it, a horror twist... Eegah!! has something for us on Wednesday, so, be there!!!