THE THREE STOOGES / "A Ducking They Did Go" - 1939

It could never be XMAS around here if we din't include the funniest guys around, you know, The Three Stooges!! In today's hilarious story, the boys are tricked by con men into selling memberships to a phony duck hunting club. To the amazement of the con men, they sell all the memberships to the mayor, police chief and some cops!! When the bad guys skip town, the Stooges are stuck at a duck-less lake with a lodge full of cops. At the lake, Moe and Larry stall the shooters with duck decoys while Curly searches for some real ducks!..

It also stars Lynton Brent, Chuck Callahan, Lane Chandler, Vernon Dent, Jack Gardner, William Irving and Bud Jamison. Oh, and Happy Friday the 13th, and the last full Moon of this decade...

It starts with the boys walking around and as usual, hungry! Suddenly, they see something.

Watermelons, man!!.. Moe runs over to the truck and grabs a big juicy one and tosses it to Larry. When a cop arrives, Larry tries to toss the melon back but it hits the cop and gets stuck on his head. After that, the policeman fires a warning shot as the boys book it outta there, but, the bullet causes a street light to fall and it busts on his head!! Freakin' Stooges!

In a panic, the guys run into a building and notice that the Canvas Back Duck Club is looking for salesmen. Moe grabs the 'help wanted' sign and they go inside. It doesn't take long for Blackie and Doyle to realize that they have the stooges they're looking for, and, they're fine with a measly 10% commission! Membership to the club is $50, so, with $100 in sales, each Stooge would get $3.33 each!

Here, we get to enjoy this classic Stooge gag. Check out the toy duck Curly's holding.

The very first place the boys go to sell memberships is... The damn police station! They bust into the office of the chief of police, who's waiting for the mayor. The boys have their talking points and it isn't long before they have the chief hooked! Then the mayor shows up and he joins the club too! They finish off the rest of the memberships with some policemen...

The boys blow Blackie's mind when they tell him the story! He tells them to go to the club and they'll pay them in the morning, which our little morons do! Then, Blackie and Doyle disappear from the face of the Earth with all the money!

So, the boys, the mayor, the chief and others are at the club, drinking and singing away! This is the best thing that could ever happen to a bunch of guys!

It isn't long before things start going south. A local pops in to see what all the hubbub is and tells them that there hasn't been any wild ducks around here for twenty years, then laughs his head off as he leaves!

The next day, the men go out to shoot themselves some ducks. Curly is sent out to find some real ducks while Moe and Larry use a catapult to hurl the decoys out for the men to shoot at, and they're running out of decoys! It's funny as Hell when a decoy is shot, they just explode, unlike a real duck.

Curly is using his duck call like a pied piper, and leads the ducks into the lake where the men start shooting at them.

The boys want to get in on the action! But first, Larry can't get his rifle to fire...

Moe gets a backside of pellets when this duck lands on his back and the brush hides him!

Curly thinks he can shoot this duck that landed on his head!

Then it happens, the owner of the 'prize' ducks tells the men that they were stolen from his property, and, they owe him $5 for each of them! Larry, Moe and Curly head for the hills!..

I'm sure they used this ending more than once and when you see some close ups, you can easily tell it's not the Stooges, all of them have hair... So, we're back tomorrow with even more XMAS junk, just for you!

THE AVENGERS - Season 05, Episode 10 - "Never, Never Say Die" (1967)

It's a Wassail Wenesday here in The Dungeon, so break out the hot-mulled cider, and let's all go caroling! Never mind then, here's another adventure with "The Avengers."

Season 05, Episode 10 of " The Avengers" was called..........

"Never, Never Say Die!"

It opens with a hulk of a man lumbering down the road!

Is it the Frankenstein monster again?

This poor schmuck is just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and plows right into the big guy!

Feeling horrible, he somehow gets the body to the nearest hospital.

The nurse at the hospital pronounces the man dead!

His fingers start twitching and the next thing you know, the dead man is sitting up in bed, and doesn't seem to be bothered by the incident at all!

He then decides to check out!

The big man is of course, Christopher Lee in yet another one of his some 281 credits!

