RIFIFI EN LA CIUDAD - "Rumble In The City" (1963)

I've got another great Jess Franco Saturday Night Special this evening called "Rififi En La Ciudad" from 1963.

Although there was never an English title for this film, roughly translated a rififi would be something like a rumble among men, and is a slang word derived from rif, the French military term for "combat zone" during the First World War.

Consequently, you will find many international films with it in the title including "Rififi," or "Rififi In Tokyo," or "Rififi In Amsterdam." I think you get the idea.

Jean Servais is a no good dirty criminal and politician named Maurice Leprince, but his dirt is well hidden so he's still very popular with the general public! Sound familiar?

Although he'd never admit it, he works out of this club called The Stardust, where the music is always hot as composed by Franco stalwart Daniel White!

Fernando Fernán-Gómez is Sargento Detective Miguel Mora.

Detective Mora is a little frazzled because he hasn't heard from his informant Juan Solano for a couple of days, and when Juan finally calls, he tells the Detective that he has proof that big shot Leprince is involved in some very shady business!

This story is all about Juan, but this is about as much as you're going to see of him!

The Detective gets quite worried when Juan doesn't show up for their scheduled rendezvous!

Detective Mora heads straight over to Leprince's estate to see if he can get to the bottom of what Juan was going to tell him.

Leprince claims he knows nothing about a place called The Stardust, and how does this peasant have the audacity to bother him?

These two are not going to ever get along!

Just as Leprince is denying knowing anything at all about the club, the singer at The Stardust sashays out of his bathroom!

Later Detective Mora pays Leprince a visit at the club!

Caught red-handed, Leprince is still in denial!

Great entertainment, a guy in a suit of armor and a gal in a two piece bathing suit dancing.
The Stardust has it all!

So what happened is Juan got killed, and then Leprince's henchmen try and kill Detective Mora, but he is saved after an unsuccessful drowning attempt!

Now, one by one, Leprince's goons are being picked off by somebody!

Chico Torres is the next victim!

 

A Straight forward and pretty deliberate note is delivered to Leprince!

Juan Solano was a suave and debonair fellow, and every woman that ever met him fell in love with him, including the singer in the club!

It gets really sticky when Detective Mora finds out that even his own wife was one of Juan's many lovers! No, he's not okay with it!

Leprince is a narcissistic and egotistical bastard who ends up not getting exactly what he wants, but instead, exactly what he deserves!

BEANY AND CECIL In "Sleeping Beauty And The Beast" - 1962

Welp, the clock on the wall sez it's time for Beany And Cecil... Today, Cecil goes to Fairytale Land where he battles Dishonest John and saves Sleeping Beauty from that dirty guy's clutches!

It starts with the Captain reading some fairy tales to Beany and Cecil. The story is Sleeping Beauty and The Wicked Old Witch. Cecil turns into Prince Chow Mein and heads off to find his dream girl...

Cecil finds Faitytale Land and goes ashore.

In the meantime, Dishonest John is playing the wicked old witch. He's out doing his 'good' deeds for the day, starting with knocking Humpty Dumpty off his wall.

Then he gives the old woman's shoe a hotfoot.

He turns the heat up on Jack!

DJ plays the mean old wolf and blows the 3 little piggies house down...

After all his deeds are done, he goes back to his castle where he keeps Sleeping Beauty asleep!

Cecil arrives at the castle. When he tries to enter, DJ pulls the draw bridge up on him!

Next Cecil gets a guillotine on his rear end, exposing his cute little butt.

So, Cecil chases DJ out of the castle. As DJ runs along the road, Humpty Dumpty hits him with a big old creme pie to get his revenge! That's Simple Simon there supplying the goods.

Then Little Boy Blew blasts a note on his horn that sends an electric charge up DJ's spine.

Cecil hops in the old lady's shoe and stomps off after that dirty guy!

The sea serpent blocks DJ's attempted escape, he then kicks DJ into the air...

And he comes down square into the powder room. Jack turns up the heat, and...

The room is now a rocket ship and it heads into space with DJ inside. After knocking the cow over the Moon, the missile is swallowed up by the Man in the Moon.

Back at the castle, Cecil gives Sleeping Beauty a big sloppy lick and she comes out of her coma! In the best possible way, woo woo!!

After an adventure like that, Cecil needs to get some sleep... Join us tomorrow where Eegah!! obliviously has something cool for us, here at The Dungeon!!..

THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERBOY - "Unaired Pilot" (1961)

Tonight's Weird Wednesday feature is yet another unaired pilot, "The Adventures Of Superboy" that was made, but never sold in 1961. 

They tried to make it as similar to "The Adventures Of Superman" as they possibly could, but I guess there was just something missing!

If I hadn't told you this was Superboy, how would you ever know that it wasn't Superman?

Aw, it's a cute little baby Superboy come here all the way from Krypton!

John/Johnny Rockwell had the role of Superboy. Maybe if this series had got bought, he'd be as famous as George Reeves, but alas, that's not what happened!

This is a feel good story about a kid who goes to the same high school as Clark Kent, and is ashamed because his Father's occupation is a lowly doorman in the Aero Theatre, but after the theatre gets robbed by some thugs, his Dad becomes a hero!

These are the thugs in question! In the front seat are Charles (Peter Gunn, Adventures Of Superman, Star Trek) Maxwell as Gunner Ferde, and Stacy (Phillip Marlowe, Man With A Camera) Harris as Jake. In the backseat is Richard Reeves again, this time as an all-day sucker named Shifty.

Charles Maxwell was also the radio announcer in "The Twilight Zone" episode "I Am The Night - Color Me Black."

They're having the premier of  "Rajah's Ransom" in the theatre in Smallville, and as a promo, they're bringing in $200,000 worth of diamonds to show off to the public!

At least these hoods have a nice ride!

Here's the plan, although he doesn't like it, because he knows he's going to jail, Shifty is supposed to take some pot shots at a cop, so that Superboy will show up, and be distracted long enough for the other two to steal the jewels. Shifty will have to only do five or six months in the pen, and when he gets out, they will have fifty grand for him!

The cop shows up and Shifty starts firing! Personally, I think a six month sentence for shooting a dozen times at a police officer is deserving of a bit of a longer sentence, like twenty years for attempted murder!

Clark Kent and Lana Lang are doing their homework when this lamp starts flashing a signal to Superboy that the police need help. He tells Lana it's probably just the light bulb that needs to be replaced!

Next thing Lana knows is that Clark is gone!

"Last chance up there, are you coming out, or am I coming after you?"

The doorman can't identify these clowns as the robbers, even though they are known associates of Shifty.

But he's been learning to draw at home, so his son suggests he sketches them.

The super bright Captain then proclaims that the mugs must have gotten plastic surgery, and he would be right!

The premier still needs to go on, so Superboy does his nifty trick of turning coal into diamonds that they can put on display during the interim process!

Shifty ain't talking but Superboy can give him a makeshift lie detector test by listening to his pulse with his super hearing when he gets asked a couple of questions!

Later, Superboy needs to use his super vision!

The punk hoodlums kidnap the doorman to silence him once and for all, and they take him out into the boondocks and put him in the road, and are going to run over him, to make it look like a simple unsolved hit and run, but Superboy is on to them!

Superboy blocks the oncoming car and keeps it from creaming the guy!
Thanx go out this time to Rich (You Were Always Trouble) Arithmetic for turning me onto this little unpolished jewel!

And if you don't believe me, then check it out for yourself!