DATE BAIT - "One Way Or The Other" (1960)

 This week's Saturday Night Special is a movie from 1960 called "Date Bait."

 "Date Bait" - Kind of like a combination of Jail Bait and Date Rape 1960's style!
What the heck, the words rhyme, so it doesn't really need to make sense.

 Check out the license plate, it looks like it was hand drawn! I found it interesting that both the two main guys in the movie don't drive hot rod Chevy's or Fords, but drive MG's instead.

 So the kids are all down at the club having a good time when psycho drug addict Brad decides to join the party!

 You know when you're just groovin' and dancin' with your girl, it's always a bummer when some weirdo asshole like Brad tries to cut in. The cute couple being hassled is Gary Clarke as Logan and Marlo (Dragstrip Riot) Ryan as Sue.

 Time for big brother to show up and bail out Brad one more time!

 Gary Clarke should be your hero because the three movies he was in prior to "Date Bait" were "Dragstrip Riot," "How To Make A Monster," and "Missile To The Moon." He was also a regular on the TV show "The Virginian" for 63 episodes. If I did the math right, Mr. Clarke will be 87 years old this years, and believe it or not, has a short and a TV movie in production this year.
Have you ever wondered why actors change their names? Gary Clarke is a good example. He was born Clarke Frederic Lamoreaux!

 Years ago I won something like this at a Walther League meeting, but mine wasn't full of heroin! 

Mine was a little cardboard box with a clown on the front that said "Jerk In The Box," and when you opened it, there was a mirror inside that exposed who the real jerk was!

And while we're on the subject of jerks, if you looked it up in the dictionary, there might be a picture of Brad as an example! Dick Gering had the role of Brad. With only 13 credits to his name, Dick was in some TV shows like "Mike Hammer," and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents."

 1960's L.A. with a classic Studebaker parked out front!

Sue's parents are uptight social racists, as I like to call them. The proper term is 'Classism,' or people who are prejudiced against someone not because of race or color, but merely because of social position! In other words, they don't like their daughter Sue going out with Logan because he's from the wrong side of town, even though he drives an MG!

 Brad's badass big shot brother has to sit at a midget table which doesn't make him look like such a big tough guy!

 Life is pretty crappy these days but the air was literally this bad in Los Angeles back in the 1960's from smog!

 There's still enough ime to cut a rug!!

Logan and Sue can't take it any more and decide to run off to Las Vegas to get married, even though they are both underage. This is not going to make her parents or psycho Brad very happy.

Sue emerges from the gas station bathroom all decked out and ready to tie the knot!

The happy couple gets hitched but can't find a place to stay because they lack I.D.'s

I just had to throw in this classic Mary Kaye Trio album cover!

Logan and Sue finally get a room at the "Motel Glen Capri."

 Upgraded room has a radio in it, but you still have to put a quarter in if you want it to work, and no free Wi-Fi!

Sue's a little trepidatious about her first night in the sack with her new husband, but she's glowing the following morning!

All you needed was a couple of Cokes, a cigarette machine, and a juke box, and 1960 was like paradise!

Brad is such a junkie loser, but don't worry, he gets what he deserves, and I'm not talking about treatment!


Associate Producer Nicholas (Missile To The Moon, Frankenstein's Daughter, The Astro-Zombies) Carras is also responsible for the cool soundtrack, and the title song was written by John Neel and Oscar Nichols, was performed by Reggie Perkins, and released on Raynote Records.

THE HOWDY DOODY SHOW / Cartoon Strip - 1950

Here's a show we kids all watched after friends and relatives started getting televisions in the early fifties. In this episode, Buffalo Bob and Howdy have a lot to talk about...

Before we get going though, it's time to sing the 'Howdy Doody' song. C'mon kids, sing along!..

Then the kids sing four rounds of Howdy's theme song. In case you didn't know, these are the lyrics to the song ~ It's Howdy Doody time, it's Howdy Doody time, it's Howdy Doody time, it's Howdy Doody time... Pretty easy to remember the words.

Then Clarabelle (why a girl's name?) joins in and carries out a big box of Halo Shampoo just in time for a commercial. Clarabelle is played by Bob Keeshan until 1952, who of course became Captain Kangaroo in 1955. I used to spend some Friday nights at a friend's house and would get up and watch Captain Kangaroo in color on a new color set, what a treat that was!

Anyway, they play a cartoon featuring Goldilocks and the Three Bears!

The bears don't believe it's really Goldilocks, her hair looks like crap! So, the only way to solve this problem is to wash her hair with Halo shampoo! They're really mean to her!

