THE DEVIL THUMBS A RIDE - "He'll Kill Until He Dies! " (1947)

This week's Saturday Night Special is from 1947, and titled "The Devil Thumbs A Ride."

While not literally The Devil, Lawrence Tierney as fast-talking and mean con man Steve Morgan is evil personified, no doubt!

I guess it wasn't too difficult for Lawrence Tierney to play the part of a nasty guy with a mean streak since he had a notoriously bad reputation for his off-screen antics that included drunken barroom brawls, and for being generally intimidating and uncooperative on the set.

In San Diego, Steve Morgan has just robbed a bank and killed a man in the process, and to get out of town in a hurry, he hitches a ride with this poor schlep named Jimmy Ferguson who is just trying to get back home to his wife after his friends threw him a party. Fergie as he is often called, was played by Ted (The Bride Wore Crutches) North.

In a quick stop at a gas station, Steve Morgan doesn't know it, but he's just gotten I.D.'d.

Jimmy Ferguson calls his wife to let her know he'll be home soon, and not to worry. Boy, did he get that wrong!

That just might be brimstone coming out of those flared nostrils!

Being a totally irresponsible individual, Steve Morgan gladly offers up a ride to these two gals without even consulting Jimmy. The blonde on the left is Peter Lawford's cousin Betty (The Monkey's Paw) Lawford as Agnes Smith, and the woman on the right is Nan (The Bamboo Saucer) Leslie as Beulah Zorn.

The local cops are kind of busy! To be only fair, they are on their time off!

So let's get this party rolling!

 

The cops are hot on the trail, and Steve Morgan just keeps coming up with one lie after another to explain it all to the other three, and they are gullible enough to believe him.

Everybody's tired so instead of going home, they go to the empty beach house of a friend of Jimmy's. While there, Jimmy calls his wife again, and Agnes turns up some swingin' music loud, and gets on the other line to let Jimmy's wife know that he's not exactly doing what he's telling her.

A night watchman shows up, so Steve challenges him to drink a whole big glass of booze in an effort to make him pass out and be out of their hair!

As the cops close in, Steve Morgan slashes the tires of the car, cuts the phone lines, and manages to drown Beulah, all the while explaining it away!

Finally, Jimmy can't take it any more, and goes out looking some for someone to give him a ride, but this guy sure isn't any help!

 

Agnes is like the stupidest and most desperate bitch on the planet. She tells Steve that oh, well, her and Beulah had just met, and weren't really friends,  so she doesn't car she died, and she's willing to lie or do anything to be able to run away with him, even though he was calling her Grandma when they first met, and only had the hots for Beulah.

 

This is a great lobby card from one of the final scenes before the end, when the cops, and Jimmy's wife all end up at the beach house in one massive fustercluck!

Steve and Agnes make it out of there in a stolen police car, but she's finally had enough and asks to be dropped off at the next bus stop.

As the Sheriff said, "They won't get far!"

So that headline just about tells the whole story!

This was probably the main sign on how to get to San Diego in 1947.

SWING SYMPHONY / "Abou Ben Boogie" - 1944

Here's a laff from the Walter Lantz studio, one of his Swing Symphony cartoons, it takes place in the Sahara Desert and goes like this...

Well, it all starts right here, at the good old Adobe Club. Come on in and grab a seat, the show is  almost ready to begin, and you won't want to miss it.

The hat check girl unwinds this guy's turban off his head!

The mood gets set with some Boogie Woogie music when this dude pulls out his rolled up piano and starts playing a tune.

Then, SHE appears, a real heavenly body! The eyes on the right say it all...

Men can be so pathetic when it comes to pretty, shapely women. These three pics show just what it can do to guys, makes them into freakin' pervert clowns!

I swear, that's one erotic pic there!

This female camel keeps popping in and giving guys big sloppy kisses when they're thinking it's their dancing beauty.

Now it's time for that Oriental Rug Cutter, Abou Ben Boogie, to make his entrance!

After Ben gets a gander at his dance partner, they start cutting up that rug!