In 1967, Chris Lee was also in "Five Golden Dragons," The Vengeance Of Fu Manchu," "Island Of The Burning Damned," "Theatre Of Death," and "The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism," and somehow he managed to keep up that pace for seven decades!

Meanwhile, Diana Rigg as Mrs. Peel is chillin' at home watching some TV. The thing she's holding in her hands is a remote control! (Is it still considered remote even if it's attached?)

 

What's she watching on TV? "The Avengers" re-runs, of course!

You won't believe what happens next, the same guy hits him again!

It seems like this guy is some kind of robot, and every time a radio gets tuned in to his frequency, he becomes a little disoriented, and some times a lot!

This is a really funny scene where this old man is out by a lake relaxing with his radio controlled boat!

Right about the time that he's gonna get chopped, he turns the boat, and Chris Lee starts walking in circles! 

Now you know why transistor radios are forbidden inside this test center. What they are really trying to do is get all radio signals anywhere near this area shut down or destroyed!

When he's not a robot, Chris Lee is Professor F.N. Stone which is really F.N. Hilarious!

This guy is really a nuisance to Dr. Stone. He's got all these different radios, and he's playing chess with people all over the world. Yep, that's the way you had to do it before the internet!

John Steed is sent in to try and figure out what's going on in this place, and he's giving Dr. Stone a big headache!

Isn't this a René Magritte painting or what?

They took ideas and concepts like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," and "Frankenstein" and pieced them all together like a krazy quilt! They've duplicated a number of different people, and by the end of it, you don't know who is real and who is a robot!

John Steed and Mrs. Peel are about to be disposed of by the overpowering strength of the robots, when the signal gets jammed, and the robots shut down instantaneously and just in time!

"The Avengers" is just one of the best action comedies ever!
 Literally, Cheerz!

TALES OF TOMORROW / "The Dune Roller" - 1952

Here's a wild little tale from early sci-fi TV, it's all about events on Lightning Island, where, a rock collected by scientists mysteriously crashes through the front door after the pebbles combine and quickly grow in size. The men discover that the rocks consist of an unknown mineral, and could possibly be from space. But, long-time resident Cap Zanse believes it's an Ouroboros, or, hoop snake, a legendary creature which rolls with tail in mouth, and blames the mysterious extermination of local animals on the Lake Michigan isle on them...

This episode stars Bruce (CAT BALLOU) Cabot, Nancy (THAT MAN FROM TANGIER) Coleman, Nelson (MOON PILOT) Olmsted, Lee (THE ROCKET) Graham and Truman (PRETTY BOY FLOYD) Smith.

Here's old coot Cap Zanser, he's telling Sally the tale of the Dune Rollers aka Hoop Snakes or the Ouroboros. He's all animated and says that he seen them with his own two eyeballs!!

Sam Thorne and Dr. Carl Burgess are studying some strange rocks collected on Lightning Island. After two small samples are placed together and a little heat is added, well, they change into one larger rock!

After another experiment, the combined rock books out the door after burning a hole through it... Hey, great conversation piece!

So, old Cap is at home during a lightning storm and he calls the doc to tell him that there are weird lights outside his place and he's going out and see what they are...

Well, it ain't hoop snakes, I'll tell you that... Stupid old men!

The doctor and Sam come across Cap, just laying there, all dead-like!

The boys go home to tell the girls about Cap. Knowing of the danger, Jean, the doc's wife, sneaks out and goes to Cap's place! What's wrong with her brain isn't exactly clear, but, she calls her husband and says there are some strange lights outside, and, she's scared shitless!!

Back at the ranch, Jean, who needs to be tied to her chair, watches her husband make a bomb, something he thinks will destroy the energy in the rocks.

Sam takes the rocks, tosses them on the shore and blows the Hell out of them with the bomb!

They really need to keep an eye on Jean!.. Anyway, the doc and Sam are happy with the results of the explosion and claim, all clear!

But, after they leave the scene, the rocks start glowing and change into this very weird thingie that seems to be crawling around!! Kinda creepy, really!

We end with this uncredited guy telling us about how the producers of the series are really into sci-fi and love bringing it to us! So, check in on Wednesday when we continue down the old XMAS trail, here, at The Dungeon!!..