Wednesday, March 28, 2018

GERTIE THE DINOSAUR - Winsor McCay - "Cartooning Pioneer" (1914)

Welcome back to the Wednesday version of The Dungeon! Tonight we're gonna go back over a hundred years! Is that something the human mind of today can even comprehend?  Doubtful! I love this poster, but it is slightly exaggerated in more ways than one!!

 The short cartoon I want to tell you about tonight was called "Gertie," and it was made in 1911! It was not Winsor McCay's first film!
Winsor McCay's first film was made in 1906 and called "Dreams Of A Rarebit Fiend." It was a tale of a drunken nightmare, and it wasn't a cartoon but it did have stop-action effects in it!

After that, in 1911 he made "Winsor McCay, the Famous Cartoonist of the N.Y. Herald and His Moving Comics" aka "Little Nemo," his best known character. and the actual first cartoon, I think!
Want to watch it? Here's the link!

 Next up for Winsor in 1912 was 
"How A Mosquito Operates!"
I really hate mosquitoes!
 
 Originally, it was just the line drawing cartoon, but they later added the real life footage to make it more palatable to the public! The story line they came up with has Winsor and his buddies cruising around, and then their car has tire trouble, so they stumble into this natural history museum!

  Winsor McCay lays down a challenge!

 
 It's not difficult to tell even from these crude drawings how talented of an artiste Winsor was!
In the last picture Gertie was free form dancing but rock and roll wouldn't be around for at least another 40 years! Follow the link, and see for yourself!

 The memory of the first dinosaur cartoon character of all time would probably be lost forever if it wasn't for this ice cream stand in one of the Disney theme parks!

Monday, March 26, 2018

THE OUTER LIMITS - O.B.I.T. / Season 1, Episode 7 - 1963

Today we gots another great episode from THE OUTER LIMITS, this time, Captain Harris is mysteriously strangled at a military base while operating the Outer Band Individuated Teletracer, or O.B.I.T. machine. Senator Orville, played by Peter (THE CRAWLING HAND) Breck, arrives at the base to investigate the murder and learns that there are several bases with the O.B.I.T. machine, which can monitor in a video display the privacy of any person, anywhere! During his investigation, the Senator asks for information about O.B.I.T., such as who is the manufacturer, price, who bought them, but, no user has any information about the machine.

Here's Captain Harris using the O.B.I.T. machine to check out what certain people are up to, when...

Out of nowhere, a horrible monster creeps up and strangles his ass, then, disappears!

Senator Orville arrives to investigate the murder, he greeted by the General and the supervisor of the project, the very weird looking Mr. Lomax.

Besides the strange glasses, Mr. Lomax, played by Jeff (IN COLD BLOOD) Corey, has super hairy hands, kind of a clue that something isn't quite, you know, right!

The Senator questions a number of people, Mr. Lomax is last on the list...

Lomax shows the Senator, who's fascinated by its capabilities, how the infernal machine works. I threw in the second photo because it's just plain weird!

Dr. Scott, played by Harry Townes, breaks down and shows the Senator how to locate the one person the machine couldn't trace, and, he exposes the monster!.. Wait, what?!

Lomax starts ranting and his movements are the same as the creature in the monitor! He sez that puny Earthlings are doomed, and, his race is coming to take over!!

Then, he changes into the monster and simply disappears! I'm a little confused, but...

The Earthlings are stunned, what in the Hell are we going to do, we're doomed, God help us... Well, that's a wrap, we will be back on Wednesday with more Wild 'n' Weird Dungeon Cargo!

Saturday, March 24, 2018

2019 - DOPO LA CADUTA DI NEW YORK - "2019: After The Fall Of New York" (1983)

 Enough already with the doom and gloom, I think it's time to have some fun, so tonight's Saturday Night Special is a 1983 Italian vision of what we've got in store for us by next year, and it looks like it's going to be a pretty bumpy ride!!

 This prophecy is called "2019 - Dopo La Caduta Di New York" or in English, "2019: After The Fall Of New York!!"

 This New York is filmed primarily in Rome, Italy!

 Look at the kind of high-tech gadgetry we're gonna have by next year!

 So here's w hat I want you to do! Stare at this photo for about five minutes or more, and when you get to the point when you think you understand it, then...........

 .................Look at this shot, and when you figure this one out, you will now understand this movie completely, and with no further difficulty! That's the hero of this whole trip on the left, Michael Sopkiw as Parsifal. Michael is an interesting story, born in Connecticut and before becoming an actor, he was in trouble with the law over marijuana. He did a little time, and when he got out he studied acting. He only has five acting credits, but they're interesting enough to list! After this film, he was in "Blastfighter," "Devil Fish," and "Massacre In Dinosaur Valley" all in the 80's, and then he made one more appearance in 2014 in "Bad Dog And Superhero!"

 Landing in my old stomping grounds, Alaska!

 By next year there are going to be a whole lot more rats in the world, but it's actually a good thing, because it will give the geeks and freaks something to eats!

Tag, you're it, and it's one less Rat Eater in the world! Hal Yamanouchi has been working steadily in strange and odd films since 1977, and is still working today with films in both Pre and Post-Production!!

 Picasso's anti-war mural "Guernica" is a perfect backdrop for a future militaristic society gone mad!

 You have to give the makers of this movie credit, because they tried real hard!

 This is a sonic disruptor that makes a noise so high-pitched and annoying you will bleed from the ears until you die a slow and painful death!

Yep, those are teeth all right!

From the looks of this trio, it's pretty obvious to me, that's there's going to be a lot of changes in the next year. After the grand inquisition and impeachment, this just might be the next President and his top aides! That's 6' 9" Luigi Montefiori aka George Eastman in the middle as Big Ape! He might not look that sharp, but not only does George have 60 acting credits, he's also a proficient writer with 44 writing credits under that big old belt of his!

 Appealing to both sexes, this movie has hot model Valentine Monnier as the gal on the run called Giara! Besides being in this movie, she was also in "Devil Fish" the following year.

 If Valentine looks familiar and you lived through the 70's, this album cover by Chic might clue you in!

 A Super Model before Super Models were a thing, Valentine graced the cover of this issue of Cosmo in 1977!

 And for the ladies, this film is chock full of insanely intelligent and handsome dudes!! 

The foundation of the story is that there's only one fertile woman left in the world, and right now she's in suspended animation. Everybody wants her, but Big Ape is the one who wants to wake her up the most, because he's got a big ego, and doesn't care about anyone else, and wants his bloodline to be the future of humanity because he's so smart and good looking!

This just might be one of them 'Maser Rays!'

Laser, Maser, whatever it was, it did a number on Big Ape!

This is actually a pretty cool shot that vaguely reminds me of Ballantine 1960's Sci-Fi paperbacks!

Forgive me, but I just had to turn this last shot into a postcard.

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??