OMG, look! It's really Goldilocks!! What a twisted way to shame kids into using Halo shampoo!! Yeah, Mama Bear looks all nice and sweet, but, she's a little B!

In the meantime, Clarabelle has got herself into a peck o' trouble!

You see, she drew on this painting by one of the two men that are going to produce a Howdy Doody cartoon strip for the newspaper. Now, the artists refuse to draw the crazy clown in the strip, and Clarabelle is mighty sore about it...

So, it's time to get out the old seltzer bottle and spray Buffalo Bob in the old mush yet again!

Now, Buffalo Bob tells everyone that Howdy Doody will now be aired in twelve new cities across the US. Boy, TV in its infancy.

Hey kids, time for another lengthy commercial where you'll have to sing another jingle, this time for 3 Musketeers candy bars. If you had that wrapper in good condition, probably worth about $500 today, maybe more!

Finally, the artists show the kids how the characters will look in the strip. They both draw the face at the same time, to save time!

Clarabelle gets a big surprise when the artists say they will include her in the strip, but, they pay her back by adding a goatee!

Then Buffalo Bob runs a silent movie (as always) while he tells the kids what's going on. This one's pretty funny, it's about a crazy magician and the little girl that gets involved in the act.

Wait, there's time for one last commercial... Okay you kids, old Buffalo Bob is gonna show you how to break a 3 Musketeers bar into thirds!

So, like, join us for more tomorrow kids, here at The Dungeon!!..

SON OF FLUBBER - "Flub Away The Flab" (1963)

Tonight's Weird Wednesday feature is the classic Disney flick from 1963, "Son Of Flubber."

It had been a long time since I first saw "Son Of Flubber," so there were a few things that surprised me, but overall, it's hard not to feel this was one of Disney's weaker 60's offerings.

Fred MacMurray had a good run at Disney starting with "The Shaggy Dog," then "The Absent Minded Professor, and then "Son Of Flubber," before his giant  non-Disney TV hit "My Three Sons," which was on for twelve years and 380 episodes.

After the secrets of Flubber were revealed in "The Absent Minded Professor," everybody wants to get their hands on it. The military is too busy to pay the Professor at the moment and is seen here going into action, because they have got some important stuff to do.

All the corporate suits want to market Flubber and are willing to give the Professor one million dollars just to start.

The Professor's wife Betsy just couldn't be any happier. Betsy is played by Nancy Olson, and she was also in "The Absent Minded Professor."

Betsy's going to be real sad and disappointed when the Professor doesn't accept the check because he's selling his secrets to the Military, but they just haven't got around to paying him yet.

It's a pretty big poke at capitalistic greed, and also a totally dysfunctional government!

My favorite part of "Son Of Flubber," is when the suits show the Professor all the different ways they have figured out how to market Flubber!

There's "Flubbermint Gum!"

There's the new "Flubbercycle" so you can "Flub away the Flab!"

This every day middle class family is all beat up from all the accidents they have had in their home!

But once they had "Fluberoleum" installed in their home, it's as safe as could be, the way it's supposed to be!

Here's the same happy family after installing "Flubberoleum."

The Professor turns it all down, because he's going to do the right thing and sell it to the military so it can benefit all of society, and the next thing you know, the Tax Man shows up at his front door to tell him about all the taxes he needs to pay, even though he hasn't gotten any money yet, for yet another poke at greedy government bureacracy!

The dimwitted Professor tries to make rain next, and is totally clueless that it is having a major effect on the rest of the community!

Everywhere throughout the town glass of every shape and form is breaking, from plate glass windows to people's glasses!

All the booze bottles also break at a local dive, now that's heartbreaking, but I thought this was a kid or family movie.

Another thing you didn't normally see in Disney movies was The Professor's wife leaves him only to find him later cutting a rug at this Halloween party!

"Son Of  Flubber" has quite a supporting cast that includes Ed Wynn, the voice of The Mad Hatter in Disney's version of "Alice In Wonderland." Ed was also in two of "The Twilight Zone" episodes, "One For The Angels," and "Nine Years Without Slumbering!"

Seriously funny guy Paul Lynde is the sportscaster. Paul is probably best known for being on 898 episodes of the TV game show Hollywood Squares."

Besides the hosts, only Cliff Arquette and Wally Cox were on more episodes than Paul!
Other notable cast members are Tommy Kirk, Keenan Wynn, William Demarest, Joanna Moore, and Norman Grabowski!

The rest is history!