DICK TRACY - "Shaky's Secret Treasure" (1950)

 Some heroes are timeless, and Dick Tracy is one of those kind of characters!

Tonight's smokin' Saturday Night Special is Episode 19 of Season 2 of the 1950 TV show "Dick Tracy!" Dick Tracy is/was so popular, that many songs have been made with just his name for the title, and they are not even all the same song!

From 1961, here's The Chants with "Dick Tracy."

 The title of this episode sounds like something that should have been on the menu at "Shaky's Pizza Parlor!"

  Before this TV series, Ralph Byrd had the role of  Dick Tracy in six movies going back to 1937!
Don't call him Richard!


Here's the 1966 Smash single by The Spotlights!

 Lois (Daughter Of The Jungle) Hall is the hapless woman named Cherry who is seemingly in the wrong place at the wrong time!

 Dabbs Greer is a guy named Shaky who just got out of prison, and his pal played by Richard Reeves is Buck!

Out of his 319 credits, Dabbs was in two of the scariest 50's Sci-Fi classics "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers," and "It! The Terror From Beyond Space." He was also in two of "The Twilight Zone" episodes, and two of "The Outer Limits" episodes! Richard Reeves managed to wrack up 226 credits, and although he only lived to be 54, he was on almost every TV show in the 50's and 60's!

 Shaky and Buck were tearing into some chairs left by a former tenant that had a map in that showed where he stashed a hundred grand before Dick Tracy caught up with him. Buck is a big dummy and let his tongue slip, so they had to try and kill Cherry by closing all the windows and turning the gas on. Luckily, Tracy and Sam got there just in time!

 The map was gone because the chair had been re-upholstered, so Shaky and Buck go visit Mr. Barksdale to find out what he knows about it!

The Skatalites - "Dick Tracy" (1965)

 It's a little mysterious but they manage to figure it out!

 Sam was left back to watch after Cherry, so now they have to try and get a hold of Tracy via the two-way wrist radios that Sam and Dick both have! 

Unfortunately, Tracy was knocked out and left in a closet!

Sam Catchem was played by Joe (Mighty Joe Young) Devlin!

Barksdale, the furniture re-upholsterer caught wind of where the cash was stashed and decides to help himself to the spoils! Barksdale was played by Stephen Carr who was also the dialogue director on 16 of these "Dick Tracy" episodes, and 47 episodes of "The Adventures Of Superman!"

J.J. Cale - "Dick Tracy" (1965)

 Interesting enough, this single and the one by The Spotlights were both produced by Leon Russell!

 Well it turns out that Cherry was not nearly as sweet and innocent as she was pretending to be!

 I love it!

 A cast of six, and that was all that they needed!

 There's no place to begin or end properly with a subject like Dick Tracy. 

This record was from a  Command Performance of a 55-minute musical adaptation of Dick Tracy, that was broadcast on the radio in 1945.

 This was a 6" flexi-disc put out by The Ideal Toy Company in 1961.

 This was a 78 from 1947 featuring one of the major characters from the Dick Tracy comics, Sparkle Plenty!

And this was a single by Ice-T put out in 1990!

NIGHT GALLERY / "Certain Shadows On The Wall" - 1970

Here's a strange little tale about a brother and three sisters, they live in luxury but the eldest sister in charge of the estate is an invalid and must be taken care of by the others. Makes you wonder... What would happen if she died?!

This story stars Louis (TERROR IN THE WAX MUSEUM) Hayward as Stephen, Agnes (HUSH.. HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE) Moorehead as Emma, Grayson (HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS) Hall as Ann and Rachel (CHARLIE CHAN AND THE CURSE OF THE DRAGON QUEEN) Roberts as Rebecca Brigham.

Hey, check it out, we begin with some certain shadows on the wall...

Brother Stephen is reading to bed ridden Emma, it's her favorite book, Bleak House by Charles Dickens. He seems like a good guy, doing special favors for his sister and all. If that lamp is casting the shadow there, well, the perspective is a little goofy to say the least.

Years ago, Stephen failed in his career as a doctor, and now prescribes medication for Emma. He dissolves some tablets in a glass of water and has her drink it down...

