ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL / Republic 12 Chapter Serial - 1941

In today's thrilling serial, on a scientific expedition to Siam, young Billy Batson is given the ability to change himself into the super-powered Captain Marvel by the Wizard Shazam, who tells him his powers will last only as long as the Golden Scorpion idol is threatened. After finding the idol, the scientists realize it could be the most powerful weapon in the world and so they remove the lenses that energize it, distributing them among themselves so that no one would be able to use the idol by himself! Back in the US, Billy Batson, as Captain Marvel, wages a battle against an evil hooded figure, the Scorpion, who hopes to accumulate all five lenses, thereby gaining control of the super-powerful weapon...

Stars are Tom (THE PHANTOM) Tyler, Frank (MEN OF BOY TOWN) Coghlan Jr., William 'Billy' (THE MAGNETIC MONSTER) Benedict and Louise (CITIZEN KANE - lived to be 100!) Currie

Here are our main characters...

And, who is The Scorpion?..

Inside a tomb in Siam, young Billy Batson meets the Wizard Shazam, who gives him the guise of the superman, Captain Marvel, to combat the criminals in search of The Golden Scorpion and its awesome powers.

Now, here are some 'next week' chapter title cards...

Those are some great titles!!

Here's The Scorpion with his cohort, discussing ways to to get all the lenses to The Golden Scorpion in their possession, and wreak even more havoc!

Through all 12 chapters, Captain Marvel confronts a bevy of evil traps!

There's always confusion as to who's a good guy and who's a bad guy!

Whitey calls Billy on the radio and warns him of a bomb in his airplane, Billy sez "Shazam" and turns into Captain Marvel and jumps out just before the plane explodes!

Captain Marvel is one strong mofo, the bad guys drop an engine on him, he catches it and tosses it like it's nothing! This is one of the funniest parts in Firesign Theatre's J-MEN FOREVER! So, check in tomorrow as Eegah!! gives it his all to bring you something special... Good Luck!

THE SPIDER WOMAN - "Mistress of Murder Vs Sherlock Holmes" (1946)

I think it's about time we had a "Was Ist Los Wednesday," and this is a good movie to do it to!

 Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are one of the original dynamic duos, that's for sure!

 If I counted right, "The Spider Woman" was the 8th movie of fifteen in the 30's and the 40's where Basil Rathbone played Sherlock Holmes! I haven't seen every one I don't think, but I'd be willing to bet that every one of them is worth watching!

 A bunch of guys have suddenly been committing suicide, and nobody can figure it out!

 Sherlock Holmes isn't interested, and really doesn't care, because he's out enjoying himself fly fishing with Dr. Watson!

 Then the unimaginable happens, Sherlock has a dizzy spell, and falls in the stream, not the river but the stream, and drowns! Watson is powerless to do anything!

 Some days later, this courier shows up at Watson's door, and freaks out the good Doctor when he finds out it's Holmes in disguise! (He needed to disappear so he could get to the bottom of these suicides undetected!)

 Gale Sondergaard as Adrea Spedding is a bitch in every sense of the word! Gale is very good at being bad, and should really enjoy a greater role in celluloid villainess history!

Sherlock Holmes is now in disguise as Rajni Singh. He's showing her how to take a selfie!

 Now this is an awesome shot!

I love that stairwell, and the lighting and the placement of everything else is perfect!

 So evil Adrea Spedding has got this scam going that involves spiders and suicides!

 Sorry, it's hard to see in this shot, but that's the spider that just got skewered by Holmes pretending to be a sleeping Rajni Singh.

 These movies are serious, but there are always comedic moments like Watson thinking this Entomology expert is just Sherlock in disguise again!

 This weirdo kid is a cross between one of those Chinese hopping vampires and Renfield's son!

He hops around and catches flies!

 Adrea Spedding leaves the boys a little gift, the dust of a plant called Radix pedis diaboli, or the devil's foot, that when burned is deadly! The devil's foot is a totally fictional plant, created by the mind of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of all the Sherlock Holmes books.

 Sherlock and Watson go out searching for more information!

 The curator of this place is acting very strange, and cannot even pronounce the name of this spider, and just calls it a large spider instead!

 What a phony! The spider woman needed a better stooge than that to fool Sherlock Holmes!

 Fittingly so, "The Snake Woman" ends in an arcade complete with a sideshow!

 The "Obongo From The Congo Prancing Pygmy" show is closed down for some strange reason!

Sherlock smells a rat!

 (I don't think they plan on re-opening it in this century)

 This arcade features a fun full size shooter game using real bullets of revolving dictators like Hitler and Mussolini for the kids to shoot at (Remember, this is 1946). 

 

The spider woman's henchmen have Holmes tied to the back of the Hitler target, and the metal plate heart target has been removed

 Wow! What could be worse than having your best pal, the crack shot Dr. Watson, fire the final shot!?

Sherlock Holmes is such a gentleman, that even after the spider woman has tried to kill him three of four times, he lets her walk off uncuffed so she can retain some dignity!

Bad move! 

In the Weirdsville Departamento, Gale Sondergaard returns to the screen as the spider woman three years later in a supposed sequel without Sherlock Holmes, as a completely different person with an evil affinity for spiders in, "The Spider Woman Strikes Back!"

TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE / "Djinn, No Chaser" Season 1, Episode 10 - 1985

In today's wild tale, a mental patient, Danny Squires, tells his psychiatrist the story of how his wife Connie had purchased an old lamp, she rubbed it, and brought an ill-tempered genie into their lives.

This one stars Charles (THIS IS SPINAL TAP) Levin, Colleen (WAYNE'S WORLD) Camp, Kareem (AIRPLANE!) Abdul-Jabbar and Nate (BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS) Esformes.

It starts with Danny telling his shrink all about a weird series of events that happened to him and his wife...

Love that Coke billboard, I remember when that was their slogan! Anyway, Danny and his wife Connie are out looking for some items for their new apartment. They are just standing there when an Arabian merchant tent appears out of nowhere.

Danny argues with owner Mohandus Mukhar over the price of an antique Arabian lamp. Dude wants $30 for it but Danny talks him down to $10... Great deal, right?

Well, Connie wants to rub the lamp, like in all the stories about genies, so, she rubs it and a whirlwind manifests itself as a roaring voice starts laughing. All he wants to do is tear the crap out of the place!

Danny has a few more things to tell the shrink...

After the genie causes a lightning storm in their apartment, he then causes a storm of frogs, spiders, insects and slime! On top of all that, the genie will not let them leave the place, they try but they are stopped by lions and elephants!

Then, the genie tells Danny that if he wants to leave, he can if he agrees to leave Connie. Danny agrees and checks himself into a psychiatric ward!

After a while, Danny checks himself out and goes back to the apartment. He cannot believe what he finds, the place looks great, like, wow! Connie tells him that everything is fine now, welcome home!

Danny doesn't get it until Jhinn comes into the room, he's a dapper genie to be sure! Look at the length of that jacket, what the Hell?

Djinn was to big to get out of the lamp, and, that was why he was so angry about everything!

There is a display in the living room, in it there's a simple can opener. That is what Connie used to get Djinn out of the lamp, and now, they can have all the wishes they want... There you go, check in Wednesday for another dose of the wild 'n' weird, here, at The Dungeon!