In the meantime, the snake is now the charmer and the charmer is now a snake!

The dancing gets frantic, the shapely dancer rolls Ben up into a ball, bounces him, then butt checks him against the wall where he turns into a wad of mush!

Ben obviously enjoys the abuse because he turns into a big bad wolf on the prowl.

Then, our beauty slips into a large bowl where she's covered by a lid... Hmmm, wonder what's brewing in there? Could it be she's undressing? And when the lid comes off, she'll be naked and all my dreams will be fulfilled?! Better close my eyes and pucker up for that special kiss I'm gonna get.

And, after one big wet, sloppy kiss, Ben opens his eyes to find what else, that damn CAMEL!!

So like, check us out again tomorrow as we keep feeding the kitty, here at The Dungeon!!..

SHE-WOLF OF LONDON - "Love & Curses" (1990)

Here's a Whacked-Out Wednesday British TV show for you. It was called "She-Wolf Of London," but also had the alternative title "Love & Curses."

In the "Not To Get Confused With" Department, there was an American TV movie made in 1991 that was titled "Love And Curses...And All That Jazz," that had a vaguely similar story line, and it came out when this show was still on the air.

"She-Wolf Of London" was very early in the career of Kate Hodge, and she has been a staple on TV ever since! It appears that she has been taking some time off since last year.

Neil Dickson has been mowing and going for years, and has done of voices for cartoons like "Gargoyles," "The Wild Thornberrys," and video games like "Star Wars: The Old Republic," and "Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare."

 

Your basic story is that this American Gal named Randi Wallace, has gone to London to study. 

She becomes rather smitten with her English instructor, and then she gets bitten by a werewolf. After they kind of sort things out, they spend the rest of the series working together investigating supernatural phenomena.

 

Awesome lead in photo!

And speaking of awesome, I don't think anything goes better with London Werewolves than Bavarian Blues, and if  you don't believe me, then check it out for yourself!

 Schorsch Hampel & Dr. Will!

Bitte schön!!

This show also also has a lot of comedic elements in it, like the fact that Randi, the future She-Wolf, is also a vegetarian! 

 

Then of course there's the fact that her name is Randi, and randy in England is a term for being horny, or sexually aroused!

Neil Dickson is Professor Ian Matheson. Ian tells Randi that his family has a B&B with a vacant room, and this is a good plot device to have them spend more time together. Ian is also attracted to Randi, but since he is her instructor, he needs to keeps his hands off!

Randi makes a big mistake when she decides to spend a night in the moors!

She's actually quite fearless, but that changes in a hurry!

Randi is viciously attacked by a werewolf that rips her tent to shreds!

The next thing she knows when she wakes up, is that she is in a hospital!

 

Randi is now a full-time werewolf, but she is not even aware of it until the next full moon shows up!

 

Ian, who likes to approach all things intellectually, and logically, still rejects what he sees with his own eyes, because it doesn't make sense to his educated brain!

But some of the damage is undeniable proof that something ain't right!

 

After her first She-Wolf incident, Randi ends up in the shower and locker room of the university, and there is a randy moment when she has to introduce herself to some male students!

 

 

Ian and Randi go on a picnic to the same area where she was attacked, and she does a sketch of Ian that proves her brain isn't quite working the same as it used to.

 

On the way back, they stop at a Gypsy camp to get their fortune read, and everything is cool until Randi pulls out a broken ring she found at the attack site. The session is quickly ended!

 

This dude shows up, and Randi can sense that he is the guy who was the werewolf that bit her, and he obviously knows who she is too, so he jumps in his car and takes off like the madman that he is!

 

It doesn't work out well for him or her. He dies and she gets no answer to her questions. When they return, the gypsies have packed up and moved on.

Despite everything he's seen, Ian still has a hard time believing, but he is willing to lock Randi up when the next full moon comes up!

In episode two, one of Ian's Aunts, finds a Bog Man buried on her property. It's a body from long ago buried in the bog for centuries that comes to life and murders people, kind of like a Mummy without a tomb, or bandages, or a Master, and Ian and Randi go to investigate etc. etc.