Emma tells Stephen that she knows she doesn't have much time left, and the one thing she wants, she cannot have.. Life! Boy, Agnes looks like Hell, thanks to Bud Westmore.

Here are Rebecca, Stephen and Ann discussing their situation with Emma. They are all spoiled brats and enjoy their life of luxury because of Emma's health. A small price to pay for just taking care of the place.

Then it happens, Emma kicks the bucket so Stephen calls the authorities to tell them they can pick up the body any time...

Now this?!!.. Holy crap, there's Emma's shadow on the wall. Now wait a minute, what the?!

The next day, Rebecca takes Stephen some tea. She asks him what he's doing, and he tells her that he's cataloging the items in the house, and thinks he can get a fortune for them...

Rebecca's against the idea but Stephen gets up and and says that he's in control of the place, he's the eldest Brigham now, and, what are you gonna do about it?!

Then Rebecca shows Stephen the bottle of pills he gave Emma before she died. The brother gets a little panicked and asks her where she got them. She says, 'on the stairs' and hands them back to him, and reminds him, drink your tea!

Rebecca tells Ann what she did, she put some pills in his tea, he'll be with Emma soon...

The girls get to keep the place and brother gets to entertain Emma , forever!.. A really silly story. Join us again tomorrow when we keep on trucking down the old dusty trail, here at The Dungeon!!..

I LIKE MOUNTAIN MUSIC - Friz Freleng (1933)

"I Like Mountain Music" was a 1933 cartoon that flowed from the pen of the Maestro Friz Freleng, this time using his God-given name Isadore Freleng. Besides Friz, there was only one other animator named Larry Martin. That's right, two guys!
 I read on IMDB that Friz Freleng was only 5'4" tall and was prone to vocal outbursts, and because of it, he was the basis for the cartoon character Yosemite Sam!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, how come two people could accomplish something like this when today, even with computers, it takes 200 people to do a simple cartoon?

Welcome to another Weird Wednesday in The Dungeon!

I always loved these types of cartoons, where some place closes for the night, and the whole joint comes to life. This time it's the magazine rack in a drug store!

Look at some of the titles of the magazines! You've got "Hooey," and "Physical Culture," "Blah," "Ballyhoo," "Whiz Bang,"and "Prison Prattle" just for starters!

The first magazine to have it's characters come to life is "Western" and a cowboy blasts a hole in the cover to get out!

He's soon joined by his buddies and together they do a rousing version of "I Like Mountain Music," which was written by Frank Marsales.

The other magazine characters dance and applaud the song! Everybody's having a swell time!

There were always caricatures of famous people of the time in cartoons like this. This is Will Rogers who just put a 'No Sale" tag on a copy of "American Business" magazine.

It might have been 87 years ago, but the sentiment is sure the same as today!

I love the fact that there is a cute puppy on the cover of "The Literary Digest" magazine!

This title "Bigger and Better Babies" cracks me up!

This gal comes off the cover of "Dance" magazine, and..............

............Puts in an Olympic grade performance skating on this vanity mirror in a snow storm of talcum powder!

The goober looking yodeler on the cover of "Travel" magazine has got the hots for the woman on the cover of  "College Rumor" magazine.

And why shouldn't he since it appears that she's wearing a completely see-through dress!

Pretty racy for a cartoon!

But if it was all fun and games, it wouldn't be interesting enough, so a criminal element is introduced from the pages of  "Crime Stories!"

This shady character is joined by his two henchmen!

Pretty ingenious!  Fill up a seltzer bottle full of lighter fluid, light it and use it as a torch!

What these guys think they're going to do with all that money, I have no idea!

Another famous caricature, Edward G. Robinson, walks out of "Movie" magazine!

"Radio" magazine does the calling all cops routine, and out they come from the "Police Gazette!"

The crook thinks he's going to be able to hide out in an issue of "Screen Play," which turns out to be a very bad idea!

He takes off running as soon as he realizes the mistake he's made!

The wide-open mouth effect was usually reserved for comedian Joe E. Brown who was known for having his mouth agape, but in this case it works for giant ape Ping Pong too!