DRACULA'S CASTLE / Paragon International Pictures - 1969

I recently picked up the 91 minute TV version of Al Adamson's BLOOD OF DRACULA'S CASTLE that he added 7 minutes to and changed the title to simply... DRACULA'S CASTLE! This is the best last minute stocking stuffer I could come up with, with only two days to go before XMAS.

The cast includes John (THE UNEARTHLY) Carradine, Alexander (HORRORS OF SPIDER ISLAND) D'Arcy, Paula (HAND OF DEATH) Raymond, Robert (FORBIDDEN PLANET) Dix and Vicki (HORROR OF THE BLOOD MONSTERS) Volante.

Welp, the story starts with our model and photographer couple, during a fun day at Marineland of the Pacific. They get a telegram saying they just inherited a castle in Lancaster!

Back at the ranch, Count Dracula and Countess Townsend are brought their daily glass of life giving blood by their faithful butler, George.

Robert Dix plays nut job Johnny, he has bribed the cemetery guard and is ready to make his escape. Adamson production regular, John 'Bud' Cardos, plays the guard.

But first, the Moon comes out (??) and Johnny turns into a freakin' werewolf and kills the guard!! This is a segment added for the TV version.

Would you buy a stolen car from this psycho? I don't really think it would be a good idea!!

Here's a good, unobstructed view of Dracula's Castle, boy, talk about scary!

Later, Johnny, in a seemingly unrelated scene, changes into a werewolf again, he chases down a woman, and... GETS HER!! You can see how the colors do not match the rest of the movie. Good old low budget fix!

Back at the ranch, all the beans get spilled all over the place, and, our couple is caught up in the insanity in the Dungeon!

This is another scene I believe was added for the TV release, they take Vicki Volante out and tie her to a stake and burn her ass up! A little shocking, but, necessary I guess... John looks a little weird in that garb!

Johnny gets a silver bullet in the heart (almost) and dies... Hooray!!

The Count and Countess are tied to chairs, and, the curtain is drawn and our vampires go poof! Then, a bat comes out of each neck hole in the clothing and they just fly away!

Finally, Mango (great stupid name which reminds me, Eegah!! played Kiwi in our short film, SNAKE BAIT) is the only crazy left. He grabs a mace and chases the couple out to a cliff. For his effort, Mango get a big axe in the back, then our hero lights a match and ... BOOM! Mango had a burrito for breakfast and his pants light up like a lit gas leak, and, he falls off the edge of the cliff! So, Merry Xmas Ever'bloody, we're back with one more treat for you tomorrow...

THE I LOVE LUCY CHRISTMAS SPECIAL (1956)

Well, you can't bring much more joy to the world than this!

The "I Love Lucy" show ran for 181 episodes from 1951 to 1957, and is at least, and probably even more popular today than it was back then!

It's kind of funny when you think about it, but Lucille Ball sounds so natural, while Lucille Arnez, Lucille Ricardo, Lucy Ball, Lucy Arnez, or Lucy Ricardo all sound so weird!

I don't want to know about their private lifes, on the screen they were a great couple!

Co-stars William Frawley and Vivian Vance as Fred and Ethyl Mertz never cease to make me laugh! I don't really know how many episodes they had where just the four of them were basically the entire cast, but they pull it off, time and time again! Most of the time it really wouldn't have mattered if there was a story or not, it was always just fun to watch the four of them interact!

Ricky explains to Little Ricky how Santa can come down the chiminey. Lucy is just as entralled with the story as Little Ricky! The Little Ricky you see is not really their son, but actually an actor named Richard Keith!  In the "Just A Little Weird" department, the real Little Ricky or Desi Arnez Jr., never played himself on any of the Lucy shows, but he did later make 5 appearances as Billy, or Billy Simmons on "The Lucy Show" in the 1960's.

I'm old but this is a Christmas tradition that I am totally unfamilar with! They wait until Little Ricky goes to bed before not only bringing out the presents, but also the Christmas tree! So it wasn't bad enough that Santa had to bring presents to every boy and girl in the world, but he also has to deliver and decorate Christmas trees for each family too?  That's just a little too much for me to believe!

As TV specials have want to do, a good portion of the show is flashbacks to better days like the time when Lucy made a surprise announcement at the club that she was pregnant with Little Ricky!

Fred does an excellent job of trimming up the tree!!

In another flashback, you can hardly recognize Ethyl, Ricky, and Fred as this trio of barbershop quartet singers!

There were no microwaves back then, so you still had to boil the water, so you might have just made real coffee, because it would only take about 5 minutes longer, and is the coffee supposed to put him back to sleep or wake him up, I don't get it!

Ethyl is feeling kind of frisky with the mistletoe!

So they didn't plan it very well, and all four of them show up as Santa Claus on Christmas morning!

Richard Keith started playing drums at the age of two. He went on to be a singer and drummer in a Christian rock band called "David and the Giants!" Check out that giant robot!!

The real Little Ricky, Desi Arnez Jr., was also a drummer in the band Dino, Desi, and Billy, who had the top 40 song in 1965, "I'm A Fool!" The other two members of the band were Dino Martin (Dean Martin's son) and bassist Billy Hinsche. Desi was 12 years old when the band was formed!

As the magic of Christmas tends to go, out of nowhere, a fifth Santa appears, and then disappears just as quick! He stays just long enough to..........

.......get a reaction, and this freakin' great shot of this fantastic foursome!!

The funniest thing about Lucille Ball is that she was so good at being goofy, that we have a tendency to forget about how beautiful she actually was!

And me too!!

SPACE: 1999 - Dragon's Domain / Incorporated Television Company - 1975

Here's a great little shocking stuffer from that exciting series, SPACE: 1999. This is definitely my favorite episode, it's all about a discredited Eagle pilot, Tony Cellini, who has freaky recurring nightmares after he was the only survivor of a disastrous space mission. Now, the Moon is approaching the same area in space that Cellini encountered.

The series starred Martin (THE BEING) Landau, Barbara (MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE) Bain and Barry (ASYLUM) Morse and was produced by the amazing team of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson!!

The episode starts with Dr. Russell explaining the story behind what happened to Eagle pilot Cellini to Commander Koenig, and, a flashback of his recollections ensues...

Cellini and a small crew are on a mission to an alien planet. They encounter stranded spaceships and hook up to one of them... Beautiful miniature work there!

Cellini is in the cockpit, the other crew members open the door to the stranded ship, and...

A freaking thing from Hell manifests itself!.. Now what?!!

Well, it pulls you in, then, spits you out! And, you don't look that great when it spits you out!! Anyway, each crew member is killed the same way with Cellini trapped in the cockpit, he breaks out just in time to see the massacre.

He detaches the ship from the rocket and drifts through space until he's eventually rescued. Back on Earth (before the Earth/Moon disaster), Dr. Russell was his physician.

Flashback over, Koenig and his pals go to see Commissioner Dixon for permission to go to the approaching planet and check out Cellini's story, because, if true, it could be a disaster for humans...

Permission is granted and an Eagle finds the ship. Love this shot, dog pile on the monkey!!

There are MOBY DICK overtones as Cellini sneaks out to deal with the monster, because, he thinks he knows how to kill the goddamn thing from Hell... Before he's dragged in, he tells Koenig to attack the glowing eye.

Koenig somehow manages to use an ax to disable the eye, finally killing the monster.

The thing is a mass of melting gristle and tentacles, bringing the story to an end. We're back on Wednesday for more early presents, til then, Scary Xmas Ever'bloody!