HOUSE OF MAGIC - "Meany, Miny, Moe" (1937)

"House Of Magic" was a cartoon created by Woody Woodpecker's Dad Walter Lantz in 1937!

 

"House Of Magic" stars three krazy monkeys named not Manny, Moe, and Jack, or Larry, Moe, and Curly, but Meany, Miny, and Moe! I'll bet you anything that they've got cousins named Teenie, Weenie, Itsy, and Bitsy.

The trio is out taking a snooze when it starts raining really hard!

The first shelter they can find turns out to be a magic shop called "House Of Magic!"

 Oh, boy, three monkeys in a magic shop, this oughta be rich!!

Okay Moe, I just don't think that's right!

Moe gets himself into all kinds of predicaments!

Miny tries to get himself some shuteye, but these ghostly hands don't need to rest!

Can't get away with that any more!!

Meany has problems sleeping too when this magic carpet keeps rolling it self back up!

Check out Moe's baggy ass pants style hanging low about 50 or 60 years ahead of it's time!

There's nothing up his sleeves, but presto, the rabbit in the hat gives him a good scare!

"

"But most of all, I did it Moe way."

The guys had to get the heck out of there, but at least they escaped with their lives and a jar of jam!

No happy ending here, it was a novelty item and the jar was full of those snakes that pop out and scare the crap out of them good!

TALES OF TOMORROW / "The Evil Within" - 1953

Here's another great early sci-fi TV blast from the past, this one is fairly shocking for the time period and the fact that kids might be watching, it got to me!.. In the story, a scientist perfects a chemical that unleashes the evil side of a person's personality, but before he can create an antidote for it he has to rush a batch of the concoction home to keep it refrigerated. Unfortunately, one tube cracks and drips onto some apple pie, which the wife has a slice of. Her mild resentment of his endless hours at the lab accelerates into a torrent of sadistic torments directed at her husband...

When the credits come on at the beginning, it sez... Starring Margaret Phillips, that's it. She also starred as Cassandra in "Side Show" on WAY OUT in 1961. By the way, it also stars Rod Steiger and James Dean! This was Rod's fifth acting role, he had just done "Ordeal In Space" on OUT THERE, another TV sci-fi show. This was role 13 for James.

Peter has brought home some test tubes of the experiment (it has turned their animal subjects evil) him and his associate are working on. The freezer at work broke down and he needs to put them in the refrigerator until they get theirs fixed... His wife Anne listens up.

But, one of the tubes is cracked and it drips onto a pie below!

Peter heads back to the lab and forgets his notebook. Anne grabs a slice of pie and heads back to the living room to read and listen to music.

Back at the lab, Peter and his assistant Ralph try and come up with an antidote as quickly as possible! Oops, left the notebook back at the apartment.

In the meantime, Anne is going progressively bonkers! First, she tears the pages out of her husband's notebook, then she burns them, destroying any hope of Peter's help now!! What The Hell, girl!!.. This is the part where I started to get freaked out.

Peter comes home to find a pile of nightmares, Anne tells him lies as to why she destroyed the vials and notes. Peter is in pure disbelief, I mean, nothing is making any sense at all!!..

After returning from the lab one more time, Peter comes home to find Anne dressed differently and acting even more aggressive! Then, she tells Peter that she destroyed everything to spite him for working so much and ignoring her!

Things turn even darker... She now threatens to kill herself so that his life will be totally destroyed!! Seems like all is lost until Peter begs her for a little time to listen to what he wants to tell her... She finally agrees.

Peter looks her in the eye and starts painfully crying, emoting his undying love for his wife!.. Anne doesn't know what to think and the spell is finally broken...

She runs to Peter and they embrace, let this be a lesson, don't bring stuff like that home from the lab kids!!.. So, like, check back Wednesday when Eegah!! will choose the next victim!

REVENGE OF THE ZOMBIES - "The Corpse Vanished" (1943)

It's a Zombie Zaturday Night in The Dungeon, and a classic little film from 1943 called...

"Revenge Of The Zombies," starring John Carradine!

So what exactly is a zombie? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a zombie as a will-less and speechless human held to have died and been supernaturally reanimated. Over the years the term has come to describe a member of any overzealous group, like political parties, religious fanatics, or any blind followers of anything! The first movies with zombie-like characters date back to the 1920's and two films, "Príchozí Z Temnot," and "Svatebni Kosile," but it looks like the first film to actually have the word zombie in the title was the 1932 feature "White Zombie" starring Bela Lugosi. 

In between "White Zombie" and "Revenge Of The Zombies," came "Revolt Of The Zombies," "King Of The Zombies," and "I Walked With A Zombie."

Just like vampires and werewolves, what zombies can and can't do is all up to the writers. Unlike say "The Walking Dead," these zombies take orders and have job skills. These two know how to hammer stuff! The chief zombie on the right known as Lazarus was played by the legendary James Baskett, the man who played Uncle Remus in Disney's "Song Of The South."

John Carradine is Dr. Max Heinrich Von Altermann, a Nazi scientist working on perfecting a zombie army! His dead wife Lila is played by Veda Ann (Scared Stiff) Borg, and was just a pawn in the game.

It's a lot of work keeping dead people alive.

You need lots of fancy equipment like this!

As a little kid, I absolutely loved Gale Storm because of her TV shows, "My Little Margie," and "The Gale Storm Show." She was only 21 when this film was made.

Here's a pretty cool shot of two of the black pioneers of filmmaking, Mantan Moreland and James Baskett.

Dead or alive, Lila looks pretty comfortable.

This is a cool shot of one of the best cowboy actors of all time, Bob Steele, and John Carradine together!

Every time Mantan turns around, it seems like he's stumbling onto another body!

Madame Sul-Te-Wan as Mammy Beulah just keeps laughing! 

Madame was also in "King Kong," "Mighty Joe Young," and "King Of The Zombies."

Sybil (Midnight Menace) Lewis as Rosella, and Mantan go out for a walk.

Love the painted swamp backdrop!

Mammy Beaulah gets Lila to spill the beans, she's dead and she wants revenge on her rat dog husband!

I think your pal might have had too much to drink!

Great shot of John in the lab.

"Okay, you got me, I give."

What do you mean the zombies only listen to you now?

For a dead woman, you gotta love that smile!
Revenge is Sweet!!